Nitrogen in tyres

[Ocean1]

Helium is a well small molecule, that's fuck off real quick.

Hmmm, gives me an idea though; argon/helium blend. The spin would force the argon out to line the tyre, while the helium sits on the inside against the alloy where it ain't escape.

... Until you stopped. And the argon would all sink to the bottom. And when you took off again the wheel would be out of balance.

I know someone who slimes his bike tyres when fitted, it reduces the leak-down issue a fair bit apparently.

[schrodingers cat]

The point about the nitrogen staying in the tyres is correct
Also there is a benefit over the life of a road going tyre from reduced rubber oxidation internally.

'Correct' tyre pressures however is quite a can of worms.
Roughly 6 degrees C of temperature will lead to a pressure charge of 1 psi.
How should I set my pressures when yesterday the temp was a high of 11 deg and today will be 27?

Having done some real time logging of tyre temp/pressure, the rise in a road going application is tiny (hence a start pressure very close to ideal hot pressure recommended by manufacturers).
The greatest variation seems to come from ground temperature and sunlight.
The side facing the sun gets a rise comparative to the shaded side - obviously I'm not talking about a motorcycle now.

Racing is lot simpler. Since you're trying to achieve a target hot pressure nitrogen adds consistency to the gas mix.
Ideal procedure is to bleed and purge 3x to achieve a significant concentration. This also reduces moisture in the tyre.
A lazy tyre fitter slopping soapy water in the tyre creates issues...
For the lucky few, a vacuum purging machine speeds the process.

The reduced cold/hot gain from the dry gas means the start (cold) pressure can be a little higher. This gives the pilot a better feel of stability and reduces load on the carcass as there is more internal support.

Tyre warmers reduce the temperature variation from warm to hot but a whole slew of factors determine what the tyre temperature arrives at.
You might be targeting 110 deg but can you get there (or stay there?)

[pritch]

almost as hard as a bottle of wine for under $9.

Has anyone put that in their tyres?

No, but have poured a lot into the rider.

[bogan]

... Until you stopped. And the argon would all sink to the bottom. And when you took off again the wheel would be out of balance.

I know someone who slimes his bike tyres when fitted, it reduces the leak-down issue a fair bit apparently.

Thank you captain obvious, that was the joke

I slimed my front tyre when I had a bit of a leaky bead, did the trick, and certainly doesn't handle any different; though it might be interesting to check the balance next time I have it off...

[SMOKEU]

I know someone who slimes his bike tyres when fitted, it reduces the leak-down issue a fair bit apparently.

Thank you captain obvious, that was the joke

I slimed my front tyre when I had a bit of a leaky bead, did the trick, and certainly doesn't handle any different; though it might be interesting to check the balance next time I have it off...

Slime is great on push bike tyres, but not on a motorbike due to the increased speeds. It puts the wheels severely out of balance. After adding the suggested amount to my push bike tubes, if I lift a wheel up and spin it, I can feel that it's severely out of balance and the whole bike moves up and down while the wheel is spinning.

[biketimus_prime]

I know some of you will disagree like crazy but here are some practical results and situations I've experienced.

My own car, street driving, all tyres sit at their set pressures all day.
Track days after hard driving, none go about 1 or 2 psi, 3 at most above cold pressure. That is with just filling with dry air at the petrol station. The air will have slight moisture though but nothing that causes unpredictable pressures.
The tyres don't lose much more than 1psi all round if I don't inflate them after a month of driving.

You'd be stupid to nitro fill and drive around for more than a month and just assume your tyres are all at the right pressures- you'll never know if one may be losing air. So advantage of nitro fill meaning less frequent stops for pumping tyres is invalid, you should check often.

On the race cars I worked with (toyota racing series tatuus chassis cars) we only filled the tyres with dry air, small top ups on the fly were done with nitro bottle, but even then a minute or two in the hot sun saw the pressures go up by 2-3psi. Yes on wet days engineers complained about the unpredictable pressures due to damp insides of the new tyres that were fitted, however on dry days they were just fine with no nitrogen.
This is a race class where only suspension, aero and tyres were allowed to be changed. Where the wings were adjusted by a couple of mm because the driver complained of over/understeer to get that precise result. If nitro was so damn important, they'd be using it on every car, every tyre. But no they didn't. Dry air worked just fine and gave predictable pressures constantly.

Nitro is a waste of money for street use tyres and only fussy as hell people would bother with it on race cars, more hassle than anything. If you're that concerned, just make sure you use very dry air.