I'm stumped. Three days ago I looked at my sidecar in the garage and the tire was flat - not even 3-4 lbs of air. It is a Dunlop with inner tube on a TLE wire wheel (2500 miles). I checked the valve stem plunger and then filled it to 28 lbs. As of today it is stil holding at 28 lb. I checked the tread several times for a nail or other object. Water immersion would probably not help since it isn't losing air now.
My only guess was that someone left the air out of this one tire but that is almost impossible.
I guess I'll take the wheel to my local dealer and have everything checked out and then replace the inner tube.
Anyone have a similar experience?
Put a little spit on the end of the valve stem and see if the bubble grows? It might be a slow leak there but the cap on the stem helped hold the pressure over night... Just a thunk.
I've had several bikes and sidecars come into the shop after the winter storage with down to "0" psi in the tires.
A GL solo with 491 Dunlop's rode in Friday with 8# in the rear tire and 18# in the front. This is a well kept bike but the air pressure hadn't been checked since it was "cocooned" last fall. Apparently the owner didn't notice the change in handling since he didn't mention it. Luckily he only had a few easy miles to travel or it could have been disastrous.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Last year I had 2 tires on my RV plus the front tire on my rig that had loose valve stem cores. It took a while to catch as they would loose about 2-3 psi a week. Tightend them up and they held steady pressure all season.
"Last year I had 2 tires on my RV plus the front tire on my rig that had loose valve stem cores. It took a while to catch as they would loose about 2-3 psi a week. Tightend them up and they held steady pressure all season."
That seems to be the only logical solution - the core may have been faulty or loose and when I checked it and then refilled with air, it "seated"??. it's now four days and the pressure has not changed.
Thanks to all for your input.
Did it have a cap on it? Ihad mine get a pice of somthing in the stem and let it go flat , when I put in more air it went away, put a cap on no more leak
It did have a cap on the stem. I'm on day five with no pressure loss so the valve core still looks like the best bet. Thanks everyone.
