True, true and unrelated. Air, as shipped from the factory (unless you have NOS air from Germany it come from Taiwan or Brasil now) is a mixture of ALL gaseous elements, 21% O2, 78% N2, 1% everything else, generally, with a highly variable amount of H2O vapor. The water vapor is the most heat-reactive and the dryness of the nitrogen fill is probably what would make any difference in tire heating/ pressure. In the long run the lack of oxygen would help preserve the tire; oxygen oxidizes (burns) most other elements at a steady rate that also depends on the temperature (even if it's not on "fire"). Even better than nitrogen would be a truly inert gas with a higher molecular weight, like argon. This might get expensive, though. |
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