What pressure are you running on your sport bike? Cruiser?

Quoted: What pressure are you running on your sport bike? Cruiser?

What ever it has on the side wall.
If it were a dirt machine, I'd say lower it down to 18-22 lbs.
But on street, I run whatever is on the sidewall.
Who knows better than what the tire mfg. has engineered

Depends on the bike, the tires, and what you are doing with them.

36-38 psi in town

32-34 psi in the twisties

OK,

I knew that the pressures were on car tires but I'd not been able find them on my bike tires but after the first post I went back and looked again and I found the info on the OTHER side of the tire.

For my road bike (Venom X's) they say max 50 psi, for my sport bike (Dunlaps) it's 42 psi max.

It's a bitch trying to actually get a gage on to the valves on both of them.

Thanks for the input.

Quoted: Depends on the bike, the tires, and what you are doing with them.

That was very helpful.

Care to expand?

38 front and rear....all year.

34f/36r works best on my S3.

I use 36F/42R on my GSXR 1000 with Bridgestone BT014. This is what's listed on the chain guard for this motorcycle/tire recommendation, and I figure it's alright because I don't carry passengers and only weigh about 155.

Quoted: Quoted: Depends on the bike, the tires, and what you are doing with them. That was very helpful. Care to expand?

On the street, I will run anywhere from 30/30 at Deal’s Gap, to 34/38 for general riding. At the track I run from 20psi to 30 psi on race tires.

Kirk wrote a good explanation already, but basically, you use tire pressure to control tire temperature. Less pressure means more carcass flex which creates more heat.

Tires have an operating range they are made for, and you want to keep them in that range. If they are too cold they do not develop their potential grip. If you get them too hot they will get greasy and start sliding, and damage the rubber (causing blue and purple oily coloration).

For normal street riding, I would recommend the 5psi method Kirk talked about. If you are too lazy, use the bike’s recommended tire pressures. These should be on a sticker on the bike somewhere, and in the owners manual for sure. They are generally less than the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall.

On the incredibly rare occasion I ride on the interstate for any length of time (generally  the bike is in the trailer on the interstate), I will inflate the tires to the maximum pressure to decrease wear and try to avoid flat spotting. Just make sure to remember to air them back down for the twisties or you may in for a nasty surprise.

Quoted: I use 36F/42R on my GSXR 1000 with Bridgestone BT014. This is what's listed on the chain guard for this motorcycle/tire recommendation, and I figure it's alright because I don't carry passengers and only weigh about 155.

It was nice knowing you...

Quoted: Quoted: I use 36F/42R on my GSXR 1000 with Bridgestone BT014. This is what's listed on the chain guard for this motorcycle/tire recommendation, and I figure it's alright because I don't carry passengers and only weigh about 155. It was nice knowing you...

Just remember, don't chop the throttle! Lowsides don't hurt nearly as much

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I use 36F/42R on my GSXR 1000 with Bridgestone BT014. This is what's listed on the chain guard for this motorcycle/tire recommendation, and I figure it's alright because I don't carry passengers and only weigh about 155. It was nice knowing you... Just remember, don't chop the throttle! Lowsides don't hurt nearly as much

Werd.  

Quoted: Pilot powers I run 32/32 on the street, 30/30 on the track when I used them.  Pilot Race was 30 front/21 rear. Sniperwolf, those pressures will kill ya.  Drop them WAY down.

Seemed kind of high to me, normally I think of anywhere from 30-34 psi as reasonable. I'll play around with it.

Quoted:
The tire pressure on the sidewall is the tires MAXIMUM pressure- it's not the best pressure- the tire has no idea what kind of bike it's on, or how it's being used.

snip...

quote]

Thanks, that's really the answer I was hoping for.

I knew that the max pressures listed were not the optimum but I just didn't know what parameters I needed looking for.

On the BT-014 rear I'm running about 10-12 psi! But I launch at about 8 grand if track sticks.  Look in owners manuel fr recomendations would be best

115 psi in 700x23s

whoa!!!


Pressures printed on tire sidewall are NOT what you should be running.  Those are maximum pressures, as determined by the tire manufacturer.

If you are running OEM tires on your bike, check manual or the tire pressure label on the rear left side of the frame near the rear tire (usually).  It'll spec both single and two up riding pressures.  These are CONSIDERABLY less than max tire pressure.

I run a stable of 16 bikes (not mine).  Many of them have front tires withe max pressures (on sidewall) of 55 psi or therabouts.  Spec'ed pressures are 29-33.  BIG difference.  I'm not riding hard but even I feel the difference  with improper pressure.

If you are running a different tire than the OEM, check with your manufacturer. Dunlop does a good job of specc'ing pressure for different bikes.

The first thing I needed to do was get a digital tire guage...
Some thing that was repeatable and that I could fit in between the spokes.

I had tried a pop up guage but it just did not show the repeatablity.  I have a dial guage but I couldn't get it onto the stems for the bike. So I bought a digital that I can fit between the spokes and I checked it against my dial guage and they are pretty close.

Thanks for all your help.

sidewall markings.


variable on the dirtbike, never exceeding max psi