The Police and Tyre Mousse, enduro bike

[mattdavies]

Asking for a friend .... They have mousses fitted on their road legal enduro bike ( lights and Number Plate) they are off to wales soon and there are reports of the police checking tyre pressures. This bike would either not have a valve or would return a 0psi reading.

They understand that the bike could be impounded or asked to not ride the bike anymore, but is there a fine and/or points associated with such offence ?

[Jazzy Jag]

Are the Mousses approved for highway use?

If they are type approved and appropriately marked and are being used in line with the manufacturers recommendations, plod would not have a case Imho.

Speak with the mousse supplier.

ETA
https://www.whitedalton.co.uk/motorbike-blog/2017/...

Edited by Jazzy Jag on Monday 10th May 15:23

[zzrman]

mattdavies said:

Asking for a friend .... They have mousses fitted on their road legal enduro bike ( lights and Number Plate) they are off to wales soon and there are reports of the police checking tyre pressures. This bike would either not have a valve or would return a 0psi reading.

They understand that the bike could be impounded or asked to not ride the bike anymore, but is there a fine and/or points associated with such offence ?

Surely even enduro bikes will have valves. How else would you reinflate it after going off road. If you're riding an enduro bike on the road with ridiculously low pressures I can see the Police pulling you with ot without a mousse.

[Freakuk]

zzrman said:

Surely even enduro bikes will have valves. How else would you reinflate it after going off road. If you're riding an enduro bike on the road with ridiculously low pressures I can see the Police pulling you with ot without a mousse.

That's the whole point with mousses, there is no air, it's a high density foam ring which replaces your inflated inner tube.

I've rang mousses with valves before to give the illusion of being inflated, but I've never been stopped or for that matter heard of people being tested, but it's been a while.

Could he not take a tube and tie it on the mudguard etc so if he did get pulled they would see the tube just in case?

[zzrman]

Freakuk said:

That's the whole point with mousses, there is no air, it's a high density foam ring which replaces your inflated inner tube.

I've rang mousses with valves before to give the illusion of being inflated, but I've never been stopped or for that matter heard of people being tested, but it's been a while.

Could he not take a tube and tie it on the mudguard etc so if he did get pulled they would see the tube just in case?

In my experience mousses are there not to replace air but to aid sidewall stiffness when using low pressure for off road use i.e. to stop the tyre coming off the rim. I would use maybe 10psi with a mousse.

I can´t see that having an inner tube strapped to the front mudguard being any use. Any inner tube strapped to the front mudguard and not in the tyre - the inner being the clue here - is as much use as a chocolate teapot.

[Rockets7]

Police checking tyre pressures....? That would form part of a S67 test and inspect. Before they start to check you have the option to defer the test for 7 days but you must advise them of this immediately. From there in unless the bike is blatantly dangerous visually ie cords showing then they must respect your request to defer.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/secti...

See (6)

[Antony Moxey]

How would the police know what pressure the tyres should be at?

[Semmelweiss]

I have installed mousses for myself and friends on our enduro bikes. Just use a tubeless valve inserted before fitting the mousse. It will look like you have a tube installed. It will also aid in seating the bead of the tyre ounce you have the mousse in. Attach compressor to air valve, and use it to "inflate". This will force the bead to seat easily, and evenly. It will not hold any air pressure, since it will leak past the bead (enduro tyres and rims are not designed to be tubeless).

Lube the mousse using twice as much lube as they supply with the mousse if you are just a casual green lane rider. It'll help prevent the mousse from overheating too much on the road sections.

Mousses are zero maintenance, except for reapplying lube after every 30 hours riding (again if you are a green road rider - they'll generally last 2-3 tyre changes). If you use them to ride enduros, they last a set of tyres before shrinking too much. If you use Michelin tyres, only Michelin mousses will fit - take note.

Personally I now run Tubeliss 2's. You do need to keep the inner high pressure tube at 110psi (checked before every ride out). The inner can be run anywhere from 0-20psi. My preference.

Mousses are NOT road legal.

[mattdavies]

Antony Moxey said:

How would the police know what pressure the tyres should be at?

A mousse will give the tyre a equivilent pressure of 12psi ( roughly ) however there is no need to run a valve, if a valve was there to fill a hole then it wouldnt return any pressure.

[mattdavies]

Rockets7 said:

Police checking tyre pressures....? That would form part of a S67 test and inspect. Before they start to check you have the option to defer the test for 7 days but you must advise them of this immediately. From there in unless the bike is blatantly dangerous visually ie cords showing then they must respect your request to defer.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/secti...

See (6)

THANK YOU !!!

I feel that this will not go down well but it will serve its purpose and stop me, i mean my friend, from faffing around with tubes / someway of making a valve show pressure.

[Antony Moxey]

mattdavies said:

Antony Moxey said:

How would the police know what pressure the tyres should be at?

A mousse will give the tyre a equivilent pressure of 12psi ( roughly ) however there is no need to run a valve, if a valve was there to fill a hole then it wouldnt return any pressure.

I get that but it doesn't answer my question. How would the police know what tyre pressure a motorbike tyre should be at?

I ask because by way of a convoluted example I'm sure if they measured the tyre pressure in my kit car they'd find it to be 16-18psi, which is about half what I run my daily at which has roughly the same size wheel/tyre combo. Are they aware that a car that light runs a pressure that low, or would they be giving me a(n uneducated) telling off or ticket?

