Loss of tire pressure

[Fred W]

Hi, my '04 rear Avon Storm was loosing air and I called Avon and they informed me that over 95% of leaks are due to corrosion on the inside of the rim where it meets the bead of the tire. The other leaks are puncture related. I had my tire mounted at a reputable Yamaha dealer and it was leaking. I took it in and when they removed the tire, the rim was loaded with corrosion, some areas really raised up and pitted. It took a lot of stiff wire bruching and cleaning to get the surface smooth. Moral of the story is make sure to have the tire installer thoroughly inspect the inside of the rim and to wire brush and clean any pitting. These technicians work fast and don't necessarily expect pitting on a fairly new totally clean bike that is stored in a gagage in the summer and a warm basement in the winter....BTW I had to pay for a second mount and balance even though they did the tire mount a few months earlier. Make them do it right the first time. Remind them to inspect and clean the rim. Now it looses ZERO air, the way it should be. VT

Ya have to stop riding it on those salty VT roads!!

Seriously.

My rims look like brand new, except for the stuck on gooky remain of the prior tire beads that mess things up. But I'd imagine those are almost as bad. Last tire change I got out the Goo Gone and a rag and tried my best to rid my rim of the black crusty stuff. But even then, the first few days after spooning on the tire I lost a few pounds of air faster than I expected. It settled down after a few heat cycles of running the WV backroads, but next time I'll be working even harder at eliminating the rim junk.

Your point about the dealers not giving 2 shits about your rim's internal condition is well made. I can afford to take an hour of my time to clean all the gobble-de-gook off my rims. I can't afford to pay them to.

 

[happyPuppy]

I lose about a 1-2 psi a week. Add to that however as others have pointed out is ambient temp , same gauge ( they do vary) and this is pretty much normal for all the bikes I have had.

 

[El Toro]

I took it in and when they removed the tire, the rim was loaded with corrosion, some areas really raised up and pitted. It took a lot of stiff wire bruching and cleaning to get the surface smooth. Moral of the story is make sure to have the tire installer thoroughly inspect the inside of the rim and to wire brush and clean any pitting.

Makes me wonder if you're filling your tires at an air tank that doesn't get drained very often. I've seen some shop air supplies that would actually wet your hands when you discharged air onto them.

However, I'm thinking that the FJR's wheels are aluminum, at least in Gen II. Maybe they were steel in Gen I. Aluminum will oxidize, but it doesn't usually bubble up and make ratty corrosion like you had in your wheels.

 

[HotRodZilla]

You're losing so much air because you are probably using biased air in radial tires. Check your compressor. You probably have it on the wrong setting.

 

[FJRONAMISSION]

I have noticed that I lose approx. 1-2 lbs of pressure on both of my tires per week. I have since changed tires to Dunlop and still having same problem. Is it normal to loose a few lbs per week.

=======

Hey.... it happens when you get older.... :yahoo: ... porn helps

B.....

At least thats what heard...... I'm too young to still :dribble:

 

[Warchild]

BTW - The key to proper inflation is the Ozone

Yes, but which *kind* of ozone.... conventional, or synthetic?

 

[Warchild]

Ok, serious reply here.... I got to be doing something wrong, I never seem to loose air pressure in between tire changes. OTOH, if you are changing tires about every month, perhaps I don't give it enough time to loose air. I have gone through eight (8) sets of tires since April. :blink:

But I never loose a couple psi per week... suspect a really hard-core cleaning of your rim's bead seating area is called for here to try to get a handle on your air loss.

 

[mdisher]

Ok, serious reply here.... I got to be doing something wrong, I never seem to loose air pressure in between tire changes. OTOH, if you are changing tires about every month, perhaps I don't give it enough time to loose air. I have gone through eight (8) sets of tires since April. :blink:
But I never loose a couple psi per week... suspect a really hard-core cleaning of your rim's bead seating area is called for here to try to get a handle on your air loss.

+1

I haven't lost 2lbs in my tires since my big trip in July, and that includes the plugged rear tire.

(Edit at last check about 2 weeks ago before it started getting uh, cold).

So either my gauge is clearly busted, or somethings leaking somewhere, tires/bead/valve-stem ?

I would say that I definitely have lost LESS air as a whole since I switched to the 90 degree aluminum stems.

 

[zorkler]

I have the same problem . 2 to 3 pounds per 7 to 10 days on 2 different sets of tires had the shop check them out with the h20 test .Changed the value stems also used nitro . same results . J ust have to live with it . Honda gold wings have the same problem .

 

[RadioHowie]

I would say that I definitely have lost LESS air as a whole since I switched to the 90 degree aluminum stems.

+1 -- probably since it's SO much easier to seat the gauge on the valve stem, there's less air loss in the actual checking process.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

Years ago there was a cross-country motorcycle ride-test in one of the U.S. magazines -- one of the bikes was a Ducati Paso (that's all I remember about the story). Ohh...., and the writers said that they had to add air to their tires (2, 3, 4 lbs, both tires, both bikes) every day on the trip. So..., one could infer from that -- if they hadn't added air, they would've had flat tires at the end of their 10-day trip....!

The reality is that they probably lost that air in the checking....?

Although, I have had some tires that appear to be more/less impervious to air-loss than others -- lately, for me, Michelin (bad); B/stone (good).

But, adherence to W/C's advice on clean rim bead area can be critical.

 

[Fred W]

I would say that I definitely have lost LESS air as a whole since I switched to the 90 degree aluminum stems.

+1 -- probably since it's SO much easier to seat the gauge on the valve stem, there's less air loss in the actual checking process.

Which brings about this hypothesis:

The air loss is actually occurring when you check the pressure, not in between checks.

Experiment to test this theory:

Fill the tire. Check it 10 times and note the pressure each time.

Refill. Wait several days between checks.

 

[SilverHound]

I have noticed that I lose approx. 1-2 lbs of pressure on both of my tires per week. I have since changed tires to Dunlop and still having same problem. Is it normal to loose a few lbs per week.

I can't believe no one else noticed the obvious. He's in Canada so he is clearly using metric air which is known to have slightly smaller molecules than US SAE air....duh! :blink: