Tooltime

ToolTime

Been checking your bike's tire pressures with one of those little pencil-type gauges? No apologies needed; those gauges usually are good enough. They allow you to get the pressures in the ballpark, and most only set you back a couple of bucks. But if you're much more discerning about the condition and performance of your bike's tires, you might consider investing in a gauge that of fers a greater level of accuracy.

One excellent choice is the Programmable Digital Tire Gauge from Roadgear (www. roadgear.com). It's a motorcycle-specific gauge (part #TG1 01; $33) that measures

pressures from 5 to 99.5 psi in half-pound increments and is accurate, says Roadgear, to plus or minus 1 percent. It displays pres sures in large, easy-to-read LCD numbers on a blue backf it display that turns off in 10

seconds if left unattended-to pre serve the life of the two lithium watch-type batteries-or remains on as long as the gauge is in use. The tip can be rotated 360 degrees to f~ into the tight valve stem locations often caused by large-diameter brake rotors, and the red but ton on the front turns on a bnaht LED liaht that can illumi nate the stern area if you're attempting to check pressures in a dim!y lighted area.

One of the most interesting aspects of this gauge is that you can preset it to display the desired front and rear tire pressures for your motorcycle. If you happen to forget those target numbers, just push e~her of the two up/down arrows right below the information window and the readout will atternately dis play the front and rear pressures you previ ously set.

I've personally found this Roadgear gauge very handy for motorcycle testing. Rather than trying to recall the recommend ed pressures for every bike I ride, I just pre set the gauge for the bike I'm on and let it remind me when I check the pressures. It's easy to carry in a pocket or a tankbag, and I can reset it for another bike in a matter of seconds.

F or a lot of people, electricity is magic: They know that it works but have no idea how or why. So, when someone or some device tells them that their bike's battery has any given voltage, a typical response is a simple question: "Is that good or bad?"

Obviously, these folks are unlikely to own or use multimeters for checking batteries. But they might be interested in a gauge that displays battery condition in an easy-to-de cipher combination of percentages and indi cator-light colors-a green, 100-percent light that indicates a fully charged battery; a 75-percent, acceptable-but-not-ideal yellow light; and red, 50and 25-percent lights that are clear indications a battery has insuffi cient voltage to be operable.

This describes the Quick Battery Tester (part #XC822TEST; $13) from Xtreme Charge (www.xtremecharge.com). It's a pocket-sized me ter that has a fixed positive probe and a movable negative probe that slides into the posi tive one when the unit is not in use. You justtouch the red probe to the battery's positive

terminal and the black probe to the negative terminal, then read the appropriate condition light. You won't know the vo~age, but you will know the important good/okay/bad in formation.

The Quick Battery Tester also can deter mine basic alternator condition. When you connect the Tester's probes to the alterna tor's output wires, the meter illuminates a separate "Good" green light if the output is adequate to charge the battery or the "Bad" red light if it is insufficient. If there is no al ternator output, neither light will illuminate, since there would be no current to power it. Once again, no voltage reading is involved, but the information is valuable nonetheless.