mfennell

I wonder if they even lost that much. I was pumping my tires up every day, suprised that they had "lost" ~20psi. It turns out that if I check them again right after pumping them up, I find I've "lost" ~15psi. Air is lost to the pump until the pressures equalize.

Maybe my pump is particularly bad about this. I dunno.

I pump them up to 115 every other day now. I realize it takes an almost trivial amount of time but one less thing to do at 6:20am is ... one less thing to do.

sweetnsourbkr

My road tires deflate enough within a week, so I usuall do it every weekend, before a big ride. I think pumping every day is unnecessary for me because I get little/no change in pressure within 24 hours.

maalea

Come on, now. We're on the second page and no one has given the swarmy,

"As often as she'll let me"

Reply.

OK. My work is done here.

mlh122

I check before every big ride. if im just going to the store or just a few laps around the neighborhood i don't bother. however, my most accurate tire guage is on my pump, so if i'm checking it, i might as well pump it.

i've heard of devices that you can point at a tire and they can estimate the tire pressure without touching it. sounds cool, but also sounds expensive enough i haven't even searched for them

waterrockets 

Checking means different things. I do a knuckle pinch and guess my tire pressure w/in 5psi. Close enough for me.

slowandsteady

With 23c tires squishy means less than 50 psi and that is WAY too low.

merlinextraligh

+1. Squeeze the tire with your thumb. You'll know if it needs air.

How often it will need air is also affected by the tubes your using. Butyl innertube clinchers may not need air for a week or two.

Latex tubed tubulars usually need air in a day.

johnny99

Lightweight high pressure butyl tubes can loose 10psi or more per day. I pump up my tires every day, even for short rides.

waterrockets 

Yeah, I've always run cheap rubber tubes at 110psi. Too much chipseal around here to run my Vreds at 160psi. Higher pressure will lose air faster as well.

lima_bean

dunno, personally squeezed my tire a few hundred times, and still my guesses as to the psi are just about as completely random as you can get unless its severely underinflated.

Guess I dont have "the touch" =(

Trsnrtr

Top off before every ride. Tires are too expensive to be lazy about it.

waterrockets 

Mine aren't.

There's actually a trade-off with tire wear and pressure. Slightly lower pressure causes more movement around the contact patch, which wears. Slightly higher pressure creates a smaller contact patch, which concentrates the wear.

Trsnrtr

I'm not sure what that has to do with topping them off every day if you are filling them to the proper pressure for your weight, tire size, and usage.

noisebeam

Start by pumping/checking often, with experience you will learn how often you really need to.

I end up topping off tires when they get ~10psi low or before a long ride. I always give a quick thumb test before every ride to check for leaks though.

I've learned in summer months it takes 2-4 days to loose 10psi. In the winter it can take 1-2 weeks.

Al

grahny

I check them before every ride. Latex tubes need air everyday where as butyl ones can go a couple days before I need to put in air in them.

Strong Bad

+1 Before every ride.

Stallionforce

Every ride.

BillyD

Basically every other ride, but I pinch them first on the alternate ride days.
Always gotta be alert for gremlins.

foomonkey

before every ride.

waterrockets 

I though you were claiming that letting tires run under max (or recommended) pressure would wear them out faster.

AndrewP

My tubes probably keep enough pressure for nearly a week. Since I have trouble remembering exactly when I pumped them, I put the floor pump to the tires every day before I go out. A few pumps is as quick as checking with a pressure guage

noisebeam

I'm surprised at all the folks who pump before every ride. My pump gauge wouldn't even register a difference. I gotta wait at least a few days for a few strokes to make a difference without going over pressure.

(of course I am using butyl tubes at 120psi so my pressure loss may be a lot less than others)

Al

slowandsteady

Mine loses 7-10 psi a day from 110-120 psi starting pressure and probably stabilizes at around 60 psi. I have to pump up before every ride. I have Conti GP 4000 tires 23c, and cheapo butyl tubes. I live at just a few feet above sea level.

DigitalRJH

That seems odd since at colder temps psi drops, whereas in warmer temps psi rises.

noisebeam

That is if the temp changes between fill and check.

Higher temps mabye result in higher permeability of the tube. I don't know. But I've observed this summer/winter cylcle over several years. Summer air* temps 110-120F, winter 30-50F.

In the summer I wonder how warm the tire gets, with air temp at 120F, pavement temp of 180F and the sun on the black rubber?

Al