When I first got my Xiaomi M365 Pro, I didn’t exactly know what the tire pressure should be. There were some conflicting suggestions online, and the manual only had a few sentences about it.
As I later found out, tire pressure is not exactly a “set-it-and-forget-it” matter, and there are some details you should pay attention to. You should modify it for your needs, and keep an eye on it. These are some simple guidelines I learned after a few years of maintenance for setting the correct electric scooter tire pressure.
The recommended tire pressure for most electric scooters is between 40 and 50 PSI. For more traction, subtract about 3-5 PSIs, and for higher speeds, add about 3-5 PSIs. Lighter riders should also lower the tire pressure by about 3-5 PSIs, while heavier ones should increase it by the same amount. Reduce the tire pressure by 2-3 PSI in hot weather (32°C / 90°F or hotter).
That’s the simplest possible answer, but in some cases, it may not be precise enough. Go through this quick guide to learn exactly what tire pressure to use for your specific scooter model and your own unique circumstances.
Your weight, the type of terrain you ride on, the tire size, the weather, and the desired balance between speed and traction, are all factors that will determine how much you should inflate your tires.
Generally, there are two very simple ways to find out exactly how much tire pressure you should use:
Sometimes the manual and the tire itself may suggest different values. If this is the case, you should give priority to the manual. Even though the tire manufacturers know their tires well, chances are that scooter manufacturers have tested those tires on that one specific scooter model, so the recommendations will be more thorough and tested for real-world usage.
Plus, the value indicated on the tire is usually the maximum allowed tire pressure, not the ideal tire pressure for your situation.
These are some of the tire pressures that the most popular brands and manufacturers suggest for their models.
However, the suggested tire pressures are just the starting point. You should keep the following few points in mind.
The lighter a rider is, the less pressure the tires should have, and the heavier a rider is, the more tire pressure is needed.
Riders weighing between 155-200 lbs / 70-90 kg should use the recommended tire pressure.
Riders weighing less than 155 lbs / 70 kg should reduce the tire pressure by 3-5 PSI or more.
Riders weighing more than 200 lbs / 90 kg should increase the tire pressure by 3-5 PSI or more.
Chances are, your perfect tire pressure will be somewhere close to these suggestions.
But you will likely have to experiment, try a few different pressures, and see which one gives you the riding experience you want.
Excessive heat causes the tire pressure to increase on its own. This can happen after a lot of riding, or in hot weather.
Riding in hotter weather is better with reduced tire pressure. If the temperature outside is 32°C / 90°F or hotter, reduce your tire pressure by 2-3 PSI.
Riding in colder temperatures, on the other hand, does not affect tire pressure all that much. In theory, you may want to increase the tire pressure by a few PSIs, but I’d weigh that against the fact that you’ll probably be riding in the winter, which means riding on ice, snow, wet surfaces, etc. That requires lower pressure for better traction, and it’s more important for your safety.
Plus, you probably don’t want to inflate or deflate your tires every day depending on what the weather is like.
As general advice, if you live somewhere with hot summers, you can decrease the tire pressure by 2-3 PSI at the beginning of the summer, and bring it back at the end of the summer.
See the electric scooter summer guide and the best electric scooters for the summer if you want to find out more.
Higher tire pressure will provide you with:
On the other hand, lower tire pressure will give you:
That means go with normal or slightly increased tire pressure for most situations.
If you live somewhere with a lot of hills, or in a wet environment, you can consider decreasing the tire pressure by a few PSIs.
The manual of the Xiaomi M365 and the Xiaomi M365 Pro clearly states that the recommended tire pressure should be between 45 and 50 PSI.
However, after several stress tests conducted in the Xiaomi labs, more precise tire pressures are suggested depending on the rider’s weight:
There are two ways to check your tire pressure:
Of course, the second method is not exactly measuring the pressure, but it’s easy an old-school way to check if your tires are ok. It does not require any tool, and it’s instant. That’s why I simply give my tires a very light kick before every ride, to make sure they are not flat.
To check the exact tire pressure, you will need a tire pressure gauge.
Keep in mind that the pressure checking procedure itself can deflate your tires a bit and reduce the tire pressure by a few PSI.
The tires on cars typically use less pressure (30-35 PSI), and the gauges for them are usually optimized to measure those kinds of pressures best. You may be able to get away with using the same tire pressure gauge you would use for your car.
For the best results and precision, I recommend Chrome 10-100 PSI Pencil Tire Gauge on Amazon. It’s super cheap, yet it shows pressures between 10 and 100 PSI, so it’s guaranteed to work with any scooter tire and it will show you the tire pressure with great precision.
Sometimes a tire pump for your scooter will arrive in the box and it should work well with your scooter. If your original pump is lost or damaged, you can use a bike pump to inflate your tires. The Bell AIR Glide 550 is an excellent choice, and it also has a tire pressure gauge so you won’t have to buy one separately.
