Why Do My Scooter Tyres Keep Losing Air Pressure

[nattydread]

I have a Yamaha Nouvo and the tyres seem to lose pressure about 30% every 3 or 4 days

i recently bought two new tyres and tubes from Yamaha shop and supervised the shop putting them on while inspecting the rims and rim tapes

the problem still persists.......my g/f has a Mio and i have exactly the same problem with her bike

i dont ever remember having a problem with innertubed tyres when riding in the UK years ago

does anyone have the same problems and can anyone provide an explanation why this happens?

[wana]

it happens on all my yamahas also

you can put 30 PSI in and check after a week or two and be shocked to find its dropped to 16-19 PSi

ive been told its the climate but cheap tyres/ tupes comes to mind also

[nattydread]

it happens on all my yamahas also

you can put 30 PSI in and check after a week or two and be shocked to find its dropped to 16-19 PSi

ive been told its the climate but cheap tyres/ tupes comes to mind also

maybe i should do what i have seen some thais do and that is put 60lbs in front and rear which would negate me having to visit the garage twice a week.....I should be running the correct pressure a week next Thursday

[BSJ]

It normal for cheap nasty tubes to loose pressure. I think the rubber has microscopic holes in the surface. Your's seem worse than usual. Mine loose about 15lb in 2 weeks. I run 35-40lb.

[Wash]

I do not have the answer but for sure the problem is more widespread than Motorbikes. Bicycles, carts, cars and everything pneumatic. I just replaced my front tires on my car and the dealer filled the new tires with Nitrogen instead of air. That is supposed to solve the problem. So far there is no reduction in the inflation and it has been 2 months since we put the new tires on.

[Gippy]

Same on the wife's Scoopy. I had new tubes fitted but it didn't help at all. My PCX, 650R and car are all fine, I'm guessing all the tubes available in Thailand are junk.

[TheWalkingMan]

Can you find something like this in Thailand?

My bicycle had a similar problem, I was too lazy to fix it, so I used a product like the above and now I ride with pleasure.

[necronx99]

Try filling your tires late at night when they are cold.

[Semper]

This is very common in Thailand, so I bought one of these.

[katabeachbum]

all tubed tures I have had here have leaked, some are ok for 2 weeks, some are not.

Solution, I do not buy any tubed tyres any more

just checked the pressure on my tubeless pcx, fine after 3 months use, yeah lazy should have checked it before

[JusMe]

Mine on the Nouvo lose something weekly, so I got myself a small hand pump and a tire gauge. Not quite regularly, but usually about once a week I pump a bit of air in and then use the gauge to check. Approx 30 psi front, and 32~34 back.

[wana]

never trust air guage in petrol stations ,even the big computer ones in shell

i pulle the airline off 30 PSI and my tyres were suspiciously too hard and the guy in the station was telling me i should put more

(pirelli diablos recommended @ 42 PSI )

went and bought a pressure guage and the 30 PSI reading was actually 55 psi

frightens me to think what would have happened if i just trusted them and maybe blow a tyre off the rim

and give everyone in the station a heart attack

[wantan]

Have the same problem with my Yamaha Nouvo since i replaced tires and tubes at a Yamaha shop. Before everything was OK. After changing tubes and tires it looses air very quickly. I have to check and refill twice a week, if i want to keep the recommended pressure.

I guess the tubes are cheap crap. Next time i will buy the best quality tubes i can get myself and let the shop mount them. Or maybe switch to tubeless...

[wana]

Have the same problem with my Yamaha Nouvo since i replaced tires and tubes at a Yamaha shop. Before everything was OK. After changing tubes and tires it looses air very quickly. I have to check and refill twice a week, if i want to keep the recommended pressure.

I guess the tubes are cheap crap. Next time i will buy the best quality tubes i can get myself and let the shop mount them. Or maybe switch to tubeless...

mag wheels for the nouvo are an expensive upgrade ,around 6000-8000 k i think but if you buy them when buying the scooter they only cost an extra 2000

i dont know if you can use tubeless tyres on spoked wheels

[wantan]

Have the same problem with my Yamaha Nouvo since i replaced tires and tubes at a Yamaha shop. Before everything was OK. After changing tubes and tires it looses air very quickly. I have to check and refill twice a week, if i want to keep the recommended pressure.

I guess the tubes are cheap crap. Next time i will buy the best quality tubes i can get myself and let the shop mount them. Or maybe switch to tubeless...

mag wheels for the nouvo are an expensive upgrade ,around 6000-8000 k i think but if you buy them when buying the scooter they only cost an extra 2000

i dont know if you can use tubeless tyres on spoked wheels

OK, i will sure not spend 6-8k Baht for mag wheels on a scooter. Maybe i can use tubeless tires and put tubes inside them to keep my spoked wheels

No, i guess i will just try to buy better tubes. Some brand name stuff if available. Still hoping someone has a tip for lazy me

[robsamui]

Yes - me too - and I've been wondering about this since I bought my Nouvo.

Mag wheels and tubes. I can top up at 30 psi front and rear (checked with a hand-gauge) and then next day both tyres are back to 16-18 psi again. And for some reason they will stay at that for ages . . . they don't seem to lose any more pressure. Odd.

