Properly inflating tires

I see you used a compact clamp on your new quick release.

Yea, I bought all kinds of hose clamps and tools during my latest plumbing adventures,.. 😂

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I got a couple of dandy quick release chucks, but they came with worm gear clamps. There was no way to use one where the screw wouldn't be in the way.

Or the screw strips, and they never compress completely round. There's always flat spots.

Maybe I should have read customer reviews for the model I ordered. Some have noted that the sensor reads about 3 psi high. I guess I could work with that.

You can "calibrate" it against an accurate pressure gauge, but if it's off by 3 psi when it's measuring 15 psi, that would pretty much suck. 😂
 
,.. There was no way to use one where the screw wouldn't be in the way.

You could probably wrap about 4-5 turns of solid copper wire around the connection and twist it off tight.

Then solder the wraps together to hold the wires (being careful not to burn/melt the rubber hose).

Then cut the twist off and file it smooth so you don't draw blood when you go to use it. 😂
 
A zip tie worked on one of mine and a double constrictor knot on the other. I forgot that I had a tool to pull wire into clamps.

I've depended on the gauge since about 1981 because it's consistent and can be read in fractions of a pound. A couple of years ago, I noticed that the digital gauge on my new 12V pump read 2 psi higher. So did a digital gauge for checking tires and an old Milton stick gauge with very little use. I guess my old gauge had been knocked out of adjustment. Bending a piece behind the dial fixed it.
 

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I just bought a zip tie tensioner,..


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It works pretty slick.
I've only used it a few times so far.
I could never get zip ties tight enough.
This thing can tighten it until it snaps.
The head is small enough to reach into pretty tight spaces.

Reaching in with a pliers and your fingernail or a screwdriver used to suck. 😂
 
When I clamped the chucks, I forgot I'd bought a Clamptite for 20 years ago. I'd forgotten it because I didn't like it as well as a similar tool of a different design that had disappeared. After I clamped the chucks without it, I discovered several clamptite instructional videos on youtube. It's better than I thought.
(I see Amazon currently charges a lot more than the company site.)
 
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I've got a mini version of that pump in my tool kit as emergency backup.

I hope I never need to use it because it would take seven days and nights to pump up my fat tire with that tiny thing. 😂

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You could sense and correct motorcycle tire pressure without a gauge, but with your Radmission and abound tires, pressure changes may not be noticeable until checked with a gauge. Regular checks are important for optimal performance.
Radpower doesn't seem to publish a PSI recommendation for the Radmission. Aventon really doesn't say. Online, their owner resources has 6 categories, any of which might have recommended pressure. The FAQ category has 11 sections, one of which is maintenance. That says you should make sure your tires are properly inflated before each ride, but it doesn't say what proper inflation is. The Maintenance Tips category has 11 sections, 1 of which is Tires and Wheels. One of its 8 sections is PSI Level. There, they take two paragraphs to recommend staying between 35 and 60, as printed on the sidewall. The latter is 70% higher than the former.

They don't know the weight of the load (including rider), they don't know the surface, and they don't know what aspects of performance matter most to the rider. If absorbing bumps is most important, you want the lowest pressure that doesn't cause difficult or treacherous handling or endanger tire and rim.

If reducing rolling resistance is most important, it used to be thought that you wanted inflate the tires as hard as they and you could stand, to reduce flexing. That was tested on smooth surfaces, but even fresh asphalt is pits between pebbles. You want the tire soft enough to absorb energy hitting a bump but firm enough to return energy as it pushes off the bump. Racing teams have to find the fastest pressure for a given surface.

On more than one Abound review video, a fairly heavy user rode with 100 pounds of bottled water on the back. At least two reported that with the load, the steering was unstable as if the steering column was flexing. Mine is rigid. I think they'd neglected to increase tire pressure for the added weight. For handling, low pressure could let the tread squirm relative to the rim, but high pressure could let a pebble bounce the tread off the pavement in a corner.

The steering geometry of a bike means that when it tips left, the contact patch of the front wheel moves left of the steering axis. This turns the handlebars left, steering left so that centrifugal force counteracts the lean. If a fat tire is underinflated, the contact patch would move farther left, forcing you to fight the pull. If your handlebars aren't right, you could oscillate. (At 30 PSI, the steering geometry on my Radrunner balanced so well with the tire that I couldn't tell by the feel of the bars if I was straight up or banked over. At 10 PSI, the pulling was dangerous.)

In my limited experience, a fat tire handles better on pavement if inflated to the round cross section of a regular bike front tire. On my Radrunner, that's 30 PSI, the maximum safe pressure for the tire. However, fat tires are often used for loose surfaces like snow, mud, sand, and gravel. In my experience, a tire with low loading (fat tire) and a round cross section will tend to slide sideways, up onto the loose surface if steering or cornering produces lateral force. My Radrunner was uncontrollable on snow until I reduced pressure to 10, which handled very poorly on pavement.

As with rolling resistance, the best pressure depends partly on the surface. I guess I should experiment.
 