You can find it on Amazon here.
Do a quick kick-check before every ride, and try to measure the exact tire pressure at least once a week as part of your regular cleaning and maintenance routine.
If your tire pressure is too low, you will see several symptoms:
If you notice some of these things, check your tire pressure. You may need to inflate your tires a bit more.
While sufficiently inflated tires prevent flats, you can actually get a flat if your tire is too inflated as well. The pressure inside the tire makes it react to shock in a more volatile way, and the tire can just explode, especially with a heavier rider on the scooter.
Also, you will probably notice less control over your scooter, as your traction will start to suffer.
Some scooter owners, and even some brands, recommend less tire pressure in the front tire, and more in the rear. As you can see in the Xiaomi example above, the recommended front tire pressure is lower than the one of the rear.
Others recommend the opposite.
This usually depends on where the hub motor is located in single-motor scooters.
Different tire pressure levels between the tires can provide some optimizations. For example, if the motor is in the front wheel, as it usually is, the front tire will tend to have increased tire pressure after a long ride because of the extra heat generated from the motor.
Generally, when a tire has more pressure, it doesn’t compress as much during an impact, and it’s less likely to suffer a flat. So higher tire pressure is one of the best ways to prevent flats.
These are all the general tips to prevent flat tires:
Check the flat tire guide to learn about all the tips in detail, how to prevent flats entirely, and how to fix them if needed.
Unless a flat happens to your scooter, you can expect to use your tires for many years. In fact, even in the event of a flat, you will probably have to replace only the inner tube, and the actual tire will probably be just fine.
You will know that a time has come to replace your tires when they just look worn out and old. If your tires have knobbies, they will probably start to break down, split, or fall off entirely.
The SI System (International System of units), also known as the metric system, uses the Pascal (Pa) as the measurement for the pressure. Since one Pascal is a very small value for real-world usage, the official unit used is the Bar (Ba), which is the same as 100.000 Pascals.
However, the Imperial System uses the Pounds per Square Inch unit (PSI). Even though the Metric System is commonly used internationally and the Imperial System is mostly used only in the US and a few other countries, when it comes to pressure, it seems like the more commonly accepted unit today is the PSI.
In fact, you probably noticed I use PSI in this article exclusively. Still, many places use Bars too.
For reference, 1 Bar is 14.5 PSIs, and 1 PSI is 0.068 Bars.
You can use this pressure converter for a simple calculation.
Also, if you quickly need to convert between the two, simply type your question in Google, for example, “45 PSI to Bar”, or “3 Bar to PSI”, and you will see the conversion result immediately.
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Matt Trajkovski
I love electric scooters, so I decided to make a blog about them. I like doing a lot of research on various models and brands, looking for great value and performance, both through data and experience.
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If you live in a place where your Xiaomi electric scooter is likely to get punctures very often, you may want to upgrade the wheels to solid tires.
This is especially the case for those who live in rural areas or do not have tarmacked driveways or roads. Upgrading to a solid tire will save you a lot of energy and expensive tubes too.
Pros:
They do not get punctures. This is pretty much the only real advantage of solid tires.
Cons:
Your new solid tire for your electric scooter may have more or less rolling reluctance which means that your scooter will use more energy and battery power. The energy spending or conservation will largely depend on how well you fix the tire, and whether you have the right one for the job.
Solid tires may also be a little difficult to mount on the rim of the wheel since they can be too tight or loose. This, however, can be solved by softening it before fitting (this will be explained further in the fitting instructions). The Xiaomi electric scooter tire size is 8.
5 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick.
Additionally, Xiaomi M365 electric scooters do not have shock absorbers. With the lack of its pneumatic tires, this means that the scooter may experience a lot of vibrations during the ride. The movements may loosen bolts and nuts which may cause parts and cables to loosen and fall apart in the future so pay attention and maintain your Xiaomi M365 scooter.
Steps to follow:
You should now be left with one nut embedded deeply into the wheel under a plastic cover that is attached to the wheel support system.
Let it cool for five minutes.Make sure that you purchase your Xiaomi electric scooter parts from a trusted distributor. This will minimize the chances of buying counterfeit or low-quality parts, spares, and tools.
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Wheels are an important part of an electric scooter.
They determine the main technical characteristics of the device: the allowable user weight, terrain, maximum speed, etc. The diameter of the wheels is responsible for the cross-country ability and maneuverability of the vehicle, and their rigidity is responsible for traction with the road surface. Moreover, even such parts are not durable and need to be replaced or banal cleaning for better functioning. Next, we will look at how to remove the wheels on an electric scooter and in what cases this procedure is necessary.
A regular or folding electric scooter requires regular diagnostics and troubleshooting. This applies not only to the controller, but also to other details. The procedure for changing wheels is really important. It is recommended that every owner of electric transport know about the sequence of actions in order to prevent adverse consequences.
