“JUST THE TIP

WAIT, YOU’RE PUTTING THAT IN THERE?

We’ve seen multiple tropes/memes/videos about people falling for the “Better get the winter air in your tires! It’s January! LOL!”. True that it’s funny, but did you know that there kind of is such a thing? Winter air? We could call it Summer air as well.

You put air in your tires, and typically, it is just that. Air. What we breathe every day. But ‘Air’ is a mixture of different gases. Roughly – 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and small amounts of other gases such as neon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, etc. Here’s the ‘science-y’ part. Winter air, or Summer air, is not the air that we breathe. It’s the nitrogen only.

What’s the difference you may ask. Oxygen is prone to expansion under heat, or contraction in the cold. Take a hot air balloon for example. They blow in ‘Air’, apply heat through a burner which causes the molecules to expand, then they let a little bit of that expanded air out of the top of the balloon, causing less air pressure inside the balloon than there is on the outside, so the balloon goes up. What is expanding in the balloon are the oxygen molecules.

Nitrogen molecules have a larger structure and are far more stable in heat/cold. They do not expand as much. Filling your tires with nitrogen will give you a far more stable air pressure profile, regardless of if it being the middle of Summer in Arizona, the middle of Winter in Minnesota, racing on the street or racing on the track. Your tire pressure will stay the same which we know greatly decreases tire wear and improves performance.

The downside of course is that it’s going to cost more to get air in your tires and it’s not widely available. But for performance/racing applications, it may be something to look into! And stop picking on people who get Winter air. They’re not out of their minds.