Tire gages

[Fred Garvin]

Greetings,

Looking for some feed back on a what is out there for accurate tire gages. I have a roadcrafter digital for $19.00 and seemed to work for about a year, but now it takes numerous attempts to get a readiing and I am not sure how accurate it is. I compared it to a circular dial type gage and it was off by 2psi. Is there a way to check the calibration or do you use at least three gages and take the avreage? I am open to suggestions on type and brand because I use it often and want accuracy and reliability.

Thanks.

[indr]

I've been using the Napa one reviewed on here: http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/technical/200511gauges.pdf

[GreaseMonkey]

Here's my 2 cents on gauges-

Once I had the bright idea that I would have the best and most accurate tire gauge obtainable. So I bought a nice air chuck:


And then bought a quality pressure gauge:

(this one is liquid filled, which mine wasn't)

If you are stressing out about having the most reliable gauge, this is my suggestion but IMHO I have come to realize the accuracy is not important in a tire gauge, repeatability is. A certain PSI stated in the manual may not be optimum for you, that is for you to tweak so if you get a reasonable gauge take care of it (like keep it at home and bring a different one on the bike, it will get you close if you ever need to use it but do your airing up in the morning before the ride) your own personal numbers may differ from the factory but you will be deciding what works best for you and your riding habits.

[_cy_]

best are known to be accurate gauges. absolute best that I've seen are the now rare Drager tire pressure gauges. Snap-on makes a dependable new gauge.

a Drager just went for $20 on ebay, probably cause no one knows about em anymore. Paid $60 for mine about 20 years back.

[Anorak]

Here is what I have, from Motion-Pro.

[_cy_]

Originally Posted by Anorak

Here is what I have, from Motion-Pro.

that's a good looking gauge set.

here's what I use to check calibration on pressure gauges.

Wallace & Tiernan lab grade Manometer

[Aviatordoc]

I biought one of these, mucho $$ Absolute POS. It is so inacurate.

[jnw010]

Ride magazine (in the UK) did a review on UK available gauges a while ago - I found it online somewhere. They rated a pencil style gauge as one of the most repeatedly accurate. It was also easy to read, and one of the cheapest at £7. Other gauges costing £30+ weren't producing more accuracy or consistency.
I've got a couple of dial gauges, but the scale on them is too broad to get an accurate reading of single psi, and use a cheap pencil gauge on the bike. It does the job, but I like the idea of buying an accurate pressure gauge and making my one own up.

[LuciferMutt]

I don't worry about exact accuracy as much as I do repeatability. If I know a certain pressure, read on my gauge, (a dial gauge similar to but much cheaper than the motion pro unit pictured previously) works well in the rear tire of my VFR, I will continue to set it to that pressure. Don't really care if it's actually 40 or 42 PSI.

I hate most digital tools. The battery always runs out at the worst time and I don't really trust them, to be honest. I like dials and needles.

[Hennepinboy]

I own a CyclePump EZ Air Gauge, it works just well enought to piss me off. While the pressure gauge works well the device that goes on the valve stem does not stay attached unless your very careful moving the gauge when attaching an air hoses. I have tried bending the clip and have tried a O-ring on the clip to attemt to keep in on the stem, none worked.
I does not work at all on my R1200GSA with the tire pressure monitor valve stems.

The gauge now stays in the drawer and I use a stick type gauge that lives in the tank bag.

[sjc56]

Napa pencil gage always gets good reviews
Also
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/rg/air/air.htm

[ParaMud]

Originally Posted by Anorak

Here is what I have, from Motion-Pro.

Thats what I have, love it. A bit expensive though. Got it for road racing.

[hahmule]

Had three tire pressure gauges fail a couple of months ago. Threw all of my crap gauges out. Replaced them with these, they tell you in writing what the margin for error is, and they don't cost an arm and a leg.

http://www.getagauge.com/Accu-Gage-HSeries.cfm

[gmiguy]

http://www.mcmaster.com/#atmospheric...gauges/=jlbev5

Pick out whatever material, shape, range, and accuracy level you want; and then just attach the hose or chuck you prefer.

If you're that concerned about absolute accuracy then you can even get one that's NIST traceable, although it's pricey.

I just keep a repeatable gauge on the bike, and set my pressures to what I know my preferred number is on that gauge. The absolute number isn't important, the scale could just as easily be denoted in letters or barnyard animals as long as I use that same gauge every time.

[Fred Garvin]

Thanks for all of the great response. Looks like a little research will net me a gage that will meet my needs. Thanks