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Friday 13 April 2012

The Pros and Cons of Inflating Tyres with Nitrogen Gas

The world is ever developing and so are the tyre inflation systems. Many people are going for Nitrogen gas inflation rather than the traditional Air.  We often see in our daily life that petrol pumps have Nitrogen Gas inflators but what are the pros and cons of getting Nitrogen gas filled in your tyres. Over the next few paragraphs, we will try to answer those things that make this gas worth a try.

Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless and non toxic gas that forms about 78% of the earth’s atmosphere. Some believe that using nitrogen gas for inflating tyres of bikes and cars is effective; here are some who feel that it’s a total crappy affair. Nitrogen gas has covered its journey from the use in high end aircrafts, racing cars to normal passenger cars and bikes. The following appraisal of the benefits and disadvantages of using Nitrogen gas will help one understand the concept better.

Pros of Inflating Tyres with Nitrogen are:

  • Nitrogen is lighter and cooler. It reduces the running temperature of tyre. In simple terms, Nitrogen gas helps the tyre to remain cool when the bike or car is carrying heavy loads or going at a rocket speed i.e. the temperature formed because of friction between tyres and road will be greatly reduced.
  • The gas ensures its riders smooth riding experiences. Tyres inflated with Nitrogen run smooth on road because nitrogen is lighter than air.  This in turn increases the riding experience and enhances better handling.
  • The tyre life is greatly enhanced when nitrogen gas is filled in to it regularly.
  • Once you inflate your tyres with nitrogen, there is no need to check for the air in your tyres at least for couple of weeks. This happens because nitrogen eliminates moisture and replaces the traditional air molecules with fat nitrogen molecules. This replacement makes sure that the gas is not leaked out of the tyre walls.
  • It is reported that bikes filled with nitrogen gas are resulting in high performance than compared to bikes with traditional air.
  • Rim life eventually increases because nitrogen doesn’t contain H2o which is responsible for the formation of rust. Traditional air has H2o in it and thus rim and tyre life diminishes eventually.
  • Nitrogen gas is doesn’t have combustion nature i.e. it is very less probable that nitrogen catches fire in case of some uncertainty. This is the reason that nitrogen gas is used in inflating racing tyres.

Cons:

  • Nitrogen gas inflation involves spending good amount of money from your pocket. I personally do not know the amount of money involved until one day when I asked the price of the gas. The vendor told me that it would cost Rs.25 to inflate one tyre. So, I can make out that the gas is costly when compared to the traditional air.
  • Inflating the tyres with nitrogen gas results in enhanced maintenance then compared to traditional air.
  • Once you opt for nitrogen inflation, then you will have to continue using the same gas to extract all the benefits of the gas. Switching back to air will result in reduced performances.
Overall, it is clear that Nitrogen inflation has both advantages and disadvantages but pros are good enough to overpower cons. It would be a good move to go for nitrogen inflation if you can spare the cost for inflation and maintenance. It is totally one’s personal choice on which gas they will opt.

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