One thing nobody mentioned on the tire pressures ....... make sure your gauge is reading correctly . I checked mine against a buddy's and mine was reading 3lbs lower than his .Used his gauge to correct my tire pressure and what a difference it made . Buy a cheap gauge and the results will reflect it .
Funnily enough exwinger, for most users & their tire pressure gauges, '
consistency' is far more critical than any significant degree of accuracy :shocked: This applies especially if they are using an 'aide' like the 4psi rule to arrive at or near the optimal pressure for the tires their vehicle is wearing right now!
It doesn't really matter
exactly or
precisely what the 'exactly accurate' pressure in their tires might be right now or ever, it's really just a number or label designed to allow us to get to the same level/setting
consistently...... and with the 4psi rule, just so long as the 'increase after ryding' target variation onany device is the same difference
every time, then you can use that potentially 'inaccurate' (but consistent) device to work out & eventually establish a given point or label or pressure reading on that device that works for you..... :thumbup:
And btw, whatever the EXACT PRESSURE that works for you might be, it's extremely unlikely that
anyone else will need EXACTLY the same pressure, largely due to the thousand of little variations & differences in the way different people ryde & the where, the when, & the what of the surfaces & temperatures & loads etc that will exist between what they do & what you do or need or want or feel or... you get the picture! :lecturef_smilie:
Still, getting or using a pressure that's within a pound or so of what's 'right' for most is going to be near enough - most of us 'recreational ryders' won't ever be ryding in conditions where the difference of 1/2 a psi or maybe even 1&1/2 a psi will really make all that much difference, but we WILL probably notice the difference that saaayyy 4psi might bring!! That's not to say that there aren't circumstances where exact accuracy isn't called for; but seriously, any tire pressure gauge or TPMS or FOBO that generally reports the same reading for a given pressure 9 times out of 10 is going to be near enough & good enough for the bulk of us/what we do - & that's especially so if the 10th time is only ever a pound or so off anyway!
Sooo, It's really
FAR MORE important that we REGULARLY check/confirm & adjust our tire pressures appropriately than it is that we have an 'exactly accurate' tire pressure gauge or reading.... & by regularly I'd suggest at least weekly while ryding, altho I personally check my tire pressures before & after
EVERY ryde, & frequently also check them about an hour in on a longer ryde (and I do a lot of them!)
After all, your tires are the single most critical vehicle component in keeping you safe whenever you ryde..... without them working at their optimum, everything else is compromised to some degree! :shocked:
And on that note, here endeth this lesson! :thumbup: