Tire Pressure

[paulgelineau]

Just installed Michelin Pilot Road 4 GT tires on my 2015 R1200RT.  BMW dealer put pressures at 36 psi rear and 30 psi front.  R1200Rt manual has these at 42 psi rear and 36 psi front.  Dealer pressures seem low.  No low pressure error codes on the console and seems handling is ok.  Me; I'd rather error on the higher pressure side of things but wanted to get thoughts from the R1200RT group.
I'm not an aggressive rider but do like bending it a bit through the turns here in the Okanogan Highlands of North Central WA. State.
Cheers,
Paul G.

[T6pilot]

36/42. Check when cold

[paulgelineau]

Thanks T6.
172 Pilot here for 20+years. R1200RT is best next thing to operating in 3D.
Riding through the Okanogan Highlands this season?  Let me know.
Paul G.

[Our Gee]

Could be that your dealer had inflated the tyres (tires) to the recommended "Solo" pressures of 32 / 36 and that the couple of PSI difference you measured on the front could be down to air loss whilst fitting the gauge. (Not a lot of air volume in the front and very easy to lose a few PSI).

[T6pilot]

Thanks T6.
172 Pilot here for 20+years. R1200RT is best next thing to operating in 3D.
Riding through the Okanogan Highlands this season? Let me know.
Paul G.

Paul
Would love to, think I'am on the wrong side of the pond
Southern California
You know the place that never rains and always burns!

[T6pilot]

Just realized your in the US
You didn't have a grandfather or uncle that flew for the airlines, Ron?

[Noel]

Just installed Michelin Pilot Road 4 GT tires on my 2015 R1200RT.  BMW dealer put pressures at 36 psi rear and 30 psi front.  R1200Rt manual has these at 42 psi rear and 36 psi front.  Dealer pressures seem low.  No low pressure error codes on the console and seems handling is ok.  Me; I'd rather error on the higher pressure side of things but wanted to get thoughts from the R1200RT group.
I'm not an aggressive rider but do like bending it a bit through the turns here in the Okanogan Highlands of North Central WA. State.
Cheers,
Paul G.

My '16 RT had PR4GTs installed at delivery and I kept them at 36/42.  At 2000miles I had substantial cupping/scalloping on the front tire.  At the suggestion of several folks on forums plus from a michelin rep I increased front tire pressure to 40psi in order to minimize the rate of cupping formation.  I put nearly 12K mile on the tires and it seems the cupping didn't get too much worse over that time, so w/ the new PR4GT just installed a few weeks ago I will keep them at 40/43 for solo riding in order to help retard cupping/scalloping.


I read an article a while back about adjusting tire pressure based on ambient air pressure:  for every 10 degrees F +/- ambient temp of 68F you go up or down 1 psi.  For example, if you're setting TP on a tire that is 'cold', i.e. unridden on that day, if ambient is 58F and you want to set the tire to 40psi, I'll set it at 39psi, and so forth following that algorithm.  I have found that this gets the TPMS readout to within 1 psi of the intended tire pressure when the tire is warmed up.  I think failing to do this may be why some folks see a 2-4 psi difference in what they manually set pressure to versus TPMS readout.

[guest2360]

We have been here before.  Set the pressures when cold, 2.5 and 2.9.  Irrespective of temperature the TPM will compensate in its reading and normally will not vary by more than .1.