My searches have yielded sporadic results at best, and since oil and tyres keep popping up I thought I'd ask about filling your tyres with nitrogen. Now I'm not coming at this from the angle of pure fuel economy, I'm coming at it from: stable air pressure, less loss of pressure, tyre wear, and maybe a slight fuel economy gain but not alot. So would you? Have you? What was your expierence? Good or bad? Since it's becoming more mainstream in tyre shops etc, and various forms or motorsport use it, and the Nissan gtr uses it out of the factory. My only problem is if you get it and you end up in woop woop (aka the sticks aka the middle of freaking nowhere) and you need to top up your tyre for whatever reason, you just wasted the money spent putting the nitrogen into your tyre by putting regular air in.
Filling up with nitrogen won't hurt anything but I don't see much benefit to it (unless you like the green valve stem caps ;) ). The air around you is already close to 80% nitrogen. The claimed benefits I've seen are that it doesn't leak out as fast (all tires naturally leak air) because the molecules are bigger and since it is pure gas it eliminates the moisture found in the air around you. The first benefit is negated if you monitor your tire pressures regularly. As for the moisture, most shops run some sort of water separator on their compressed air to keep moisture out of their air tools. Airlines run nitrogen in their tires because it is non-flammable but I don't think that is a big concern on a GS :laugh:
-Jessie
Lol true but who doensnt want a trail of fire every once in a while specially on the Gs.
I've used dry nitrogen in tires. Only because i have two big bottles in my work van 99% of the time.
I do believe that the primary reason for use are
less leaks due to larger molecules.
less variation in pressure due to temperature changes. (main reason for airplane use, except pressure vs altitude&temp)
It's is drier than air.
edit:
If you top off with regular air, no big deal... let the air/nitrogen mix out and refill with nitrogen.
(It will be a nitrogen/air mix regardless anyway.. unless it has been there a long time and the air has escaped through porous tires faster than nitrogen, and topped off with nitrogen; repeatedly.... then you will eventually approach 99.9999% nitrogen... unless you know some cool way of putting a vacuum pump on a tire without breaking the bead, getting the tire below 22"Hg (really about <1800 microns, "Hg isn't very accurate for that) to boil off the water... good luck with that [bead lockers maybe, but then performance must not be a major issue...])
Nitrogen can be saturated with water... it is dry nitrogen that is wanted. I'm not a chemist but, from my findings- dry nitrogen still contains some moisture... some tanks have more than others. Nitrogen also picks up moisture very rapidly (one of the reasons it's on the work truck).
Quote from: BaltimoreGS on October 02, 2011, 07:49:58 PM
Airlines run nitrogen in their tires because it is non-flammable but I don't think that is a big concern on a GS
-Jessie
Air isn't flammable either. I think you mean N isn't an oxidizer.
One word: MARKETING :bs:
Regular air is about 80% nitrogen.
To me? Nne big 'ol MEH :flipoff:
Still can't understand why one gas station advertises "nitrogen enriched gas" since nitrogen is basically an inert gas. :dunno_black:
Quote from: adidasguy on October 02, 2011, 10:05:16 PM
One word: MARKETING :bs:
Regular air is about 80% nitrogen.
To me? Nne big 'ol MEH :flipoff:
Still can't understand why one gas station advertises "nitrogen enriched gas" since nitrogen is basically an inert gas. :dunno_black:
+1
I like to check the air in my tires weekly. Paying to have 100% nitrogen is silly, cause as soon as I use the gas station air it's mixed with normal air and the supposed benefit from nitrogen is wasted.
One word... gimmick.
Michael
Hmmmmmm interesting but yeah my point if u need to top off the money u paid is wasted by puttin more air in unless u can get nitrogen for free.
Quote from: cyall on October 02, 2011, 08:51:44 PM
Quote from: BaltimoreGS on October 02, 2011, 07:49:58 PM
Airlines run nitrogen in their tires because it is non-flammable but I don't think that is a big concern on a GS
-Jessie
Air isn't flammable either. I think you mean N isn't an oxidizer.
I'm not a scientist so I don't know the physics and I was only a kid when this happened but there was a plane crash in the 80's that was blamed on the use of air in a tire which led to an explosion when the brakes over heated. May not be the only reason they run nitrogen.
-Jessie
Found a blurb online:
Mexicana Airlines flight 940
March 31, 1986. Shortly after the Boeing 727 took off from Mexico City en route to Puerto Vallarta, an overheated landing-gear brake caused a tire improperly filled with air instead of nitrogen to overheat and explode, rupturing fuel and hydraulic lines. The ensuing fire and crash killed 167 passengers and crew.
Its a gimmick and a waste of money IMHO, but if you want to do it don't worry about topping up with air. If your tyre is say 10% down in pressure and you top up with air (which is 80% nitrogen) you end up with 98% nitrogen in the tyre anyway.
just incase you havnt noticed, ure motorbike isnt an aircraft, also air is non flameable, or else we would be f%&ked when we turn on a gas stove, the oxygen in air however is needed for combustion to take place.
So no one has run it in there car or bike at all?
well i have ran it in a car for a bit cause it was free for me, didnt notice shaZam! to be honest, and wouldnt use it if i had to pay for it
Yeah I wouldn't pay for it either. Not when air is free.
Here's the deal with nitrogen in airplane tires.........
First of all..most airplanes use plain old air........Cessnas, Pipers..only 30 ~ 50 PSI normaly use air...
The FAA issued an "AD" (airworthiness directive) for certain commercially operated aircraft (airliners) with certain load ratings on the tires, and only for tires on wheels which have brakes...to use nitrogen rather than air....
(AD is like a "recall" in the car world.........)
The reason for the nitrogen is due to a very rare, but possible, scenario (happened maybe two or three times)
Here's the sceenario.....
Aircraft has brake failure
Failed brake begins to heat up
hot brake heats up wheel
hot wheel heats up tire (really hot)
Hot tire begins to "out gas" (emit fumes inside, from the overheated rubber compounds)
The tire gasses mix with the compressed air (100 psi or more) in the tire
tire gasses mixed with compressed air makes a perfect "fuel air mixture"
Continued heating causes the mixture to auto ignite
Tire blows up!
This also requires the "failure" of an overtemp plug...which would normally "melt" and let the air pressure out....The tire explosion requires everything to fail in a certain sequence and a certain way.......
Nothing above applies to motorcycles!
Cookie
Nitrogen expands and contracts exactly as any other gas due to changes in temperature, or outside air pressure.
The problem comes when you introduce moisture into a tire...If that water heats up to the point that it becomes vapor...the pressure will increase. also there is a possibility of liquid water freezing in the tire..causing outof balance.....If you put moisture into a nitrogen filled tire...it would do the same thing.....the idea is bottled nitrogen is suposed to be lacking moisture...but "dry" air would do the same.
Cookie
I found a website, directed at tire dealers on how to use "nitrogen fill" as the next big fad, and to generate huge profits........(basically rip off the consumer)
Huh... :bs:
Cookie
Another website brings out an interesting point.........
If gasses "other than nitrogen" have smaller moelcules and leak out of the tire faster than nitrogen...then every time your tire goes low, you fill it up again..the nitrogen concentration goes up too....(other gasses leak out...nitrogen stays in) So after a few refills...you have mostly Nitrogen..because all the others leaked out!
Hmmmm??
Cookie
I'm not racing, so I don't need nitrogen (even then I didn't need any).
Once when I got a couple new tires on a truck I used to have the shop tacked on a couple bucks for a 100% nigrogen fill. I didn't notice anything different.
So concencus is so far is that it's a waste of money just for bragging rights to say 'I've got nitrogen in my tyres'. And even then you wouldn't want to admit it too much.
I have special "dry air" flown in...it comes for a secret region near the Gobi Desert.
Cookie :cookoo:
Quote from: twocool on October 03, 2011, 03:19:19 PM
I have special "dry air" flown in...it comes for a secret region near the Gobi Desert.
Cookie :cookoo:
I use special Himalayan super-cooled air from deep Deep DEEP inside 250 million old glaciers, so it's the purest air you can get. If you buy some off of me you can also become a reseller and be added to my 3x6x9 social network multi-directional self-depreciating-circle marketing group and retire within 2 months. :thumb: :cookoo: :cookoo:
Michael
My air comes from my blackridge the purest air I can afford lol, now with nitrogen enrichment.
My air doesn't really come from glaciers. I actually use all natural air, which is naturally nitrogen enriched. :thumb: :thumb:
Michael
Me too OMG!!!!! We are like to savvy. :thumb:
Hehe...you Queenslanders.... to much sun i reckon. :D
Is there any place near you that does it? Give it a go and report back.
Can't be bothered lol. I ain't paying 8 bux a tyre