Airing Down (Tire Pressure)

Filed in archive ATV Safety on December 22, 2006

A very important safety and performance aspect of any "wheel-based" motor-sport is the tire's air pressure. It affects things like handling, tire wear, even gas mileage and engine-wear.

Inflatable tires come stamped with the recommended tire's air pressure, but some applications require variances of those listed. For example, a heavy duty truck tire might require 65psi for normal driving and/or towing on the street. But if you are in sand, especially soft, deep sand, you may need to "air-down" the tires to allow more contact area on the sand to avoid getting stuck.

Another example of when you might do better with different air pressure is drag racing. I have done some motorcycle drag racing on a couple of different street bikes; a Honda CBR 600F2 and a Suzuki GSXR 750. Both running DOT tires with the air pressure down 50% from recommended or more and a solid strut with a wheelie bar. That pressure gave better traction and ultimately better ETs.

Just be careful not to air down so far that you risk breaking the tire's seal on the rim when turning.