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I pump my tires at 23 psi 17 psi is minimum pressure to protect the tires from pinch, important when going on curbs or coming down a set of stairs but there's no science to it just pump and go ride
That's been my experience with the Radmission and the Abound, that PSI isn't critical. You say it's not science, but you told me to check tire pressure every time I go out and every time I come in. That could be 8 checks a day. With 2 tires, that would mean getting down on my knees 16 times a day. If that's not religion, it sounds like scientific rigor!
 
One thing I notice with fat tyres is how soft they go in low temperatures, the increased volume really makes a difference the amount they seem to depressurise.
 
One thing I notice with fat tyres is how soft they go in low temperatures, the increased volume really makes a difference the amount they seem to depressurise.
The ratio of pressures between 0 C and 25 C would be 273/298 or .916. If you've see a loss of more than 8.4%, maybe it's VOCs. Vulcanizing rubber produces naphathalene, acetone, and dichloromethane. All seem to have much higher vapor pressures at 25 than at 0. Maybe in warm weather, much of your tire pressure is VOCs that offgassed from the rubber, and they were reabsorbed as the weather cooled.
 
I can't explain the difference unless there was water in the tire at room temperature, probably part of a lubricant used in mounting the tire. Raising the tire temperature from 77 to 140 would increase the vapor pressure about 2.5 psi. When they put nitrogen in a tire, they inflate and deflate it several times to purge air that was in it. That would dry up any water left from mounting. You could purge a tire just as well with air from a compressor tank, which at 10 psi is dry like desert air.
Its not lubricant or leftovers. Pressure change in tires aired up with air is due to the naturally-occurring moisture in the air. Bear in mind also that air pumps at a race track and in the garages of experienced teams or weekend drivers have moisture filters on them. Without an air filter this universal effect is much more pronounced.

On a race track (I used to run a car regularly on tracks all over California for about 4 years in a previous life) you can easily see a 10 psi+ pressure change at the start of a practice session versus its end, when your tire surface temps will be 180+ (you measure after a session at different places to tell yourself what is happening to your tires and help you decide on inflation levels for the next run). Also your morning sessions will have less change then midday or afternoon sessions because the sun is warming the track surface.

I would start with a cold pressure of 40 psi (air) with a target hot pressure of 46-48, IIRC, depending on temperature. But if the sun came out early I'd cross 50 and at 50+ you could tell the difference as the tire heated up, pressure increased and the combination of heat and increased-over-optimal-pressure cost performance (the track surface itself was part of that performance change but lets ignore that here to keep this simple). If you talk to racers who lower tire pressures for traction, those are drag racers. Whole different set of rules. On circuit courses air pressure gives your sidewalls strength in cornering so pressures are MUCH higher.

Contrary to marketing blurbs and internet discussions, using nitrogen does not eliminate pressure changes. It lessens them. Also bear in mind open air is naturally just over 78% nitrogen already so the difference in performance is VERY small. Especially if you put a dirt-cheap water filter on your compressor. Nitrogen-filled tires are used by professional race teams who need that teeny reduction in uncertainty to help pay the bills. Everyone else who does it is just someone who fell for the marketing at the tire store.
 
Its not lubricant or leftovers. Pressure change in tires aired up with air is due to the naturally-occurring moisture in the air. Bear in mind also that air pumps at a race track and in the garages of experienced teams or weekend drivers have moisture filters on them. Without an air filter this universal effect is much more pronounced.

On a race track (I used to run a car regularly on tracks all over California for about 4 years in a previous life) you can easily see a 10 psi+ pressure change at the start of a practice session versus its end, when your tire surface temps will be 180+ (you measure after a session at different places to tell yourself what is happening to your tires and help you decide on inflation levels for the next run). Also your morning sessions will have less change then midday or afternoon sessions because the sun is warming the track surface.

I would start with a cold pressure of 40 psi (air) with a target hot pressure of 46-48, IIRC, depending on temperature.

Contrary to marketing blurbs and internet discussions, using nitrogen does not eliminate pressure changes. It lessens them. Also bear in mind open air is naturally just over 78% nitrogen already so the difference in performance is VERY small. Especially if you put a dirt-cheap water filter on your compressor. Nitrogen-filled tires are used by professional race teams who need that teeny reduction in uncertainty to help pay the bills. Everyone else who does it is just someone who fell for the marketing at the tire store.
(Edited. I forgot that a gauge measures pressure relative to atmospheric pressure. Absolute pressure varies with absolute temperature.) If a tire has 40 psi relative (55 absolute) at 47 F relative (506 absolute), it will have 65 psi absolute (50 relative) at 598 absolute (139 F). At 180 F relative, a gauge would show 54 psi relative. The pressures you saw are what I would expect without moisture or with moisture but no condensation.

Moisture in a tire would have to be liquid at ambient temperature to make a difference as the tire got hot. If air sits in a compressor tank at 125 psi, that's 140 psi absolute and 100% relative humidity, with the excess condensing on the sides of the tank and going to the bottom. If it's put into a tire at 40 psi, the relative humidity of air from the tank will drop to 39%: no condensation. (At 10 PSI it would be 18%; that's why I compared it to desert air.)

