Nitrogen in place of air in tires

Hey Guys,

Any of you replaced the air in your tires with Nitrogen??? Local Sam's Warehouse has a sign in their tire department stating that for around $2.00 they'll replace the air in your tires with Nitrogen.

Is it worth doing??

 

For $2.00 I'd give it a shot. When I lived in Alaska we used to do the same thing in our 4X4's with the Nitrogen because of the wide temperature spread. I’ll have to look locally and see if they have the same offer. Even here in ABQ I have to add air in the winter.

Action

 

Thanks guys. Good point brought up about what to do when you need just air up at the house. I guess you could fill up your tank at home with it, but I'm sure that run about $10.00.

 

The air you breathe is 78% nitrogen.

 

Pure Nitrogen Benefits

1. air pressure in tyres stays at pressure longer (All tyres loose pressure, but using nitrogen, it's a slower process) .

2. air pressure doesn't vary as much

3. tyres when pushed don't overheat as easy as straight atmospheric air

4. resulting in longer lasting tyres.

Been using Nitrogen inflated tyres on my race bikes, street bikes, cars, & trucks for decades.

Do it & get one of those air tanks (on sale @ Wal-Mart) & have it filled up as well so you can top off @ home when needed :wink:

 

Benjammer:

I'm with Stuka on this, its primarily a gimmick.

Nitrogen does have some benefits, but for the money just buy yourself a nice pair of gloves!

BZ

 

How much longer? Do you tour? If so, do you adjust your pressures along the way according to traction needs (straights vs. twisties)? If so, how do you find nitrogen?

 

Sport-touring a few k's more, benefit @ track is less pressure variation = less hassle & tearing (Hmm, why professional racers use it).

Touring, but of course I do, & I haven't had to adjust the tyres (although I ck daily) & if needed I have a air hose filler that I adapted for hook up to nitrogen bottles as I have in my garage, & a converted small refillable propane torch bottle that I take with me on Car & M/C trips that can fill 1 full size truck tyre or 4 m/c tyres (in case of flat repair).

But that's a mood point, if you don't have the nitrogen available @ the time, go with good 'ol atmospheric gas until you can replace it (gas station/tyre shop/patch repair kit) If I start out for a trip up to the canyons my tyres are at best air pressure for the ride up, & if I need to lower for more traction, I do so. for the trip back & need more pressure & I'm traveling lite on my SuperMoto or RC51 I just air up & the 1st gas station.
It doesn't take more than 1 cell of a brain to figure that out .

does that answer your questions ?

 

Nope. My 1 cell is still somewhat confused and has a couple more questions.

So when you contaminate your pure N2 with free air how do you get back to pure N2? Do you pull a vacuum on your tires with a pump and then replace with pure N2? If so, does this break the bead? On a scale of 1 to 10, how much faster are you running pure N2?

Since I've seem to step on some tender toes I think I should end with this: :biggrin:

 

Helium is lighter than air, fill your tires with helium and your bike will be lighter, and have less unsprung weight! :thumb: :biggrin:

 

Guys; I have been a guest in the NASCAR garage at Dover,Del. several times.And yes the cup and busch cars use it and most of the trucks dont. The reason the trucks dont is purely a cost thing. However one of you deep thinking guys did bring up a good point ,that is how do you get the tires at 100% nitrogen? I really dont know,but I would think you would have to pull some sort of vacuum on the tire, Anyone out there know for sure? I never asked the Goodyear guys in the garage,I have watched them mount hundreds of tires,but I cant remember seeing them do anything like pull a vacuum on them. Anyway for hot dogging around ,it would be a neat experiment to try. I know when I push my bike on a hot summer day ,my rear tire gets pretty hot!

 

I breathe a mixture of nitrogen and helium.
It makes me feel lighter.

I can even play the piano.
wonders never cease.

 

no tender toes, & valid questions.

No there is no vacuum to suck out the impure air .
The point is to have as less of the atmospheric air with it's contaminants as possible.
The more impurities you have displaced, the better.
Atmospheric air although mostly nitrogen naturally, it also has Oxygen (last I heard :tongue: ) & Co2 & other gasses & contaminants that expand when heated easier & escape through osmosis, not to mention the ozone gases that enhance the tyre breakdown chemical process (rot).

To refill a tyre that has had all the air possible let out with wt on it (via the bikes wt or car/truck wt) & aired up from that point will most times fill to a 90% level of the incoming air or more compressing the little existing air in the tyre.
that's 90% of less of a chance of impurities & variation of air pressure of the tyre.

Now for a road Tyre, say for example big rigs, I ran a pretty good size Trucking Co & we did the nitrogen thing in half our fleet, & we averaged 5000 to 10,000 miles (big gap is due not all trucks carry the same weight all the time) more in tyre wear vs using normal atmospheric air & much less blow outs.

Another thing is that if you deflate a tyre & re-fill it, the percentage of atmospheric stagnant air volume decreases aka called flushing.

So for your impure mixture question on what I do when I have to use station air & how do I get it out is answered by inflating & deflating about 2 times to get a nitrogen only level of 95% or more, never will be 100% of pure filtered nitrogen air.

:wave:

Oh & if my memory serves me correctly, helium is thinner & escapes easier & as far as I remember it's illegal in racing as well as it expands more than Nitrogen & normal atmospheric air when heated & compresses volume more when cooled.

:wink:

 

That is correct, helium molecules are smaller and will make their way out of the tire a lot faster than air, and the reverse is true for nitrogen.

 

Oh enlightened ones, thanks for your response. eddie

 

regular air is already 79% Nitrogen and if you have a compressor it is free. It is a gimmick.
oxygen molecules are bigger than nitrogen molecules. besides if you use air you tire could function as an emergency scuba tank if the need ever arose.