That pressurised can of latex puncture stuff someone showed a pic of here would work a treat. But like frameless snap-clip perspex picture mounts, cans of puncture-squirt have yet to appear in these parts. (Probably cheaper to buy a new tube than to buy puncture-squirt with the import duties and luxury tax and VAT on top.)

R

Edited February 15, 2012 by robsamui

[mcgriffith]

This is nothing specific to Yamaha- it seems to be a problem with all tubed tires here.

My Wave has had 3 sets of tires and brand new inner tubes since I bought it ~5 years ago.

I always specify the best inner tubes available when changing tires.

Doesn't seem to make any difference. They lose air at the same rate mentioned by others in above posts.

My solution is to pump up to about 40 psi front, 42 psi rear. This is not really so extreme, and is within the max pressure listed on the tire sidewall. Rides like a truck first week, second week just right....3rd week starting to get a bit sloppy on cornering....

Yes I use a digital gauge when running these pressures. And I have a tire valve mini-wrench to make sure the Schrader valve is nice and tight.

It just seems to be poor quality inner tubes, with minute pinholes that leak, that cause this problem.

[poanoi]

Can you find something like this in Thailand?

My bicycle had a similar problem, I was too lazy to fix it, so I used a product like the above and now I ride with pleasure.

Yes, i bought it, altho i can't recall where.

I'm pretty sure Carrefour has them

[ttakata]

The valve quality varies so lots of air is passed out there sometimes.

I'm lucky my DTX250 tubes don't lose air too much, I check them every 2 weeks.

The heat is also what causes the air loss in tubes.

My friend has a KLX250 and it loses air quick in BKK, but when we were up in the mountains of Laos, the cold helped keep the air in the tubes longer.

The rubber must be slightly porous and the heat expands the pores.

Anyway, if it gets too annoying to pump up your tubes, tubeless alloy wheels are the way to go.

I only have to top off my Nouvo135 tires every month.

[MaiChai]

I believe it's an engineering compromise, like most things. For the inner tube not to leak it would require thick rubber. This would make the inner tube heavy and expensive. Thus the thinner rubber that has microscopic holes that leak air.

[roban]

Shops sell the inner tubes ~40-60 Bt....so what can we expect?

As always, "you get what you paid for".

Personally, I would pay more for quality tubes, but wasn't able to find them.

Everywhere only the same crappy ones.

Edited February 16, 2012 by roban

[wantan]

Shops sell the inner tubes ~40-60 Bt....so what can we expect?

As always, "you get what you paid for".

Personally, I would pay more for quality tubes, but wasn't able to find them.

Everywhere only the same crappy ones.

Hmm, anyone here who was able to get some quality tubes for the Nouvo? Which brand to recommend and where to buy it? I am sure the tubes that were mounted when my Nouvo left the factory were much better than the crappy ones i have now. But unfortunatly i don't know what brand it was and where to get it.

[wana]

try a yamaha official shop ,they "might " have OEM tubes from Yamaha

i think the smal soi shops are more likely to have cheaper chinese parts but YMMV

there must be quality branded tubes somewhere .......

[wantan]

try a yamaha official shop ,they "might " have OEM tubes from Yamaha

i think the smal soi shops are more likely to have cheaper chinese parts but YMMV

there must be quality branded tubes somewhere .......

I always go to official shops for the things i don't do myself

It was an "official Yamaha shop" who mounted the crappy tubes. Both front and rear loose more or less air, so sure its poor quality.

OME sounds good, but how should i know it is OEM? Should there be a Yamaha logo on it? Any other brand logo?

[wana]

IRC makes the tubeless tyres ,probably they or dunlop make the tubes as well

if they stock original gear inner tube it should have the YAMAHA genuine parts stamp on it

like this one :

http://www.boats.net/parts/detail/yamaha/Y-94213-18232-00.html

but TIT so anything is possible

[katabeachbum]

try a yamaha official shop ,they "might " have OEM tubes from Yamaha

i think the smal soi shops are more likely to have cheaper chinese parts but YMMV

there must be quality branded tubes somewhere .......

yamaha uses V-rubber tubes at factory

[MaiChai]

what we need is some genius chemist out there to modify the properties of the rubber used to get rid of the microscopic holes!

[katabeachbum]

what we need is some genius chemist out there to modify the properties of the rubber used to get rid of the microscopic holes!

not really, a clean rim, a clean tubeless tyre, a proper valve installation in rim and in tube, and a V-rubber tube in correct size works. When a puncture repair fails on all or any of these 4, it leaks

[wantan]

Thanks for help. I guess it is called "Vee Rubber". I once had vee rubber tires on one of my bicycles. I didn't know that it is a thai company. I thought it was chinese.

Then i will look for Vee-Rubber tubes and a "YAMAHA genuine parts stamp". Best thing that could happen may be a Vee-Rubber tube with a "YAMAHA genuine parts stamp" on it

[katabeachbum]

Thanks for help. I guess it is called "Vee Rubber". I once had vee rubber tires on one of my bicycles. I didn't know that it is a thai company. I thought it was chinese.

Then i will look for Vee-Rubber tubes and a "YAMAHA genuine parts stamp". Best thing that could happen may be a Vee-Rubber tube with a "YAMAHA genuine parts stamp" on it

cool, Vee even has a site. Th largest supplier of tubes and tubeless tyres, would assume they pack them in Honda and Yammy bags to