An idiot, and his TCLOCKs

[Falkon45]

Yeah. Valve cores are all hit or miss. If tubeless, sometimes it could be a slow leak through the lip seal. I'm going to bikemaster aluminum valve stems when I get to changing my tires. I've just about flattened the rear tire. Not sure if I want to put the S20s I have on standby on, as those seem to be wasted for the kind of riding I do, and get to do in the area.

[superduder]

(Another chubby guy here...)
Generally, I sit on my bike and look at the tires to see how far they're squishing.
If I air them to 24-28psi, the roads here in Tucson will beat my hips out of joint,
If I run them low then I have (and probably will again) crack a rim half for the same reason.
$10M a year to fix the roads and they pave 8 sections of 3 roads 90X a year.
A bigger bike/wheels and tires would probably help a bit,
But every trip in Pima county is a stress test of your vehicles suspension
and Wheels/tires.
J

[Hunnicutt]

Falkon45: THANK YOU for posting this reminder.

First thing this morning, I was presented with a rare opportunity to ride my TT250 to work. My wife was able to drop our daughter off at school. I got my Bell Adventure MX-9, hi-viz jacket, Bilt Blaze 2 pants, boots, and gloves out of the closet. I got the bike out of the garage. Walking through my mental motorcycle checklist, I ran across a remnant of this thread. I thought about the last time I checked the tire pressure - crap, can't remember the last time!!! Better check them. A low tire could mean bad things in rush hour traffic!!!

Front was 25 PSI, rear was 20. Should be 32. It took me an extra 10 minutes to air up front and rear - time well spent thinking through all the what-ifs when riding on soft tires. I made it into work with confidence and without issue.

[Falkon45]

Originally Posted by Hunnicutt

Falkon45: THANK YOU for posting this reminder.

First thing this morning, I was presented with a rare opportunity to ride my TT250 to work. My wife was able to drop our daughter off at school. I got my Bell Adventure MX-9, hi-viz jacket, Bilt Blaze 2 pants, boots, and gloves out of the closet. I got the bike out of the garage. Walking through my mental motorcycle checklist, I ran across a remnant of this thread. I thought about the last time I checked the tire pressure - crap, can't remember the last time!!! Better check them. A low tire could mean bad things in rush hour traffic!!!

Front was 25 PSI, rear was 20. Should be 32. It took me an extra 10 minutes to air up front and rear - time well spent thinking through all the what-ifs when riding on soft tires. I made it into work with confidence and without issue.

Glad it helped. I need to start taking weekends to do all the maintenance on the bikes. Mine and the kiddos. Lots of oil changes to do soon. Lol

[TominMO]

Falcon45, I am shocked and saddened to hear that you are an idiot. I'm sure our whole little community here feels the same.

And naturally, this changes everything. We must have a full inquiry by the Council of Elders on every post where you have given advice. (OK actually I think the Council of Elders is just Jerry.)

In my own defense, it has never been proven that I am an idiot. I have very good lawyers.

You may find the below information to be helpful, as far as what not to do. We're all pulling for you!

[Magician16]

Originally Posted by TominMO

I'm guessing cheap Chinese tubes. Maybe the valve cores are not up to the job. Try replacing just the cores and see if it helps.

I have IRC tubes on the Storm, and the front of the Magician. Chinese tube on rear of Magician. All tires will be below 20psi if I don't check at least monthly. I usually run them between 24-28.

[2LZ]

Originally Posted by TominMO

I'm guessing cheap Chinese tubes. Maybe the valve cores are not up to the job. Try replacing just the cores and see if it helps.

I'm guessing in the 70's someone, like myself. was much younger and didn't pay near the attention to maintenance items that we do now. I never checked my pressures. Are they flat? Nope...ride!...plus, back then I was MUCH lighter. When I graduated in 1977, I weighed 155. Now I'm 240. That plays hell with tire pressures that vary during hot and cooler seasons.

[tpelle]

Originally Posted by TominMO

I'm guessing cheap Chinese tubes. Maybe the valve cores are not up to the job. Try replacing just the cores and see if it helps.

A little off-topic, but I've been watching a lot of news reports on YouTube about the progress of this Russia-Ukraine war, and I caught this in one of the reports.


History lesson:


Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, due to their centralized planing economy, they did not have a bunch of competing companies making things, but instead had a bunch of individual ONE BIG FACTORY making all of these different products. And all of these factories were spread around the entire USSR. After the breakup, all of these factories ended up in different countries! So after the breakup if you wanted to build, say, a farm tractor, the engine suddenly comes from a factory in one country, the transmission from another, the chassis from a third, and so on. And a lot of these countries were no longer on speaking terms, shall we say, with Mother Russia.


Well, the result is that the truck tire maker for the old USSR doesn't want to play nice with today's Russia. So the Russian army trucks are running on tires that they buy from China. Those tires seem to be not so resistant to being shredded.


News report:


So what happens is the Russians are running a convoy taking ammo, tank parts, blankets, and turnips up to the front, and one of the trucks gets pasted by a Ukranian RPG. Now there's shredded metal all over the road. So the truck behind the newly-scrapped truck swings out in the other lane and passes, but 100 meters down the road it comes to a stop due to flat tires. Stopped truck = easy target! Another RPG and another Russian truck bites the dust.


That's why they're having such huge logistic problems.


Another problem, by the way, was, back in the good old days of the USSR, all of the military transport airplanes were made by the Antonov Design Bureau. Antonov Design Bureau was located in Kyiv, which is (drumroll, please) in Ukraine. After all, the Ukraine was just an Administrative District within the USSR, but they ain't buildin' no airplanes for the Russkies any more!