I have it in mine and I run a fleet of police cars with it, it pays off with the fact that you dont lose air pressure.

 

I don't loose all that much from my tires with free air. My feelings on the nitrogen claim on that is, people tend to become complacent when things say they don't need to be checked. On a bike, not checking your pressures, at the very least weekly, you are doing yourself no favors.
No matter what you run, check your tire pressures every week.

 

When I was a mech in the Air Force we used nitrogen in aircraft tires and the landing gear struts. Has a couple of bennies over air, nitrogen does not expand or contract with temp changes and it is moisture free. Aircraft tire endure extreme temps 70 below at altitude and depending on aircraft weight at landing they can build a lot of heat when they hit the ground. Moisture is also very damaging to the machined surfaces in the struts.
I have not found that nitrogen was needed for the everyday driver and as someone above posted can cause one to lapse on the weekly checks. I check my tire pressure all the time and have a compressor in the garage.

 

It has a purpose where no moisture inflation is needed. On a bike, total waist of time and money.
Ron

 

The correct answer to this question is Yes it is much better, and No it is not much better. A lot of facts stated in previous posts, but the truth is depending on the condition of the compressed air you are putting in your tires, Nitrogen may be a big improvement. If you are getting clean dry air from your compressor, then use the compressed air. If the air you are getting is from a junk compressor and full of moisture, and contanimation, use Nitrogen. I have a small bottle with a regulator and use it on my motorcycle tires. I also have access to a Nitrogen generator, so I use it in my truck. Is it worth what some shops charge, probably not, as long as you have access to air from a good compressed air system. Don

 

Ditto. Seems the biggest advantages to using N2 is that is is dry (helps keep corrosion down) and it's not a suseptable to thermal conditions. Use a good compressor and check pressures when cold.

 

Well here is my honest evaluation after 50k miles with nitrogen in my truck tires. The ride is rougher but the tires are lasting much longer than expected. My tires are designed for 50K miles and it looks like I am going to get between 75 and 100k miles out of them. The down side is they don't heat up very quickly and in fact I doubt they ever get up to designed operating temperature so the flat spots tend to stay a lot longer then you would normally expect. This results in a rough ride to the store as well as a minor nibble in the steering.

 

it's a motorcycle not an Air Plane ...

 

Nitrogen is a good idea for both reasons stated above, no corrosion due to annhydrous conditions and less variability in pressure due again to dry inert gas not expanding/contracting in response to changing temperature. It's a good idea, as long as you're not paying extra for it. That was also Consumer Reports conclusion.

The better route is to add nitrous oxide to your tires. This gives you new options if you break down (carry extra balloons) while waiting for the tow truck. It also allows you some fun with your buddies if there's a compressor handy to re-inflate. Trust me on this one, I'm an chemist...

 

UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE OF HIGH PURITY NITROGEN INFLATION...FORGET THE RAZZLE DAZZLE

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(Published with permission by Howard Herzlich, PurigeN98 Science & Technical Advisor, all rights reserved.)
WHAT IS AIR?
Air is a mixture of many gases. About 79% is nitrogen and about 21% is oxygen.
WHY IS TIRE TEMPERATURE SO IMPORTANT?
Unlike a solid or liquid, a gas has no shape and takes the shape of it’s container (tire). The gas molecules follow what is referred to as The Ideal Gas Law. Temperature, pressure and volume are mathematically interrelated (ie: when a tire gets warmer, it’s pressure increases). As you squeeze (compress) more gas molecules into the tire, the pressure increases. Gas molecules are in constant high speed motion impacting all sides of the container (tire) equally. They are perfectly elastic (the golf ball we would all like to have) and keep bouncing and impacting the container (pressure). When heated, these gas molecules gain more energy, bounce harder and cause an increase in pressure (ie: for every ten degrees Farenheight temperature increase in a tire, the pressure increases about 1 psi.
Example: Recommended tire pressures are set for "cold tires" so, if a vehicle tire pressure specification decal calls for 26PSI (cold) the tire would only be filled to 21PSI if the actual tire temperature was 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Besides temperature being an important inflation pressure factor, we know that rubber becomes weaker at higher temperatures. It is no wonder that many tire failure problems are directly related to hot weather/high load conditions. The manufacturer tries to address this through the compound and design features of the tire. Maintenance of proper inflation pressure is a critical contribution to lower operating temperature. Besides it’s non-chemical reactivity advantage, nitrogen solubilizes and diffuses out of the tire 30% slower than air; improving inflation pressure retention.
WHAT IS INERT NITROGEN?
Air is about 79% nitrogen which is a close cousin to oxygen on the chemical periodic table. However, by virtue of it’s atomic structure, nitrogen is chemically unreactive (inert) in rubber. Oxygen’s atomic structure makes it aggressively reactive (ie: during high quality welding or brazing operations, the area is often bathed in nitrogen to eliminate oxidation contamination. Nitrogen is blown into many packaged foods before the container is sealed to reduce oxidation (rancid change) of the contents.

WHAT IS OXYGEN?
Air is about 21% oxygen. Even though it is a necessary, life supporting gas, it is really a nasty, aggressive, corrosive gas that vigorously attacks the rubber molecule at very low concentrations. It also degrades the expensive antioxidant and antiozonant chemicals that manufacturers include in their highly secretive tire compound formulations. Rubber weakening oxidation reaction is rapid and aggressive.

WHAT IS VULCANIZATION?
Rubber is a soft material called an elastomer. It has little technical value until it is reacted with sulfur (vulcanization). Before vulcanization (curing), the rubber is like a bowl of spaghetti chains in constant microscopic motion slipping, sliding and entangling. It is a string like micro-structure of very long chains of repeating carbon molecules with many chemically reactive sites (unsaturation) in the chain backbone. These sites react with sulfur (heat) and crosslink (tie) the loose elastomer chains together into a rubbery network tough enough for a tire. What is important to note is the small amount of sulfur necessary to dramatically change rubber properties. Only a very small percentage of these highly reactive sites in the elastomer backbone are used up by the sulfur during the vulcanization reaction. A large number of the