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My BMW TBS Experience


Bernie

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There has been a lengthy discussion on tire pressure and the BMW TBS system on the WetHead bikes.

2017 R1200RT Stability

 

Following and contributing to the above thread has made me a little bit more aware and curious of what my bike has been doing.

My RT is a 2018, just incase the earlier ones have a difference in BMW software/hardware, and came equipped with Metzler Z8 tires.The bike had 2989 miles on the bike and tires at the beginning of this ride.

As a base setup, I adjusted my tire pressures to 37 psi on the front and 42 psi on the rear with cold tires in the garage with the temperature around 65 degrees F earlier in the week.

I use a digital pressure gauge, for all it is worth, which reads a little higher then my Accu gauge.

Before starting the bike for my ride to SECFF January Lunch, I selected the temperature in the options menu and it displayed 58 F after being out doors for 10 minutes on the dashboard.

Then I selected tire pressures, and it did not have a reading, as the motor had not been started yet.

Started the motor and pulled out for my ride.

Within 200-400 feet, the displayed showed a front tire pressure of 35 psi and a rear pressure of 40 psi.

2 miles down the road, after several turns and stops through the development, the front pressure was at 37 psi and rear at 42 psi.

the temperature was at 58 F.

As I traveled north the the pressures stayed the same, but the temps started to drop slowly.

After 50 miles I stopped for fuel only. Leaving the gas station, the tire pressures had dropped again to 35 for the front and 40 for the rear.

In a mile or two it was back up to 37 and 42.

When I stopped in Waycross, GA for coffee, the temperature was down to 38 F.

After leaving the stop, the pressures showed right away 35 psi front and 40 psi rear at 38 F. In a mile or so the front was up to 37 psi, while it took another mile before the rear reached 42 psi.

The same thing happened again in Baxley, GA where now the temps had dropped to 32.6 F on the dash. After this stop it required around 3-4 miles to get to full operating pressures.

And the same thing happened after every gas stop or the lunch stop, regardless of the temps.

The gas stops where short stops, like 10 to 15 minutes max.

Also riding around in 32-36 degree weather, I could get the pressures to drop, especially in the rear, if I slowed down a bit and held my speed at a constant, like on longer straight aways.

It never dropped below 35 front or 40 rear.

This, I hope will ease some of the excitement that folks are having with this system.

If you select the tire pressure reading before you start riding, you can get the actual pressure in the tires, before they warm up on the display.

And it also shows that as the tires warm up, BMW will adjust the pressures to their recommended cold temperature of 68 F.

The week before I rode with a cold pressure of 40psi on the front tire in rainy and cold conditions (36-46 F) and it read the 40 psi on take off and a few miles later in creased to 42 psi.

So my BMW TBS actual will read different pressures.

I hope this is useful in someway.

 

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I would pay for the "optional" tpms that gives the actual pressure in the tire when that readout is selected.

 

If it were an option.

 

Yes, there are some that think the factory system transforms the bike. Warm and fuzzy feelings about all the tech in use to show a simulated pressure.

 

This is one case where I can figure from looking at actual pressures if there is any need to adjust or worry about a decrease.

 

In a tire leak while riding, both systems are going to alert to a given low pressure setting and both would give time to pull over and inspect.

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Well, Terry you can get aftermarket TPS that will read actual temperature. For example the Garmin Zumo 590 LM with it's optional sensors. It will read actual pressure, regardless of temperature.

But it's a little scary seeing 55 psi on your rear tire after a 80 mph run at a 105 F.

 

The BMW system is a lot better then the joke VW installed on our 2016 Passat.

Edited by Bernie
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The TPS alerted me to a deflating rear tire when I was blasting down the Central Expressway in Dallas a few years ago. The entire dash was flashing along with a tone I heard through the intercom. It caught my attention and gave me just enough time to exit and get to the curb. A couple of minutes later the rear tire was completely flat.

 

So for that and that alone the TPS is a valuable option.

 

But I do not use it at all to monitor nor set the tire pressure. For that I used my reliable manual gauge at the start of the day when the tires are cold.

 

 

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My front TPM has failed a few months ago on a '14 RT which was covered by RPM1 (aftermarket equipment warranty). It failed because of a dead battery inside and it worked only sometimes, frequently only after a few minutes of riding. As a result the rear TPM was not showing consistent values from time to time. Once the front TPM was replaced they both always kick in simultaneously after about 15-20 seconds of riding and the pressures are very consistent over time. Now that it is in the 20's - 30's here in DC, I noticed that the starting pressures are around 1-2 PSI's lower than after about 5-10 minutes of riding. There is certainly an inherent degree of error with the TPMs but they do give you a good idea of what the pressures are.

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My TPS experience:

 

I put new tires on about a week before a long trip, 3000 km. When I left for the trip, I had to top off the rear tire as it was a few pounds low. I rode for two days then parked the bike for three days. At the end of three days the rear was quite low. I suspected a bad valve or something but since it seemed to be a slow leak I decided to just monitor it and deal with it when I got home. I rode for a day then parked it for another 5 days. At the end of the 5 days when I was about to start home, the tire was so low that I had to use a Slime pump to get enough pressure to get to a real compressor. The trip home was two long days. The first day it was okay and I just added air in the morning before starting. But the last day of the trip I could watch the pressure drop by the hour. It was leaking fast enough that I had to add air at every gas stop. After I got home, I finally unwound enough to really look closely at the tire and I found a small hole in the center of the tread that appeared to have a bit of metal at the bottom of it. It turned out that I had picked up some kind of metal pin about 1 mm diameter and 1 cm long on the first kilometer after mounting the new tire. Talk about bad luck.

 

Contrast this with an earlier trip on an 1999 RT without TPS. I neglected to check the tire pressure one morning and was halfway from Yosemite to Salt Lake City when I realized the bike was feeling squirrelly and it wasn't the cross wind. I discovered I had been riding with less than 1 bar (10 psi). The tire was in really bad shape with shreds of rubber hanging off it. I filled the tire and limped into Salt Lake City where the local BMW dealer mounted a new tire while I waited. I suspect that someone had let the air out of the tire while it was parked near Yosemite. There was no nail or other object in the tire and it held air with no loss after I discovered it was low and refilled it. Or maybe it was some other fluke, but it is hard to imagine what could cause a tire to lose 2/3 of its pressure overnight and then be fine at holding pressure.

 

The compressor that I bought years ago to paint a car, has turned out to be a great convenience in keeping tires at the proper pressure. It is a luxury to have compressed air at home. Also I discovered on the trip described above that a lot of US stations no longer have compressed air. Fortunately for me most of the trip was in Mexico and all Pemex stations have a compressor. In one of them, the compressor was not running and I lost a lot of air before I realized it, but that is another story.

 

The TPS is an amazing safety enhancement. Details about the exact pressure are irrelevant, but it is great to have an indication of changing pressure.

 

 

Edited by Green RT
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The TPS alerted me to a deflating rear tire when I was blasting down the Central Expressway in Dallas a few years ago. The entire dash was flashing along with a tone I heard through the intercom. It caught my attention and gave me just enough time to exit and get to the curb. A couple of minutes later the rear tire was completely flat.

 

So for that and that alone the TPS is a valuable option.

 

But I do not use it at all to monitor nor set the tire pressure. For that I used my reliable manual gauge at the start of the day when the tires are cold.

 

 

+1 ! That is how I use my TPS ... simply as an alert for low pressure.

 

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There has been a lengthy discussion on tire pressure and the BMW TBS system on the WetHead bikes.

2017 R1200RT Stability

 

Following and contributing to the above thread has made me a little bit more aware and curious of what my bike has been doing.

My RT is a 2018, just incase the earlier ones have a difference in BMW software/hardware, and came equipped with Metzler Z8 tires.The bike had 2989 miles on the bike and tires at the beginning of this ride.

As a base setup, I adjusted my tire pressures to 37 psi on the front and 42 psi on the rear with cold tires in the garage with the temperature around 65 degrees F earlier in the week.

I use a digital pressure gauge, for all it is worth, which reads a little higher then my Accu gauge.

Before starting the bike for my ride to SECFF January Lunch, I selected the temperature in the options menu and it displayed 58 F after being out doors for 10 minutes on the dashboard.

Then I selected tire pressures, and it did not have a reading, as the motor had not been started yet.

Started the motor and pulled out for my ride.

Within 200-400 feet, the displayed showed a front tire pressure of 35 psi and a rear pressure of 40 psi.

2 miles down the road, after several turns and stops through the development, the front pressure was at 37 psi and rear at 42 psi.

the temperature was at 58 F.

As I traveled north the the pressures stayed the same, but the temps started to drop slowly.

After 50 miles I stopped for fuel only. Leaving the gas station, the tire pressures had dropped again to 35 for the front and 40 for the rear.

In a mile or two it was back up to 37 and 42.

When I stopped in Waycross, GA for coffee, the temperature was down to 38 F.

After leaving the stop, the pressures showed right away 35 psi front and 40 psi rear at 38 F. In a mile or so the front was up to 37 psi, while it took another mile before the rear reached 42 psi.