[InvisibleSpider]

Thanks for explaining what tyre mousse is - I'd never heard of it!

How will police be testing tyre pressures, and even if they could, how would they know what it should be set to?

This sounds like something a specialist vehicle examiner *might* look at, but I'd wager not even a Roads Policing cop would be interested in the contents of your tyres or the pressure they're at if the rest of the bike is in good order! (I stand to be corrected but I've never heard of it, and take more than a passing interest in roads offences / road traffic issues etc).

[mattdavies]

Antony Moxey said:

I get that but it doesn't answer my question. How would the police know what tyre pressure a motorbike tyre should be at?

A mousse is a solid tyre filler so would not create any air pressure, if there is a valve then it would return a 0 psi reading but the tyre would appear "inflated".

Moussess are not road legal, with the above set of circumstances it would point to something not right and I would have to explain the witchcraft that would keep the tyre "inflated" without any air pressure.

My understanding is that it would be up to the police to prove that I am running mousses but they can do this I am guessing by siezing the bike and then conducting some investigation. However if there are valves sticking out the wheels and I use the legal stand point of above of deffering my inspection by up to seven days then this would give me time to make changes to remove not road legal parts.

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

mattdavies said:

A mousse is a solid tyre filler so would not create any air pressure, if there is a valve then it would return a 0 psi reading but the tyre would appear "inflated".

Moussess are not road legal, with the above set of circumstances it would point to something not right and I would have to explain the witchcraft that would keep the tyre "inflated" without any air pressure.

My understanding is that it would be up to the police to prove that I am running mousses but they can do this I am guessing by siezing the bike and then conducting some investigation. However if there are valves sticking out the wheels and I use the legal stand point of above of deffering my inspection by up to seven days then this would give me time to make changes to remove not road legal parts.

Have you considered what happens if you are involved in an accident, if it was picked up that you were running non legal tyres, then you could be in for a hefty bill from the insurance company, issues getting insurance in the future, and a possible police prosecution.

[mattdavies]

Smurfsarepeopletoo said:

Have you considered what happens if you are involved in an accident, if it was picked up that you were running non legal tyres, then you could be in for a hefty bill from the insurance company, issues getting insurance in the future, and a possible police prosecution.

I understand your point however I am not running illegal tyres, they are Dot rated road legal enduro tyres. it is the way of keeping the tyre "inflated"

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

mattdavies said:

I understand your point however I am not running illegal tyres, they are Dot rated road legal enduro tyres. it is the way of keeping the tyre "inflated"

I appreciate that, but I suppose the technicality is running the tyres underinflated with a non road legal product, if the police are likely to prosecute you for using it on the road if you were caught, then its highly likely that the insurance could argue that running tyres at 12 psi on the road, could have contributed to the incident (Circumstances permitting), and the police could prosecute you in the event of an incident.

[Antony Moxey]

Smurfsarepeopletoo said:

mattdavies said:

I understand your point however I am not running illegal tyres, they are Dot rated road legal enduro tyres. it is the way of keeping the tyre "inflated"

I appreciate that, but I suppose the technicality is running the tyres underinflated with a non road legal product, if the police are likely to prosecute you for using it on the road if you were caught, then its highly likely that the insurance could argue that running tyres at 12 psi on the road, could have contributed to the incident (Circumstances permitting), and the police could prosecute you in the event of an incident.

Is there a road legal limit for tyre pressure?

[Cat]

Antony Moxey said:

Is there a road legal limit for tyre pressure?

There is no specific figure but the C&U Regs required a tyre to be inflated so that is fit for the purpose for which it is being used. Tyres and vehicles usually specify a range of pressures for different loads, speeds, etc. If you are outwith those ranges it may be difficult to argue that the tyres are correctly inflated.

Cat

[anonymous-user]

Antony Moxey said:

I get that but it doesn't answer my question. How would the police know what tyre pressure a motorbike tyre should be at?

I ask because by way of a convoluted example I'm sure if they measured the tyre pressure in my kit car they'd find it to be 16-18psi, which is about half what I run my daily at which has roughly the same size wheel/tyre combo. Are they aware that a car that light runs a pressure that low, or would they be giving me a(n uneducated) telling off or ticket?

I think a lot of folk including garages would be surprised to only have 16-18psi in a tyre. I know I was when I first got my tiger. Went to a garage and came back 32psi....

I can't imagine the po-po would know too much about tyre pressures

[Antony Moxey]

RJWR said:

Antony Moxey said:

I get that but it doesn't answer my question. How would the police know what tyre pressure a motorbike tyre should be at?

I ask because by way of a convoluted example I'm sure if they measured the tyre pressure in my kit car they'd find it to be 16-18psi, which is about half what I run my daily at which has roughly the same size wheel/tyre combo. Are they aware that a car that light runs a pressure that low, or would they be giving me a(n uneducated) telling off or ticket?

I think a lot of folk including garages would be surprised to only have 16-18psi in a tyre. I know I was when I first got my tiger. Went to a garage and came back 32psi....

I can't imagine the po-po would know too much about tyre pressures

Well quite. Which is why I was asking what plod knew about tyre pressures, especially regarding taking motorists to task over them.