Ride On (or other slime) + Nitrogen = Bad FYI

[BuzzKill]

I'm not intending on stiring up any old topics, but just want to put this out there so someone doesn't do it.

I put Ride On in my tires and took it to a local tire place to have them put it on the Nitrogen machine.  I asked them about the vacuum process and any issues with a slime based product in the tire.  They said it would suck some of it out, loosing your product and foul up their machine.  I asked about manually emptying the air and then just fill with nitrogen but they said moisture in the product would nullify any benifits from the nitrogen anyway.

I'm not sure of the science behind it, but doesn't sound worth it to me to even attempt it.

Again, just an FYI.

[Willow]

I'm not sure of the science behind it, but doesn't sound worth it to me to even attempt it.

If you're talking about the nitrogen process for your tires (with or without Ride-On) we're in total agreement. 

[Ferris Leets]

Nitrogen sounds like a good idea but I would go with Helium.  Would make the bike lighter and give you better gas mileage.  Also you could do Donald Duck voices at parties.

[Valker]

I've had excellent results with a 78% nitrogen mix in my tires.

[Buda]

Could be a dumb question but why use nitrogen in your tires?

[Farther]

Nitrogen in tires is a very good idea if it is free.  Otherwise stick with the free 78.09% nitrogen version available at any air compressor.

[Farther]

Could be a dumb question but why use nitrogen in your tires?

Less pressure loss over time because the nitrogen is less likely to move through the tire material and escape.

[wiseguy]

The reason for using Nytrogen is constant pressure. It does not increase or decrease with temperature.

[MarkT]

The reason for using Nytrogen is constant pressure. It does not increase or decrease with temperature.

The argument to use nitrogen is, larger molecules size resulting in less leakage.  

I'll bet you a beer, every gas has the same pressure to temperature, directly proportionate, relationship.  That's the Combined Gas Law:

“ The ratio between the pressure-volume product and the temperature of a system remains constant.    ”

This can be stated mathematically as

    {pV}/{T}= k

where:

    p is the pressure
    V is the volume
    T is the temperature measured in kelvins
    k is a constant (with units of energy divided by temperature).


No, I don't use nitrogen.  I don't think it's worth the bother.  I don't personally know of any reason NOT to use it, but I have a shop compressor, and keep a tank of air in the bike barn, and don't see that using nitrogen would save me any money or effort.

[Valkpilot]

The reason for using Nytrogen is constant pressure. It does not increase or decrease with temperature.

Not exactly true:

http://www.getnitrogen.org/sub.php?view=getTheFacts&subpage=temperatureeffects

http://www.getnitrogen.org/sub.php?view=nascar

As stated in the post above, putting dry nitrogen in a tire eliminates moisture and other contaminants which influence pressure changes.

As a rule of thumb, the tire pressure will change roughly 1 PSI for every 10 degrees of temperature change, regardless of the gas inside.

[Ricky-D]

"The argument to use nitrogen is, larger molecules size resulting in less leakage."

That's what I've always heard and thought it (the practice) was a bunch of junk.

Of course I always find my tires seem to lose a bit of pressure constantly, not much but enough to make me get the gauge out some times and check them.

If it is a severe enough loss, then the hunt starts to find the cause of the leak, otherwise I just get out the hand pump and give it a couple of strokes.

***

[wiseguy]

My appology, I guess I was misinformed, I had always thought constant pressure was the reason. Learn something new everyday

[Gryphon Rider]

My appology, I guess I was misinformed, I had always thought constant pressure was the reason. Learn something new everyday

No, you were not misinformed.  Read the article linked to by Valkpilot:  http://www.getnitrogen.org/sub.php?view=nascar

As others have said, the reason why a nitrogen fill causes less pressure fluctuation due to temperature fluctuation is the lack of other molecules that condense and vaporize within the temperature range that tires operate at, the most obvious and common example being water.  As the tire heats, water molecules vaporize and add to the tire pressure, more so than the pressure increase due to temperature change affecting molecules that were already in a gaseous state.  If you were to fill your tires with low relative humidity air in the middle of a -40° winter cold snap, you would see similar pressure fluctuations to pure nitrogen's.

[wiseguy]

Thanks for the article, very informative.