I'm not familiar with air line water traps, but I am familiar with fuel line water traps. They're needed because fuel is drawn from the bottom of a tank, and any water will be at the bottom. I don't see how droplets would get into the outlet at the top of my compressor tank, but if people find water in air line traps, I guess it came from the tank. I wonder how many people install a trap and never find any water in it.
 
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I did not mean pressure gauge it every time.
I make a fist and hit the tires.
Interestingly I was at a Trek Bike Shop shopping for new saddle. You know what their top ot the line Trek Rail has digital valve stem cover it display pressure.
I was blinded with science.
I would sometimes sound the pressure in a car or truck tire by tapping the sidewall with a screwdriver handle, but I couldn't make it work with bicycle tires. Radpower did provide a way to detect low pressure in the rear wheel of the Radrunner. The stand raised it 2 inches off the ground. The tire would hit pretty hard when you rolled the bike off the stand. Properly inflated, the tire provided a high-frequency bounce. The problem was that if the bounce got a little more relaxed each day, I might not notice it was slow until I was 5, 10, or 15 psi low.

If you buy that inflatable saddle, some people will call you an effete snob and others will feel certain that you're a nattering nabob of negativism. Close the lid on your commode and cut a piece of corrugated paper to go on it. Sit on it. Rock forward and back and from side to side. If you examine the cardboard, you will find 2 indentations about 4" apart, made by your ischhial tuberosities. Most people don't know they exist because those protuberances don't come out from behind your glutes until you sit.

Take that cardboard to a competent bicycle saddler and demand a saddle to fit our ischial tuberosities. Reject anything that's not a racing saddle because the bigger the saddle, the more likely it could press on a bone or muscle not meant to sit on. To stabilize the contact between your ischial tuberosities and the matching saddle padding, tilt the saddle forward 45 degrees.
 
can I press the tire down to the rim with my thumb.
too low

Does my eyesight blur going over bumps..
Too high
I was all wrong in saying that from 25 C down to 0, a tire with only nitrogen and oxygen would lose only 8.4%. Schwalbe fat tires are good down to 5 PSI. That's above atmospheric pressure. The total pressure at 25 C would be about 20 PSI. Cooling it to 0 would reduce the pressure to 18.3, for a gauge reading of 3.3 PSI, a 34% loss.
 
I'm not familiar with air line water traps, but I am familiar with fuel line water traps. They're needed because fuel is drawn from the bottom of a tank, and any water will be at the bottom. I don't see how droplets would get into the outlet at the top of my compressor tank, but if people find water in air line traps, I guess it came from the tank. I wonder how many people install a trap and never find any water in it.
Its common to have to empty out the water filter when one is installed on an air pump. My compressor has a bleed valve at its bottom and if I want to depressurize it after use, I will just open it. Water is on the pavement under the valve afterwards.

What I described is common knowledge in racing circles, where we're airing up (or more commonly down) tires repeatedly during the day and need a good working understanding of what is going on so we can react accordingly. Corner exits at high speed etc. etc. dictate an understanding of whats happening or you get your education via bouncing off a retaining wall. Most of my tire pressure schoolwork came courtesy of Hoosier Tire where I had one of their engineers working with me to dial things in for my vehicle weight, which was unusually heavy.

To top all that off, running at Laguna Seca (coastal California versus) Big Willow (main track at Willow Springs Intl Raceway in Rosamond, CA - in the desert) cold air pressure for the start of the day is different given relative humidity. Its just as cold but of course the humidity is different.
 
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You said you and others in racing circles see a puddle after depressurizing a compressor tank by opening the bleed valve. So do I. You said it's common to have to empty the water filter but didn't actually say you had to do it. I guess if a lot of water accumulates in a tank and it gets sloshed, some could get into the air line. In that case, traps must be doing their job. If there were condensate in a tire with 40 PSI at 47 F, it would help raise the pressure to 61 PSI at 180 F, not the 50 PSI you recall.

I hope the Hoosier Tire engineer didn't tell you to set the pressure lower on humid mornings because there was more water in the tire. I found out the reason when I wrecked a Falcon on a state highway one morning in September, 1970. On my right a high hedge came to the sidewalk. It hid a driveway, from which a car backed at high speed. Normally, I would have gone around, but a driver backing out so fast probably intended to back clear to the other curb, cutting me off. I had a feel for the traction that surface provided. I thought I had plenty of room to stop. I didn't. The dry pavement was much slicker than I'd known it to be. I was fine and so was my bike, but the driver sure squawked about the dent in her Falcon.

It happened at 7:30 AM, when humidity was high. Pavement may offer less traction when humidity is high. I guess surface contaminants get damp from the air. I believe you reduced pressure to cling to the pavement better.
 
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I guess if a lot of water accumulates in a tank and it gets sloshed, some could get into the air line.

It's not just liquid water that accumulates in the tank. Water vapor is also in the tank. The RH inside the tank is never 0%.
That humidity condenses in the lines.
Compressing air also heats it and warmer air holds more water.
The water condenses in the colder air lines.

Almost all shops have water filters in their air supplies to keep the water out of their air tools which would rust out the bearings.
If there is water in the air when you're applying paint, it will wreck the paint job.
 
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