Are you ready for real-time tire pressure monitoring for your bicycle? It's coming! The technology is moving fast, costs are coming down, and it's likely that in the future, you'll be riding a bike with real-time time pressure monitoring. With star Tom Pidcock using some Zipp prototypes at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Strade Bianche that appear to completely hide the tire pressure sensor within the rim, it looks like tire pressure monitors could be about to go mainstream. Let's take a look at the state of the technology and some of the applications that might help you ride faster or improve convenience by providing a real-time look at the pressure in your bicycle tires.
How do real-time tire pressure monitors for bicycles work?
A small sensor at the wheel (either at the presta valve in the past, or possibly integrated into the rim bed itself in the future) with a battery reads the real-time tire pressure and transmits it via ANT+ to a compatible head unit (Garmin Edge, Wahoo, Hammerhead) where it can be reviewed and if desired, recorded.
Real-time tire pressure sensors for bikes are getting smaller and more tightly integrated
The original TireWiz by Quarq (Quarq, in turn, being owned by SRAM) was sort of a pod-shaped add-on to your presta valve. You would remove the valve core, and replace it with the TireWiz device - just like using a presta valve extender for tubular tires on deep-section carbon cyclocross rims. Pair it via ANT+ with your GPS cyclecomputer head unit, and bingo - you've got a real-time view of your tire pressure right on your handlebar.
The downside, they were pretty clunky and for road and triathlon applications where bikes are ridden at higher speeds, certainly not aerodynamic. For mountain, gravel, and cyclocross bikes, the pods could get grabbed by brush or weeds, making them easy to damage. And at a whopping $214 MSRP, the price point was well out of reach for curious amateurs. The SKS Airspy is a competing product at $166.99 is similar, but also pretty pricey for non-pros.
Then came TireWiz 2.0, which addressed some of those shortcomings. Instead of the "lollipop" pod, it now sits at the base of the presta valve, where it's a little more aero and less likely to be damaged. The price also came down to $120 MSRP. Smaller, lighter, cheaper, we're moving in the right direction!
Now Zipp - another SRAM owned company - appears to be moving toward a fully integrated tire pressure sensor hidden within the rim, eliminating the need to add anything to the presta valve. A patent filing previously disclosed some of Zipp's plans, not just for the pressure sensor, but a sensor embedded in the rim that also captures yaw, lean angle, acceleration, and so on. Then Tom Pidcock tested what looks like a Zipp 303 rim with real-time tire pressure sensors built right into the rim during the Spring 2025 season, proving the technology proposed in the patent was real.
In the future, you may be able to forget about add-on tire pressure sensors, and instead, may simply come to expect them as an included feature on high-end wheel or rim purchases. Unfortunately, I don't see how this would work with tubulars, but for riders who have adopted tubeless, this looks like a win.
My floor pump or mini pump has a gauge - why would I want this?
It's true that basically all floor pumps and some mini pumps have a gauge. However, you should consider:
- If you get a flat while on the road or trail, you have no way to recover the original tire pressure when using a CO2 cartridge or gauge-less mini pump. With a real-time tire pressure monitoring sensor, you can repair the flat and then use the readout on your head unit (or mobile phone) to return to your exact, preferred tire pressure.
- Gauges on pumps aren't terribly accurate nor repeatable. If you're running a road tire at 110 PSI, getting within 5 PSI with a floor pump might be just fine. If it's a little off and you get 107 PSI next time, this is acceptable. But sensors can be accurate down to .1 PSI. That's not needed on road bikes, but different applications - cyclocross, fat bikes, etc. use very low tire pressure, where more precision is useful and desired.
Applications for racing
Outside's "The Velo Podcast" explored implications of real-time tire pressure sensors in the pro peloton in their episode, "What the heck is an all-road bike, anyway?", raising several good points. With real-time tire pressure sensors in play, imagine:
- A rider double-checking their tire pressure before attacking. Not perfect? Get a fresh bike or wheel change instead.
- Teams proactively monitoring their riders tire pressure remotely via telemetry
Applications for training
The idea of monitoring tire pressure during races is appealing, but most of our hours and miles are spent training, not racing.
- See whether tires need to be topped up at a glance before rolling out on a training ride
- Record tire pressure in an electronic training diary so you can experiment with different pressure and measure results
- Replace/improve the crude gauges built into a floor pump - is it off? With a real-time sensor, you'd know.
Real-time cyclocross tire pressure measurement
For cyclocross racers, mechanics, and teams, the idea of real-time tire pressure monitors is intriguing. Perhaps in no other discipline are very small changes in tire pressure so important. According to Mark Legg, who served as Katie Compton's mechanic, Compton could feel and request change to tire pressure in increments as low as 1/2 PSI. Regardless of whether you believe that, even casual amateurs can easily feel a 2 PSI difference, so the idea of small sensors to instantly detect tiny changes in cyclocross tire pressure is appealing.
In a cyclocross race, a rider could get a real-time alert on a head unit or vibration on a wristwatch, alerting them that they have a puncture and they should pit immediately - perhaps before the rider even notices.
There are also interesting implications for training. Imagine doing laps at your favorite race course, experimenting with slightly lower and higher tire pressures, while your Garmin or Wahoo records the tire pressure, your segment and lap times, and then makes a recommendation for the exact tire pressure that will produce the fastest lap times. The technology to do this type of analysis, even for amateurs, is nearly here!