Our fine friends at sportchrome.com have graciously sent me one of the new FOBO Bluetooth Bike TPMS kits to test.

We all know how important it is to stay on top of the air pressure in our tires. I personally check my pressures about every other week or before any long trips. On 2009 and up Ultra's this is a real chore. I am not going to describe the procedure in detail, but I bet every one of us who owns an Ultra has muttered some choice words when trying to check the rear tire pressure.
I installed an Anchor 90 degree valve stem on the rear when I had the car tire installed. This makes the contortions necessary to check the pressure somewhat easier, but it is still not one of my favorite things to do.
If we can press a button and read the pressure in our car's tires why can't I do it on our bikes? Well now we can...

The kit comes in well packaged in a box that looks like this;


The inside of the box is slickly laid out to protect the little gizmos (what is the right word for a TPMS sending unit?)


The doongles themselves while being quite light (about 10 grams) are actually pretty big in size. They are so big that per the installation instructions which require 5 mm clearance with metallic valves and 10 mm with rubber ones you cannot install then on a stock Ultra with the stock 28 spoke Knuckle wheels unless you use some type of offset valve like my Anchor.


The instructions are online and you need to read them completely before starting your install. It is not that the procedure is complicated it is just slightly counter intuitive. First you need to down load the app (for free) onto you Android or Apple phone or pad. The you start the app, sign up and chose your settings. Since I have a bike I chose the bike program and then chose the standard bike program. Unfortunately this puts a picture of a crotch rocket in the app. (FOBO are you listening?) You the choose perferred cold air pressures for front and rear and also set the high and low pressure alarms.
The actual installation is extremely simple and only takes a couple of minutes per tire. The kit includes plastic lock nuts with a special wrench that would make the doongles difficult to steal. This is the wrench.


Installed on my rear tire with my Anchor 90 degree valve stem it looks like this.


To be continued......

 

So.....you're going to mess with your phone while riding?

You had it right the first time checking the pressures periodically before riding. That is one distraction that is not needed.

 

Why does he have to check his phone while riding, why not before or after the tires heat up when he stops for fuel?

 

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are just being smart *** and not an idiot.

 

I wonder about longevity, accuracy and does it affect the balance but other than that you full boat riders need something to help with that rear end on those barges. Are you going to do the dirty work and check it a few times against a known good gauge for this beta test ? I'll follow this for good firsthand info.

 

I made an appointment with my Indy to get the front Anchor valve installed, but that won't happen until next week so no front tire TPMS until then.


The dongles marry easily and the Bluetooth connection did not effect any of my other connections. Now anytime I want to know my rear tire pressure all I have to do is bring up the app. If I am too far away from the bike for the Bluetooth, the app shows the last pressure and temp reading shaded over so you can tell they are not current and the time the readings were taken. If I come within about 15 feet (I did not measure it) of the bike for longer than about 1 minute the app will display the actual current readings.


Being able to easily check my rear tire pressure without getting on my hands and knees is great!


I have now ridden with the rear dongle for a total of about 150 miles at speeds of up to 75 mph with no physical / mechanical issues.


I have noticed that my car tire picks up between 3 to 3.5 psi after a long ride (who knew?) and the app indicated the rear temp was 115 F. I am not sure if the dongle temp readings are effected by the engine heat and or the Anchor stem placing it closer to the muffler. I may have a better idea after I get the front dongle installed.

 

I can't answer the balance question because I am running Ride On tire sealant front and rear. I just ride and takes care of all the balancing!


As far as your other question about calibration, as I was doing the install I discovered that the batteries in my good electronic air gage were dead and was forced to use my old (and cheap) wheel style gage. Versus the wheel gage the dongle reads about 2 psi higher. I would not be the least surprised if the dongle is correct and the wheel off. I will try to buy new batteries (or a new gage) this weekend.

 

There's some good youtube video reviews on this system.
I've been thinking of getting a system for my enclosed fiberglass trailer.
With the trailer being fiberglass and lightweight I fear if I get a tire going down I won't know until the tire blows and tears up my trailer.

I figure when I'm not traveling with the trailer I'd put them on the bike.
$99 seems reasonable.

 

2 psi is a non issue , seen some of those gimmicky led gages be off by 5 to 10 or more. One's in my truck have been off since I drove it off the lot new.

 

With 90 degree metal valves pointed right, I don't find checking the rear tire pressure that difficult. If I need a special wrench to take these off to inevitably air up the tire, it seems like a zero sum game. I'll be interested to see your results.