In short, yes, TPMS can be worth buying for the added safety and convenience they provide. They alert you instantly to low tire pressure and help maintain optimal handling. While not essential, they’re particularly useful for frequent riders, those traveling long distances, or those who prefer real-time monitoring over manual checks.
Why They’re Useful
Maintaining ideal tyre pressure is understandably very important and something that you should pay close attention to. You should check your tyre pressures before every ride and keep an eye on your pressure and tyres during stops on longer rides. Especially when covering long distances, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get a puncture, and you might not realize it until you feel the tyre run flat.
Being able to detect when you’re losing pressure, before the tyre runs flat, is helpful both for safety and for proactive maintenance. Experienced riders check their tyres during stops, especially if they notice the handling feeling a little funny during the ride. But being alerted when you start losing pressure takes the guesswork out and can be quite reassuring. It also means that you can physically inspect the tyres as soon as you notice a drop in pressure, and find and fix the puncture before it gets worse, or before you run the tyre flat.
I find a TPMS the most worthwhile for long pillion trips. When you’re riding with luggage and a pillion, pushing through the heat, it’s very helpful to know as early as possible when something might be wrong. This allows you to make a stop at an ideal location with plenty of shade, or near civilization in case you need external help, before your tyre runs itself flat and the situation becomes much more difficult.
Why You Might Not Want To Bother
Some punctures happen and quickly leak out leaving no possibility of forewarning. For the rest of them, being an attentive rider covers most bases.
A rider who is happy enough to manually check their tyre pressure regularly, and keep a close watch on changes in handling, doesn’t benefit all that much from having the reassurance of a TPMS. It’s not worth spending the money, and having an extra device to mount, unmount, and worry about.
Closing Points
Whether you’re running a TPMS or not, you should be manually inspecting your tyres regularly to find and repair any punctures that you might not have even noticed yet since the nail/screw might have been effectively plugging the leak.
You should also have a tyre inflator and puncture repair kit with you so you can fix punctures on the go.