The same thing happened again in Baxley, GA where now the temps had dropped to 32.6 F on the dash. After this stop it required around 3-4 miles to get to full operating pressures.

And the same thing happened after every gas stop or the lunch stop, regardless of the temps.

The gas stops where short stops, like 10 to 15 minutes max.

Also riding around in 32-36 degree weather, I could get the pressures to drop, especially in the rear, if I slowed down a bit and held my speed at a constant, like on longer straight aways.

It never dropped below 35 front or 40 rear.

This, I hope will ease some of the excitement that folks are having with this system.

If you select the tire pressure reading before you start riding, you can get the actual pressure in the tires, before they warm up on the display.

And it also shows that as the tires warm up, BMW will adjust the pressures to their recommended cold temperature of 68 F.

The week before I rode with a cold pressure of 40psi on the front tire in rainy and cold conditions (36-46 F) and it read the 40 psi on take off and a few miles later in creased to 42 psi.

So my BMW TBS actual will read different pressures.

I hope this is useful in someway.

Thanks for paying close attention and reporting the various temperatures. I've been monitoring mine, not as closely as you, and see a similar pattern.

 

What were your impressions riding with 37 psi up front vs 40 from before?

Link to comment
There has been a lengthy discussion on tire pressure and the BMW TBS system on the WetHead bikes.

2017 R1200RT Stability

 

Following and contributing to the above thread has made me a little bit more aware and curious of what my bike has been doing.

My RT is a 2018, just incase the earlier ones have a difference in BMW software/hardware, and came equipped with Metzler Z8 tires.The bike had 2989 miles on the bike and tires at the beginning of this ride.

As a base setup, I adjusted my tire pressures to 37 psi on the front and 42 psi on the rear with cold tires in the garage with the temperature around 65 degrees F earlier in the week.

I use a digital pressure gauge, for all it is worth, which reads a little higher then my Accu gauge.

Before starting the bike for my ride to SECFF January Lunch, I selected the temperature in the options menu and it displayed 58 F after being out doors for 10 minutes on the dashboard.

Then I selected tire pressures, and it did not have a reading, as the motor had not been started yet.

Started the motor and pulled out for my ride.

Within 200-400 feet, the displayed showed a front tire pressure of 35 psi and a rear pressure of 40 psi.

2 miles down the road, after several turns and stops through the development, the front pressure was at 37 psi and rear at 42 psi.

the temperature was at 58 F.

As I traveled north the the pressures stayed the same, but the temps started to drop slowly.

After 50 miles I stopped for fuel only. Leaving the gas station, the tire pressures had dropped again to 35 for the front and 40 for the rear.

In a mile or two it was back up to 37 and 42.

When I stopped in Waycross, GA for coffee, the temperature was down to 38 F.

After leaving the stop, the pressures showed right away 35 psi front and 40 psi rear at 38 F. In a mile or so the front was up to 37 psi, while it took another mile before the rear reached 42 psi.

The same thing happened again in Baxley, GA where now the temps had dropped to 32.6 F on the dash. After this stop it required around 3-4 miles to get to full operating pressures.

And the same thing happened after every gas stop or the lunch stop, regardless of the temps.

The gas stops where short stops, like 10 to 15 minutes max.

Also riding around in 32-36 degree weather, I could get the pressures to drop, especially in the rear, if I slowed down a bit and held my speed at a constant, like on longer straight aways.

It never dropped below 35 front or 40 rear.

This, I hope will ease some of the excitement that folks are having with this system.

If you select the tire pressure reading before you start riding, you can get the actual pressure in the tires, before they warm up on the display.

And it also shows that as the tires warm up, BMW will adjust the pressures to their recommended cold temperature of 68 F.

The week before I rode with a cold pressure of 40psi on the front tire in rainy and cold conditions (36-46 F) and it read the 40 psi on take off and a few miles later in creased to 42 psi.

So my BMW TBS actual will read different pressures.

I hope this is useful in someway.

Thanks for paying close attention and reporting the various temperatures. I've been monitoring mine, not as closely as you, and see a similar pattern.

 

What were your impressions riding with 37 psi up front vs 40 from before?

Roger, no difference that I could notice while riding. I did notice before dropping the pressure that the edges of the sipes in the front tire started to stick out. I noticed this while cleaning the bike and it maybe the beginning of cupping on the front tire.

Edited by Bernie
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Well, Terry you can get aftermarket TPS that will read actual temperature. For example the Garmin Zumo 590 LM with it's optional sensors. It will read actual pressure, regardless of temperature.

But it's a little scary seeing 55 psi on your rear tire after a 80 mph run at a 105 F.

 

 

Bernie - I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say that you would know this.

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