Tire qauge options

[Terry Lee]

When I bought my first car at age 16, I purchased a tire gauge as one of my first auto tools. I've trusted it for 40+ years. I purchased a small electronic gauge to carry under the seat of the SV, but first was curious about calibration. My old "trusty" and the new one didn't agree. I used to work at a hydraulic distribution company and had some stuff I could use. The ends of the rubber hose are a barbed push lock with a 250 psi working and a 1000 psi burst. I used a JIC to 1/4" NPT fitting on the air chuck. The JIC fitting allows the chuck to be rotated to any angle. I've found that finger tight is a good seal with no wrenches required. On the other end I used a hydraulic Tee that's been drilled and tapped for a Schrader valve. The calibrated industrial pressure gauge is very inexpensive. I could of used a 90 degree fitting, I just didn't have one, so a plug was required. The concept was to measure the other gauges against a pressure source using the installed Schrader. And... I found that my old trusty and the new digital were both off by 5 psi on either side of the industrial gauge. And then I discovered that my calibration test piece was ideal for use on the bike. Now I use it for all of our vehicles.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4EWCDK66Mok/VZqmFMMPdlI/AAAAAAAAi8w/WQYoBwFYjg0/w1044-h588-no/IMG_2488.JPG

[Bibio]

have you reset the digital one?

place digital one on valve and push slightly letting air escape till readout says 00 then stop. let it then auto turn off after which it should read bang on.

[Terry Lee]

have you reset the digital one?

place digital one on valve and push slightly letting air escape till readout says 00 then stop. let it then auto turn off after which it should read bang on.

Interesting. It's a really inexpensive gauge. I think it was $10. I looked on line for a calibration routine and couldn't find anything. I'll try that tomorrow.

[Heorot]

Can anyone here recommend a pressure gauge that I can use on the front wheel of my SV. The one I have is digital and was from Halfords. It only records a value occasionally.Yesterday, it took me 10 minutes to get a reading and inflate to the correct pressure.

[yokohama]

I have something very similar to this style.

http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/Tyre-Pressure-Gauge-With-Flex-Hose-69924-Draper-TPG100A

I got fed up of struggling with the service station air hoses and trying to fit the head in around the SV front discs so I use the gauge for fine tuning in combination with this.

http://www.motormania.co.uk/a43095-maypole-heavy-duty-single-gauge-compact-foot-pump-for-variety-of-tyres-mp790.html

[Bibio]

i use a digital tyre inflater that has an auto cut off. when taking the valve connector off put two fingers under the connector then flip the lever with my thumb and push with the two fingers at the same time. the inflater i have goes .5psi over so when you take the valve off and you get that little pssst it goes to the correct pressure.

or at the next tyre change get an angled valve put on.

[Luckypants]

For inflation I use my cycling track-pump, easy peasy to get correct pressure even in the back tyre. I use my angled digital pressure gauge to check pressures which I've had for years, it still matches the gauges at my local tyre depot.

A track pump is like this http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Giant-Control-Tower-4-Cycling-Floor-Pump_58988.htm?sku=168899&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=AdwordsProductAds&utm_campaign=Adwords&gclid=CjwKEAjw8e2sBRCYte6U3suRjFESJAB4gn_g_S6PUJUC w3YZEthx5Pw3Sk4qpZKLLWvCY5eCGwDlPxoCNpPw_wcB

[Terry Lee]

I have something very similar to this style.

http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/Tyre-Pressure-Gauge-With-Flex-Hose-69924-Draper-TPG100A
http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/core/media/media.nl?id=25890&c=317638&h=693aaa4f78e9719db20b
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That's basically what I constructed for about the same cost. Those front rotors do get in the way.

[Heorot]

Thanks for the responses. I just bought the Draper Tyre Pressure Gauge with Flexible Hose as suggested by Yokohama.

[NTECUK]

I've got a Draper 69924.
I sneaked it in with the iso tools calibration we get done hear.
It might be cheap but it got a pass sticker ;)

[Terry Lee]

have you reset the digital one?

place digital one on valve and push slightly letting air escape till readout says 00 then stop. let it then auto turn off after which it should read bang on.

Interesting. It's a really inexpensive gauge. I think it was $10. I looked on line for a calibration routine and couldn't find anything. I'll try that tomorrow.

I just tried that trick and it worked. Fantastic! I just despise instruments that don't tell the true story. Like the speedometer on my SV. A special hell for the liability lawyers who put that requirement in place. Never having the GPS capabilities years ago, I never understood why cars were crowding me on high speed motorways, while "thought" I was doing the limit. I suspect that my Viraga also read high.

So now, I do some quick math and subract 9.6% of the speed displayed to get my true speed. Sheesh!