Benefits of Tire Pressure Checks

For years I’ve made it a habit to check tire pressures before I ride. In addition to any other benefit, the handling and tire wear will be predictable.

A side benefit is that any deviation from normal may indicate a problem. Tire pressures go up and down with changes in temperature and barometric pressure (usually 1/2 psi or less), but when all is well the deviations in pressures will be the same in the front and back tires (and in air suspension adjustment, if you happen to have that).

This morning I checked as usual, and found that the rear tire was down 1-1/2 psi. It should have been down 1/2, because that’s how much the front tire pressure had decreased.

Although I had cleaned things up after Friday’s ride and noticed nothing out of the ordinary, I gave the tire a good inspection. While some might just re-inflate it, I have learned from experience that a decrease like that, even in two days, is very unusual. I found a fairly well-hidden part of a nail, and a couple of inches away a quarter-inch gash in the tread. If I had just started it up and gone, I probably would have been stranded on the road somewhere pretty quick. On a typical morning, that might be the HOV lane on the freeway, which is not a good place to be stopped.

So this is a little reminder that a pre-ride inspection is a good idea, including an air pressure check. It can tell you a lot about the condition of your tires even without a visual inspection. Besides, bikes handle better with full pressure instead of half pressure in the tires.

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