Whether it's an 8", 12" or any other diameter wheel, the replacement instructions are the same, so you don't need to look for additional information.
The need to change the wheel occurs in two situations :
Wrong or defective wheels make the scooter uncomfortable to use. In addition, they often cause falls.
In most cases, users are unlucky with wide wheels, because such an electric scooter is more difficult to control.
The owner of the device has to determine the frequency of wheel replacement independently. But it is important to learn a few points:
The procedure for changing a wheel is not too complicated, but one tool is not enough. You will first need to prepare:
The list of tools is the same, regardless of the diameter of the wheels and other parameters.
If you need to remove two wheels, do not rush. Although there are no particular difficulties in this process, the front and rear elements have some differences in their designs, and therefore each of them requires an “individual approach”. Consider the sequence of actions in the case of removing the front and rear wheels.
The same instructions can be used for an electric scooter with cast wheels.
Removing the front wheel on an electric scooter is easy even for beginners. All the small elements that need to be removed are in prominent places, so you won’t need to look for them and perform complex manipulations.
The electric scooter must be switched off before removing the wheel.
Consider the removal process using the example of device Mijia Xiaomi M365 . The instructions here are:
You can remove the rear wheel on an electric scooter according to the instructions above. Both wheels of the vehicle are mounted, removed and installed in the same way. This is done using the same tools.
You don't need to be a high-class craftsman to remove the wheel motor. Here you will need to show your own accuracy and care. The user will not only have to follow the instructions in the process of unscrewing the rear wheel, but also monitor all the removed elements - nuts, screws, linings, etc.
Having lost at least one detail, the device is not recommended to be used in the future without it.
In the process of removing the motor-wheel, be aware of the wire attached to it, which is undesirable to damage, so you need to do it carefully.
No tools are required to remove the tire. In this case, the user will only need their own hands and patience.
You can remove the tire from the electric scooter as follows:
It is possible to remove the tube from the electric scooter only after the wheels have been removed from the vehicle structure. This is necessary in cases of puncture or simple diagnosis.
The sequence of actions for is:
It is possible to replace the camera at home, but it is important to buy an element of the right size for installation in the wheel - for this it is recommended to take the damaged camera with you to the store and show it to the seller.
Repair work does not begin with the removal of the wheels, but with their disassembly. A correctly performed procedure will help to avoid the appearance of new breakdowns and quickly see the cause of an existing problem. At the same time, it will be easy for a user without skills to cope with both thick wheels and thin ones. The most important thing is to be careful, because small parts are easy to damage or lose.
It is possible to dismantle the front wheel on an electric scooter in just 5 minutes. This is done as follows:
You can disassemble the rear wheel of the electric scooter according to the same instructions as for the front element. In such devices, they have the same size, and therefore it will not be difficult to cope with the task.
Some users mistakenly believe that only a real master can disassemble the motor wheel. In fact, you can do it yourself, following a strict sequence of actions. It does not matter where exactly the motor-wheel is located - in front or behind.
Disassembly procedure :
It is recommended to disassemble the motor-wheel when buying a used electric scooter to make sure that it works.
Wheel repair can be done by yourself using tools that are available in many homes. The size of the element does not matter in this case. Wheels of 10, 6 or 8 inches are quite realistic to bring into working condition at home.
When repairing the wheels of an electric scooter, experience in this area is desirable, but without it, it is also possible to achieve the desired result if you strictly follow the instructions in our article.
Malfunctions can occur both in an electric scooter with large inflatable wheels and in children's vehicles. Consider the most common problems:
Sometimes it happens that the electric scooter does not turn on at all.
Then we advise you to read an article on this topic.
Most manufacturers of electric scooters include compact pumps with their devices, with which it is possible to inflate the wheel at any time.
The recommended tire pressure for electric vehicles depends on the user's weight. Values should be as follows :
These pressures make the wheels more resistant to punctures and other damage.
Avoiding punctures is very problematic, whether it is an adult electric scooter with large wheels or a children's model. But if you listen to the advice, it is still possible to prevent undesirable consequences.
It is important to remember the following points:
The wheel with all its parts will cost about $30.
Before removing a tubeless wheel on a Xiaomi electric scooter or a device from another manufacturer, it will need to be deflated. The wheel itself is removed in accordance with the instructions described above - you need to unscrew all the screws in sequence. And to remove the tire, you will need to insert a flat screwdriver between it and the rim, and then press with your fingers.
No, the wheels must be removed before disassembly, otherwise it will not be possible to remove all the parts.
Modern manufacturers equip the devices with solid and pneumatic wheels. The former are considered more durable and reliable, they are resistant to damage. The latter provide comfort during the trip, as the air in the tires reduces vibration.
