Digital or analoge tyre pressure gauge?

[CarlosSV650S]

need to get a tyre pressure guage, which one is best ??

Cheers

[G]

Digital one from tesco petrol station for me... Works great and cost about £2.99

[fizzwheel]

either / or.

TBH it doenst really matter as long as it gives consitent accurate results.

Personally I prefer the pen style analogue style guage. I find them easier to get onto the valve.

[DarrenSV650S]

I don't trust digital ones. I have the analogue sliding pen one too. Less to go wrong

[Nobbylad]

I've got this one and it's ace! Bought it as a replacement for a longer one which I had trouble getting onto the valve.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_56 6807_langId_-1_categoryId_165648

[squirrel_hunter]

Now I wouldn't be able to say if an Analogue or Digital would be better. However I have discovered something interesting that might be worth considering, the accuracy of such devices...

Stretchie left me his tyre inflator that runs off of a 12v car battery to fill the Blackbirds rear up to 42psi. Its a digital inflator and automatically cuts filling once it reaches the set pressure. After it had filled the tyre I decided to check it against my digital tyre pressure gauge which gave me a reading of 43.5psi. Both tools are brand and cost unknown.

So what sort of accuracy do you need for tyre pressures? And how can you be sure of any tools accuracy?

[Stu]

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=145579&highlight=pressure

[embee]

Autoexpress (http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/249793/tyre_pressure_gauges_tested.html) reviews might be of interest.

TBH I'm not sure whether digi or analogue are inherently better or worse than each other, analogues work with bendy tubes or springs and plungers and can easily be wrong, electronic/piezo pressure transducers are as good as they are made to be, so either can be accurate or not.

I have a couple of old Dunlop pencils which differ by about 2psi at 35, but I use a Halfords digi compressor most of the time which seems very consistent and at least agrees with one of the Dunflops! :-D

The only reliable way is to calibrate your chosen gauge against a lab spec master and stick to it, otherwise decide what tyre pressure you like and see what it says on the gauge and then stick to that.

[vjones777]

The digital ones usually come with a written guarantee that when you really need it the battery will be dead.

[lukemillar]

I don't trust digital ones. I have the analogue sliding pen one too. Less to go wrong

What!? I bought am analogue sliding one and it was the most inaccurate piece of rubbish ever!

Not that I'm saying digital is better, I think you can get cheap, cr@p versions of either.

I have a digital one that cost about $60 which is pretty accurate (compared to Mr Michelin's at the track) but I find it annoying because

- There is no air release button for fine adjustment.
- There is no hose, so you have to push the whole unit onto the valve.
- You have to reset it by turning it off and on after every reading (and it beeps a lot which is also annoying!)

In my mind the best gauge is one that answers ^^ issues while also being accurate :)

[Sid Squid]

Buy a PCL pen type. Like this. (http://www.pclairtechnology.com/Products/Product?ProductId=86) I have one of these which is twenty years old and it's about half a pound off from when it was new - tested regularly against a calibrated gauge.
(http://www.pclairtechnology.com/Products/Product?ProductId=86)
Avoid digital gauges - despite some being expensive and excellent most are horribly inaccurate and change results like the wind changes direction. I have a Michelin digital gauge which is fantastically accurate - but which is difficult to use on most bike front wheels.

[timwilky]

I find it amazing that people are prepared to accept that analogue displays are an "approximation" and accept there is a tolerance on accuracy. Yet accept a digital display as gospel.

[Luckypants]

I have an accurate Sykes-Pickervant analogue gauge for use at home, tested against a calibrated gauge and it's good. I have an old Halfords digital gauge that lives on the bike for convenience and it's always within 0.5 psi of the analogue reading. So I use both :-D

FWIW if you pay for the use of the airline at a garage, then the gauge is supposed to be tested by trading standards for accuracy. Therefore should be OK. My local air-line is close to my analogue gauge when doing the car tyres. My bike is done with a track pump before heading out, so the filling station air-line don't figure.

[MattCollins]

TPMS and mini compressor these days, but still have the analogue gauge and MTB pump buried in the bottom of the tool bag.

Pencil gauges are notorious for being inaccurate. That doesn't matter as long as it is consistent.

[ranathari]

Looking at the packaging, digital ones have tighter ranges for measurement errors than analogue ones (or at least the kind that you can pick up off the shelf in car shops). It's all down to what you prefer - it's not like you're going to notice any real difference between 35 or 38psi in your rear tyre.

[lukemillar]

It's all down to what you prefer - it's not like you're going to notice any real difference between 35 or 38psi in your rear tyre.

I definitely would! :)

[fizzwheel]

I definitely would! :)

Ditto I can definately feel the difference when I have lost a couple of pounds of tyre pressure.

[Bluepete]

I have the digital one from Halfords. It's as accurate as the one we use at work (evidential quality for fatal/serious RTC's).

Good enough for me.

Pete ;)

[ranathari]

Ditto I can definately feel the difference when I have lost a couple of pounds of tyre pressure.

I'd love to put that to a proper blinded test and see if it works. My experience is that my SV doesn't handle any differently from 35-42psi - higher than that and it's skittish, lower and it feels like ****. Anywhere in-between feels just the same because the suspension's **** and nullifies any difference in the tyres.

[fizzwheel]

I dont ride an SV though...

[Dave20046]

I 'just prefer' the normal/old fashioned sliding pen sorts, not sure why just do.

p.s Can I vote for 'analogue'?*



*sorry

[lukemillar]

I dont ride an SV though...

Me neither. And I'd happily do a test! I'm super anal about tyre pressures on my racebike. I can easily tell the difference in a 2 psi shift- especially when the tyre has 2 psi more than what I am expecting.