I check them as part of my weekly maintenance.

Mine haven't lost even 1 pound since I bought the bike in January.

Both, but the standard tire pressure gauge is not a zero-loss connector and you'll lose air using it. The HD pump has a built-in gauge and loses no air.

 

Thanks. And with that said, when the hose is re-connected should the gauge register the air pressure that the shock is currently set at?

 

That would be correct!

 

there is one caveat though. sometimes when they build the bike, the air valve doesn't 'stick up' far enough so that when you attach the pump, it reads 0psi. you then pump a couple of times, and its up to 15 or 20psi. but in reality, what happened is that the schraeder valve didn't actually get depressed, so you just pumped 15 or 20 psi right into the area between the valve and the hose.... make sense?

i had to tighten the little nut that holds the valve in place to make it so the valve would extend up far enough for the pump to actually be able to pump air into the shock

 

Thanks for the info, I will get a pump for shocks.

 

That's makes perfect sense. Thanks for the info.

 

That did the trick! I tightened the nut around the valve stem almost a full turn and now the schrader valve registers the air pressure in the gauge when connecting. Thankls again.