Nitrogen in tires.

[acejones]

Nitrogen is usually bought by the bottle. You just exchange bottles and depending on the size it can be allot of gas. Its cheaper than buying a compressor and water seperator. If a man wants clean dry air its a good way to go. I keep a bottle in my hangar for AC tires. One bottle lasts a long time.
m

So do you think it would be cheaper than buying a small compressor that has multiple uses( tires, tool operation, blowgun for dust, etc). This guys friend is running a tire shop so he must have requirements for pneumatic operations (bead breaking, etc), therefore he must have compressors. So now he's buying nitrogen in bottles and claiming its cheaper than compressed air.

[kirby]

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[Martyn]

Nitrogen is usually bought by the bottle. You just exchange bottles and depending on the size it can be allot of gas. Its cheaper than buying a compressor and water seperator. If a man wants clean dry air its a good way to go. I keep a bottle in my hangar for AC tires. One bottle lasts a long time.
m

So do you think it would be cheaper than buying a small compressor that has multiple uses( tires, tool operation, blowgun for dust, etc). This guys friend is running a tire shop so he must have requirements for pneumatic operations (bead breaking, etc), therefore he must have compressors. So now he's buying nitrogen in bottles and claiming its cheaper than compressed air.

Many tyre shops over here use a special compressor that separates oxygen/nitrogen.
Google "nitrogen tyre inflation equipment" & fiil your boots. I am not entering the debate, merely pointing the way !!!

[kirby]

Thanks Martyn. I have not seen equipment here in the states that will do that but then I have not been looking. I suppose that a filter of some kind has been developed to separate the two gases.
We are having a wet spell here! I remember riding in the UK in the wet. WOW the diesel fuel on the round abouts!!!
:-)

[Martyn]

So do you think it would be cheaper than buying a small compressor that has multiple uses( tires, tool operation, blowgun for dust, etc). This guys friend is running a tire shop so he must have requirements for pneumatic operations (bead breaking, etc), therefore he must have compressors. So now he's buying nitrogen in bottles and claiming its cheaper than compressed air.[/quote]
Many tyre shops over here use a special compressor that separates oxygen/nitrogen.
Google "nitrogen tyre inflation equipment" & fill your boots. I am not entering the debate, merely pointing the way !!! [/quote]

Thanks Martyn. I have not seen equipment here in the states that will do that but then I have not been looking. I suppose that a filter of some kind has been developed to separate the two gases.
We are having a wet spell here! I remember riding in the UK in the wet. WOW the diesel fuel on the round abouts!!!
:-)[/quote]
It has been a dismally wet spring, that seamlessly became the wettest summer for Lord knows how many years, that has morphed into the wettest autumn...........

[GypsyRR]

I am not entering the debate, merely pointing the way !!!

I like that statement!

I can't add to the conversation, but it does raise more questions for me to ask my car shop next time I take my coupe in for it's check up. The last time I took it in, I notice my tire valve stem caps had been replaced with pretty green studded ones. I asked about it because my original ones were a costly chrome. They gave me back the nice ones and told me the green studded ones alert the service guys that my "run flat" tires are nitrogen filled. No extra cost. I supposed the new colored valves were meant to warn the service guys, but after reading this, perhaps not. I'll see what they say about it when I take it in for its yearly inspection in December.

[kirby]

edit

[acejones]

I am not entering the debate, merely pointing the way !!!

I like that statement!

I can't add to the conversation, but it does raise more questions for me to ask my car shop next time I take my coupe in for it's check up. The last time I took it in, I notice my tire valve stem caps had been replaced with pretty green studded ones. I asked about it because my original ones were a costly chrome. They gave me back the nice ones and told me the green studded ones alert the service guys that my "run flat" tires are nitrogen filled. No extra cost. I supposed the new colored valves were meant to warn the service guys, but after reading this, perhaps not. I'll see what they say about it when I take it in for its yearly inspection in December.

On run flat tires there is a possibility that the heat generated in the tire by running flat (over the stated limit ?) could cause a fire. Nitrogen would not contribute to combustion. One of the reasons to run nitrogen it Aircraft tires.
Just say'in...
:-)

That would be great if you could keep all that nasty atmospheric O2 from entering the equation. Personally I think (at least as motorcycles are concerned) this is a solution searching for a problem.

[gregor]

As I intended to say before. When you mount your new tyre (tire) on the rim it will contain atmospheric at at 1 atmosphere. Somehow this has to be purged or flushed out if you want the tyre to be filled with just dry nitrogen.
Thanks for the pointer about green valve caps. BTW my push bike tyres have green caps because they contain "Slime" a proprietary product intended to seal punctures. Well they were on offer at our local supermarket.

[GypsyRR]

Well that's green valve caps down south in Texas on my car.. Things are probably different in Derbyshire and everywhere else. Texas is different on many levels.

[grwrockster]

Personally I'm just happy if I can keep ordinary air in my tyres! After nothing for years and years, in recent times I've had 3 punctures, one of which wrecked a rear tyre with loads of wear left ! At least I can testify that the OE BMW Puncture Repair kit works really well (at least on ordinary nail punctures - nothing fixes a 3" slash due to a lump of scrap metal in the roadway). I always carry a puncture repair kit and a small tyre pump on a trip now - means I can be on my way again in about 20 mins.

Living in Wales we are used to getting wet, but this year has been awful, with it seems at least some rain pretty much every day! I've ridden less this year than probably any year in the last 15. And yes, diesel spills on roundabouts is lethal with zero grip -you have to watch out for the tell-tale rainbow colours in the surface water and then avoid or run over the spill bolt-upright. You have no chance of staying on with any lean angle on diesel.

That 'Slime' stuff for tyres wor5ks well on my Mountain Bike btw! Its supposed to be able to seal a puncture up to 3mm diameter (1/8th" I think) - handy when running Bytyl inner tubes that otherwise go flat FAST. I've never tried it in motorcycle tyres, but I reckon it has a chance of being effective. Bit messy come tyre change time though!

G.