Tire Pressure Recommendation For Street?

[JackFlash]

My little GS 500 still has the factory tires.

They say, Max Pressure 41 PSI.  It's always

been my habit to inflate my car tires to their

max, considering they have to be refilled

eventually when the pressure goes down

again.

 

A motorcycle is different.  I've been riding

this thing hard lately.  I'm practicing my

cornering at faster speeds, and with a

harder lean on the twisties.  I know tire

pressure is an issue in performance

riding and I'd like to know if there is a

guideline to a certain percentage of max

pressure for the open road.

 

I have no idea what range of tire pressure

I can use on this bike, or how much

pressure a very experienced rider would

suggest for getting a maximum grip on

the road with the type of riding I'm trying

to work up to.

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

.

 

[Strictly Street]

Go for a little ride on the bike to get the tires warmed up.

Feel the tire,

if it's warm, your fine.

If it's hot it's too low.

If it's cold it's too high.

[2talltim]

Personally keep mine high because I feel I will never out ride the potential of the tires on any bike. Plus they last longer with more air

sent via GS3

[ReconRat]

Tire pressure can vary per the actual load on the bike. That's what the load rating is all about. The manufacturer's recommended tire pressures are for two passengers and luggage. Older motorcycles used to have separate pressures on the swing arm sticker, showing one rider or two. Apparently lawyers removed that.

 

Typical, but not advised, is that pressures can be lowered, from the max, no more than 25% for a single rider (170-180 lb). But that will typically put the front tire near it's minimum pressure. No street tire ever made is rated to go below 26psi on the street.

 

So work with it within a safe range. But be aware that the change of pressure will make the front or rear tire push or pull in corners.

 

edit: The old one person stickers, did not typically lower the front tire pressure. It only lowered the rear tire pressure.

[turnone]

I run 28 front and 30 rear in the street and chew through tires. Lower pressure = more flex = hotter tire. I run lower than most would recommend. I usually recommend 30F/32R for most tires no passenger.

Good advice about warm cold or hot above.

Also, buy new tires!

Edited August 26, 2013 by turnone

[Tpoppa]

For a starting point, I would use what's recommended in your bike's manual--not the max pressure of the tire.  You can adjust for personal preference from there.  Do you want max grip? Max tire life? Or somewhere in the middle?

 

For my Suzuki I use 32f/34r, on the Honda 33f/35r.

 

http://www.sportrider.com/tech/tires/146_0206_motorcycle_tire_pressure/

[smashweights]

Where do you get the idea that max psi = max life? In cars over inflated tires cause them to round out like a motorcycle tire and cause excessive wear along the center of the tread, rather than distributing wear evenly across the tire. You diminish the life of the tire by over our under inflating. Most cars have recommended pressures issue the doors and most tires have recommended pressures on their websites.

I would assume this applies to motorcycle tires as well: over pressured rounds and stiffens the tire, minimizing contact patch and wearing a thinner area at the center of the tire faster. Correct me off I'm wrong here.

Fwiw, I run 36/36 in the monster, which is the recommended pressure from Ducati.

[2talltim]

Bike tires is all about heat, more heat the more wear.. that's fact not assumption

sent via GS3

[smashweights]

You're correct, heat increases wear.

 

http://canyonchasers.net/shop/generic/tires.php

 

"Many riders still believe that running the max psi number listed on the sidewall will ensure you'll get the maximum life out of your tire. But as tire's have evolved this is no longer the case. Running max-pressure, or too high pressures can actually cause the tire to wear out faster. Yes, you read right; keeping pressure higher will actually make the tire wear out quicker. When a tire is over-inflated (and by over-inflated we mean, higher than the manufacturers recommendation) you make the contact patch smaller because the tire is unable to flex as much, this focuses the wear onto a smaller surface, increasing heat and wear.

While testing one particular sport-touring tire we ran the tire-manufactures recommended pressure, which happened to be the max psi. The "touring" tire was destroyed in just over 2,000 miles. We obtained a second set, ran the psi at the bike's recommended pressure and literally doubled the life of the tire (riding the same way on the same roads as the first set). So, the morale of this story is to stick to the bike manufacturers pressure recommendations for best results."

[2talltim]

Hummm.. all I know is from personal experience keeping mine at 41/43 I get far more mileage than the average bear, and I'm not easy on the throttle. And that was on 3 different bikes of different weights

sent via GS3

[JackFlash]

Should I strive to burn off the "Chicken Strip"

from the tire edges?  I'm thinking I'm wasting

rubber by not using it.  There's about an inch

on each side.

 

.

[Strictly Street]

Manufacturer recomendation assume a particular tire, new stock tires with a particular rubber compound.

If you have changed tires then the recomendation would be incorrect.

If it's hotter or colder that day, the recommendation would be off.

If you filled the tires with nitrogen, the recommendation would be off.

Remember the shop might overfill it a bit to get it tp "pop" onto the bead when they install it.

+/- sea level and a host of other factors lead back to one fast and easy way to tell what you should do.

 

Go for a little ride on the bike to get the tires warmed up.

Feel the tire,

if it's warm, your fine.

If it's hot it's too low.

If it's cold it's too high.

 

[JackFlash]

The sticker by the steering head suggests, 33 PSI Front / 41 PSI Rear

 

My "Haynes" manual suggests:  

 

Rider,  33 PSI Front / 36 PSI Rear

Rider & Passenger,  33 PSI Front / 41 PSI Rear

 

I've made a few calculations and determined

that the Haynes manual is as close as I need

to get.  My tire warms up just fine without getting

hot, no matter how hard I push the corners.

 

Thanks for all the info.  I knew I would get great

info from you guys.

 

.

[oldschoolsdime92]

Should I strive to burn off the "Chicken Strip"

from the tire edges? I'm thinking I'm wasting

rubber by not using it. There's about an inch

on each side.

.

Chicken strips don't mean much. Yes your leaning more in theory by not having big strips, but that comes down to body positioning . I've seen guys drag knee and have good sized strips, I've also seen guys who don't know how to ride , not have any strips, just throwing themselves Into a corner. I wouldn't worry about that aspect of things.

[Medina]

Most everything I've seen says run at max

[Bad324]

38/40 is what I run most of the time because I'm slow

34/36 down in the Smokies though

[DerekClouser]

I typically run 36-41 ---- Anything lower in the front to me makes the bike feel heavy and sluggish into the corners.

[cOoTeR]

Different tires perform better with different pressures. My Michelins I run 32f and 34r and they do great. There is a vid on YouTube showing how to interpret tire wear vs. pressure.

Don't worry about chicken strips and do a track day you'll learn more about tires and cornering than you can by reading the internet.