Anyone using a wireless tire pressure monitoring system?
Went to dinner one night this week with some buds. Afterwards we were shooting the breeze in the parking lot next to one guy's Ultra.

We get to talkin' about tires and he tells us he has 20k on his front. He said he always gets long life out of them because he monitors air pressure constantly. He then shows us this little fob that displays pressure and temperature at the push of a button.

Googled it and looks to be about $150 for the fob and 2 sensors.
Yeah, I know, doesn't cost anything but a few minutes to use a gauge...

 

Do you have a link to the one you found? this is what I came up with doing a search, which you can monitor while driving.

http://www.doranmfg.com/motorcycle-tpms-features.htm

There are also valve caps you can buy that have a little pressure gauge that stick out of them. I've read that their failure rate is quite high, as the centrifugal force can blow them apart, causing a rapid loss of air.

I routinely get far more than 20K out of a front tire, but I manually check air pressure at least weekly. I usually go through two rear tires per one front.

 

Here's the one I found. I'll ask him who the manufacturer/supplier is of the one he has.

http://*******.com/4y63vw5

 

Thanks for the link. My lady's '04 Impala has a tire monitoring system that warned me once about a low tire. I didn't even know it had it until the warning light came on. AFTER READING THE OWNERS MANUAL I found out that system works on the principle that a low tire has a different circumference, and triggers a sensor that because the deflating tire is turning at a difference speed than the others.

 

I do not but my younger brother runs with that setup. I tease him a little, saying it only takes a minute to lay on your side and check pressure before each ride. He laughed and said, how many people really do that each and every time they ride? He had a good point.

 

After watching the video, which shows the locking rink used to keep someone from swiping the valve caps, I'm thinking to add air you would have to always have with the hex head wrench needed to release the cap from the stem.

 

You have to have metal valve stems to use them. At least that's what a vendor in Sturgis told me. Something about centrifugal force bending rubber valve stems with the weight of the sensors.

 

I have the Doran system on my bike and it works great. I bought it mostly to alert me to a leak that might develop while touring 2 up. There is so much crap on the road these days that can cause tire trouble and I want to know right away if I pick up a screw, nail, metal scrap, etc. and get a few seconds warning to allow me to react before a potential catastrophe.

I hit something last year that split the rear tire casing right in the middle of the tire down to the cord for about two inches. Fortunately, the leak was very slow. I made it home about the time the monitor told me I was losing pressure. I was fortunate. The monitor made me look at the tire and find the problem. It was not obvious because it was right in one of the center grooves of the Dunlop and really hard to see. But, I knew it was there somewhere.

I still check pressures before I ride even with the monitor. Just a habit I guess, but I feel better doing it. Besides, the Doran unit can take up to 6 minutes to update after you start the bike. So, this way I don't end up half a mile from home and get the dreaded red light for low pressure (it happened once and I don't want to do it again).

Hope that helps