BLE TPMS for Motorcycles — What to Check Before You Buy How Bluetooth tyre-pressure sensors differ from 433 MHz systems, what the BPU100 specifies, and the questions to ask a supplier before an OEM programme.

Why two-wheeler TPMS went Bluetooth

On a truck or a haul truck, a tyre-pressure system usually means a sensor talking to a dedicated in-cab display over a licence-free radio band such as 433.92 MHz. The display is part of the product. On a motorcycle, that model has always been awkward: there is nowhere neat to mount a display, the rider already carries a phone, and a dealership does not want to install a screen into every bike it sells.

Bluetooth Low Energy changed the shape of the product. The sensor still measures pressure and temperature, but instead of feeding a proprietary display it broadcasts to a phone. The rider installs an app, pairs the sensors, and gets pressure and alarms without any wiring into the vehicle harness.

That single change has consequences that run through the whole buying decision, so it is worth being precise about what BLE does and does not mean.

What BLE actually changes, and what it does not

It removes the display and the wiring. That is the real gain. There is no harness to route, no dash real estate to find, and no extra part to stock. On a scooter or a light three-wheeler, that can be the difference between a system that a dealer will fit and one they will not.

It does not make the sensor simpler. A BLE sensor still has to measure pressure accurately, survive weather and vibration, and last on a coin cell. The radio is a different radio; the engineering problem is the same.

It moves the interface into software. With a display-based system, the alarm logic and thresholds live in the display firmware. With BLE, they effectively live in the app. If you are an OEM or a distributor, that is worth thinking about early, because it determines who controls the user experience.

The specification that matters

Here is what our BPU100 sensor is specified to do, taken from its product approval sheet. These are the numbers we publish, and they are the numbers a buyer should compare against.

Item	Specification
Bluetooth protocol	BLE 4.1
Operating band	2400 MHz – 2483.5 MHz
Transmit power	3 dBm
Air data rate	1 Mbps
Receiver sensitivity	−95 dBm @ 1 Mbps
Power	CR1632 coin cell
Battery replaceable	Yes
Operating temperature	−20 °C to +80 °C
Storage temperature	−40 °C to +85 °C
Operating humidity	5% – 95%, non-condensing
Sensing element	Infineon

Three of those deserve a comment.

The band is the standard 2.4 GHz ISM band. That is what makes the phone part easy — every phone already has the radio. It also means the sensor is sharing spectrum with everything else in the 2.4 GHz world, which is why receiver sensitivity and transmit power are not trivial details.

The CR1632 is replaceable, and the sensor does not need re-pairing after a swap. We think this is one of the most practically important lines in the table. A sensor whose battery cannot be changed is a sensor that gets thrown away; a sensor that has to be re-paired after a battery change is a support call. Ours is neither.

The temperature range is a range, not a marketing figure. −20 °C to +80 °C operating is the honest answer for a sensor that lives on a valve stem in ambient air. If your market runs colder or hotter than that, say so early — it is a variant question, not something to discover in the field.

One sensor family, four wheel counts

The sensor body is the same across our range; the housing and the valve interface change with the wheel.

• Two-wheel — motorcycles, scooters and mopeds. Two sensors per vehicle, one per wheel.
• Three-wheel — tricycles and three-wheel commercial vehicles.
• Four-wheel — quads, ATVs and light four-wheel vehicles.
• Four-wheel, wide temperature — for markets and applications with a wider ambient range.

If you are building a range rather than a single model, this matters commercially: one sensor platform covering several vehicle classes is easier to stock, easier to service and easier to certify than four unrelated products.

Marking and branding are part of the build

A detail that often gets decided too late: the sensor can be laser marked by wheel position — L.F, R.F, L.R, R.R — so a fitter does not have to guess which sensor belongs where. The same step carries your own part numbers or your logo.

We also adapt the BLE service and data format for OEM programmes, so the sensor can feed your own app rather than ours. If your business depends on the customer relationship being yours, that is the point at which to raise it, not after tooling.

The questions to ask any BLE TPMS supplier

If you are evaluating suppliers — us or anyone else — these are the questions that separate a real product from a catalogue entry.

1. What is the actual protocol version and band? "Bluetooth" is not a specification. Ask for the version, the band, the transmit power and the sensitivity, and check that the numbers are internally consistent.

2. Is the battery replaceable, and does the ID survive a swap? A replaceable cell is worth little if replacing it forces a re-pair on every wheel.

3. What is the operating temperature range, and how was it established? A range without a test condition behind it is a slogan.

4. Which variants exist, and what changes between them? If the answer is "the same sensor for everything", ask how they handle different valve types and temperature ranges.

5. What can be customised for an OEM programme — and what cannot? Marking, packaging, app, protocol, PCBA and housing are all separable. Get them separated in writing.

6. What is the production reality? Ask for the monthly volumes the line actually runs at, and for capacity. A supplier who cannot answer this is a trading office, which may be fine, but you should know which one you are talking to.

7. What approvals apply to my market, and what is their current status? This is the question most often answered with a vague reassurance. If a supplier tells you that you do not need to worry about it, that is information about the supplier.

Where we stand

We make the sensor ourselves. The sensing element is Infineon; the measurement, alarm logic, BLE service and data format are ours. That is what lets us change the protocol, the housing or the marking for a programme instead of asking a customer to work around a catalogue part.

We supply more than 10,000 sets a month to the Chinese two-wheeler aftermarket, with capacity of 30,000 sensor units a month. Every sensor is pressure-calibrated on our own test software before it ships, and we run water-immersion, RF-range and protocol verification in-house.

Product certification is handled per market and per project. We would rather tell you in writing which approvals apply to your destination and what their current status is than give you a comfortable answer that turns out to be wrong later.

If you are scoping a two-wheeler TPMS programme, tell us the vehicle, the wheel count and the market and we will tell you which configuration fits and what would have to change.

FAQ

Is BLE reliable enough for a motorcycle application? The radio link is one part of it. What matters in practice is that the sensor transmits with enough power and sensitivity for the mounting position, and that the app is written to handle a missing reading rather than pretending it saw one. Ask any supplier how their app behaves when a sensor drops out.

Does the rider need to keep the phone on the bike? For live readings and alarms, yes — the phone is the display. For a customer who wants a permanent dash readout, BLE is the wrong architecture and you should be looking at a display-based system instead. We supply both, and we will tell you which one your use case actually needs.

Can the sensor work with our own app instead of yours? Yes. The BLE service and data format can be adapted for OEM programmes. That is a project conversation, not a catalogue option, so raise it early.

Is the sensor certified for my market? Certification is handled per market and per project. Tell us the destination country and we will set out which approvals apply and their current status in writing.

What is the minimum order for a branded programme? That depends on the level of customisation — marking only, versus packaging, versus app and PCBA changes. Send us the scope and we will come back with a concrete proposal.