Sunday, July 21, 2013

Filling the Tires Rear 50 psi cold, Front 42 psi cold

I came home because I didn't have a tire air pressure gauge. After cooling and telling Kari about my ride I decided to brave the heat and fill the tires up. The 10 minutes I spent under umbrella shade looking for the fill levels had me sweating. The weather channel (useless) says that it's 88 with a heat index of 92. I rode down to the local shell station, they have a great compressor but it doesn't have a gauge. I didn't know if the tires were hot or cold, I decided I'd settle for a pressure just less than max, I'll check them in the morning cold. I filled the rear first and found that I'd way over inflated and that my gauge maxes out at 50 psi, I had to bleed alot of air leaving it at about 48 psi. I then did the front leaving it at about 40 psi. The bike felt alot more stable with more air in the tires.

This is a new pressure gauge and is yet uncalibrated. I had one that was fairly accurate but lent it out on a ride and it didn't get returned. It's not too big a deal, they're only $2 at Wally world, but I knew it was close to correct.

It's almost a funny story. I'd taken my Camry in for service, a tire rotation was on the list. When I got home I checked the tires and they only registered 23 psi or something like that. I called and raised hell. They said bring the car and the gauge in. they checked both and it was my gauge that was wrong. They said they ordered gauges by the dozen or gross and a high percentage were off and they just threw them away. With my tires properly inflated I went to the store and bought three gauges, tested them on my tires, and returned the two that were off as defective.

It's now 2pm, too hot to do diddly. I thought I'd go out and wash the bike. It's never had a bath. When I got it, some parts were off the bike, I had no idea if part of the fuel system was disconected, I chose to leave it dirty. The one thing I probably do is to attach the fuel filler cap so water doesn't get in.

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