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TPMS ... who uses them? what brand?

melensdad

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Who is using a Tire Pressure Monitoring System?

Are they worth it?

Is yours connected to your smartphone?

Or do you have a readout on your bike?

Is your's powered by a rechargeable battery or do you replace batteries?
 
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Absolutely worth it. A tire just a few lbs low runs quite a bit hotter than normal and at 70 or 80 feels not much different than if the pressure was as it should be so we get no warning of the increased danger from an overheated tire. TPMS alerting me to a tire going down fairly quickly has allowed me to safely pick the place to stop and check or repair rather than forced onto the shoulder of the road when the bike starts wobbling at 75 mph.

I have a Tire Guard system on one bike and SyKIK system on the other one. External sensors screw onto the tire's valve stem and send pressure and temp to units mounted in the cockpit. Both are reliable with two or more years in service. The Tire Guard has been in service about 4 years IIRC. I transferred it off another motorcycle to the Wing. The Tire Guard costs purchased through a motorcycle dealer was quite a bit more than the SyKIK but doesn't work any differently in use. The SyKIK and others like it are on Amazon all day long.IMG_0973.jpgIMG_0972.jpgIMG_0971.jpgIMG_0970.jpgIMG_0969.jpg

In addition to the TPMS sensor you will need to install fixed metal 83 or 90 valve stems fixed with a nut inside the rim as the OEM vertical rubber ones are not safe for use with external sensors.
 
Absolutely worth it . . . In addition to the TPMS sensor you will need to install fixed metal 83 or 90 valve stems fixed with a nut inside the rim as the OEM vertical rubber ones are not safe for use with external sensors.
Thanks for the info.

BTW both my bikes have 90 degree metal valve stems.
 
Thanks for the info.

BTW both my bikes have 90 degree metal valve stems.
I've seen 90 degree valve stems that don't use a nut inside the rim so make sure of that. Metal double valved T valve stems are popular because they allow pressure to be checked and/or air to be added with out removing the sensor but they are very ugly to my eye, I can't abide them. Removing or replacing the sensor when checking or adding air does bleed off about 1/2 psi in the process.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

I just did a couple of web searches. Found several websites that ranked these things, I'm dubious about all the recommendations but I went ahead and ordered one.

Got the 1st one from this list. https://throttlebuff.com/best-motorcycle-tpms/

It was also 1st on a couple other lists.

If nothing else it may save me from bending over so often!
 
Today Santa in a brown truck pulled into my driveway and delivered 2 of the TPMS units from Amazon.

I plugged one of the units in to charge it and went about the process of mounting it, and the sensors to my bike. After charging I popped the head unit into place and it worked. Synced up automatically with the tires and off I rode.

While I was gone the other head unit was connected to the charger. Got home and installed that onto my wife's bike. Only the front tire is registering pressure and temperature. And the unit only displays Celsius but won't work in Fahrenheit. Hmmm. Dead battery in the rear sensor? Bad head unit? Dead something else? I dunno. I'll try to figure it out tomorrow. Or send it back for a replacement.
 
Today Santa in a brown truck pulled into my driveway and delivered 2 of the TPMS units from Amazon.

I plugged one of the units in to charge it and went about the process of mounting it, and the sensors to my bike. After charging I popped the head unit into place and it worked. Synced up automatically with the tires and off I rode.

While I was gone the other head unit was connected to the charger. Got home and installed that onto my wife's bike. Only the front tire is registering pressure and temperature. And the unit only displays Celsius but won't work in Fahrenheit. Hmmm. Dead battery in the rear sensor? Bad head unit? Dead something else? I dunno. I'll try to figure it out tomorrow. Or send it back for a replacement.
Did you ride your wife's bike any distance? Sometimes it takes a mile or two to "wake" up a sensor.
 
Did you ride your wife's bike any distance? Sometimes it takes a mile or two to "wake" up a sensor.
Yup. The sensors in my bike woke up while riding across the grass from my driveway to my back garage (I was to lazy to ride on the driveway) less than 250 feet. My wife's front tire sensor started working at closer to 400 feet. After a mile and a half I gave up on my wife's rear sensor for the night. I'll make a second attempt today.
 
Tried again today, got the rear tire sensor to work so now the whole system is working, but the temperature sensors are still only reading Celsius and I can't get it to read Fahrenheit.

When I reset the system the rear sensor started flashing with a low pressure warning. Rode the bike out of the garage and the pressure reading was showing up before I got to the road, so less than 150 feet before it was displayed.

You can see the display sitting on the left side of the dash of my bike, my wife's unit is mounted in the same spot on her bike. 35# front tire. 39# rear tire. Both tires showing 75 degrees Fahrenheit.


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unless calibrated somehow occasionally how do you know if they are accurate? (just like a tire gauge)
Realistically you don't unless you check it against something else.

I have my air pump set to 40, I fill my tire and the pump shuts off at what "it" senses as 40. I then test the pressure with a gauge. They are usually pretty close. I checked my pressures a few days ago. This unit is reading what my gauge displayed.

So if it is wrong, it is wrong by approximately the same amount as my gauge. I could have been extra safe and tested against 2 gauges, but I didn't.
 
unless calibrated somehow occasionally how do you know if they are accurate? (just like a tire gauge)
What would you calibrate it against? Few people probably have a tire gauge with a calibration certificate traceable to the NIST. I figure if a readout agrees with most, if not all, of my other gauges, it’s good enough.
 
Confucius say "Man with two tire pressure gauges needs third to check other two".

Realistically I use TPMS more for warning that something is out of line or PSI is changing in real time. When the tires heat up the indicated pressures change dramatically from cold and fronts change much less than rears but over time I know what to expect and just look for indications of something amiss.

Temperature indications are the same way. The carcass temperatures are much higher than air temp measured at the outboard end the valve stem but TPMS gives warnings when temps aren't what are normally seen.
 
Confucius say "Man with two tire pressure gauges needs third to check other two".

Realistically I use TPMS more for warning that something is out of line or PSI is changing in real time. When the tires heat up the indicated pressures change dramatically from cold and fronts change much less than rears but over time I know what to expect and just look for indications of something amiss.

Temperature indications are the same way. The carcass temperatures are much higher than air temp measured at the outboard end the valve stem but TPMS gives warnings when temps aren't what are normally seen.
Confucius also say, “Man have no reason to doubt pressure gauge accuracy until he buys a second one, and they don’t match.“
 
Why do you need to know the carcass temperatures?
You don't. I was commenting the temperature displayed is quite different than the actual temperature of the tire but it doesn't really matter - it is the trend from "normal" diplayed temps that is important.
 
Why do you need to know the carcass temperatures?
I have no clue.

I just wanted to know the pressures.

Most of these things come with temperature sensors too. I suppose it might be more useful in cold weather at near freezing temps to tell you go inside, sip some hot cocoa with a dog by your side.
 
You don't. I was commenting the temperature displayed is quite different than the actual temperature of the tire but it doesn't really matter - it is the trend from "normal" diplayed temps that is important.
aren't those the 89 and 95 in his display or is that something else?
 
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