Nitrogen

[xs11jack]

My wife read in the local rag that the town next to us is seting up a nitrogen in your tires station. My first thought was that air all ready contains 80% nitrogen. My next thought was that this is a scam. My wife says that the service is free, but you must call ahead for an apointment. My third thought is that what do you do with a slow leak and you are on your vacation? Soooo.... does anyone know what is this nitrogen in the tires business?
Ole jack

[GARTHXS]

works?

I have heard it keeps your tires inflated longer

[psycoreefer]

been around a long time, a lot of tire change places advertise it.

The idea is that nitrogen doesn't expand and contract as much as "air" when heated and cooled, this means a more consistent pressure in your tires which can reduce wear and increase mileage - or that is the claim.

I've yet to see any real scientific - or even somewhat scientific - evidence to support the claimed benefits. The idea that it expands less is true.

Race teams use nitrogen because to them tire pressure is very important - and because race tires get hotter.

If your using nitrogen, no worries about filling up with regular air if your away from a nitrogen station.

[CatatonicBug]

A lot of the new car dealers sell all their cars with nitrogen in the tires to begin with. What I'm not sure about is, how do they remove ALL the "air" from the tire before adding nitrogen? They would have to install the tire in a nitrogen bubble devoid of air to prevent that from happening.

[DGXSER]

IMO, it is a scam. I got my tires for my truck at one of those places that have been advertising the nitrogen for years, only because it was the cheapest deal on what I wanted.

As stated, air is roughly 80% or so nitrogen to start with. Nitrogen will decrease corrosion in metal. Otherwise, it is not that big of a deal.

[randy]

Hey, if we put in oxygen instead, would it make the bike lighter? (ducking)

[Ivan]

IIRC the first use of nitrogen in a tire was for high performance and high altitude jets. Nitrogen doesn't expand like regular air at higher temps and lower atmospheric pressure. I think the space shuttle even uses it. In gas charged struts they use N because it is dry and prevents corrosion.

Someone has already explained the race application.

If it were me, I would use propane in the tires. If you run out of gas, you could MacGuyver the engine to run on the propane. Or NO2 could work if you need an emergency performance boost. hehe.

[psycoreefer]

I think its mostly a scam too, I'm all for it if it doesn't cost me anything, but I'm not going to go out of my way, or pay, to have my tires filled with nitrogen. I'm also not going to lose sleep over filling my nitrogen filled tires with air from my home compressor to top them up.

[ManitoulinLad]

Hey Psycoreefer: Im kinda like you - we have a local car dealer in my town that has been advertising & doing this for maybe 4 yrs now, & he'll fill bike tires, he charges so much a tire. I just can't pay for something that is free - like air. The whole bottled water thing still has my head shaking - Dan

[81xsproject]

... The whole bottled water thing still has my head shaking - Dan

Not that I currently do either, but you probably don't live anywhere where the water tastes like you are drinking from the public pool.

[cywelchjr]

Not that I currently do either, but you probably don't live anywhere where the water tastes like you are drinking from the public pool.

Yeah, our water here tastes pretty bad, so we use bottled water for that reason only. It does make it so you can stand more water, and they say it's good for your health. (water that is).

[trbig]

I prefer my bottled water with hops and barley..


I've heard that the oxygen molecules were smaller than the nitrogen. Depending on where you read it, what they taught us for diving was normal air was 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and 1% "Other"? lol. But supposedly, the rubber tire lets the oxygen molecules escape and leaves the nitrogen behind. So theoretically, if you've had a tire for a while and topped it off a few times with air over the months, it should be mostly nitrogen anyway.

And yeah, 100% nitrogen is good in a high heat situation, like the tires of a landing jet and such. For the average guy... worthless.


Tod

[randy]

I just can't pay for something that is free - like air.

Air ain't been free in these parts for YEARS, the filling stations have compressor vending machines, drop in 75 cents for 2 minutes. Top up all five tires in the cage and you can throw 2-3 dollars away.

[DGXSER]

Randy, you just got to get quicker about things...I can get all four in on 75cents.

Of course, I also just use my air compressor here at home which is still not free as I pay for the electricity to run the compressor.

[Guy_b_g]

Bicycle pump is almost free, just costs the calories you use to fill up the tire, and any needed maintenance on the pump...good exercise too...if you have a slow leak it'd be a viable alternative to gym membership...