Pressure monitoring for two- and three-wheelers in Nigeria A fleet that is largely bought used, kept alive by workshops and judged on fitted cost — on roads that punish a soft tyre long before anyone looks at a gauge.
Talk about a programme See the sensorWhat the market actually looks like
Nigeria is not a showroom market. A large share of the two- and three-wheelers on the road were bought used, rebuilt in a workshop and kept running well past the age at which a European owner would have replaced them. That changes what a pressure sensor has to be. It has to fit a valve that may not be original, survive heat and dust, and cost little enough that a distributor can put it on a shelf beside tubes and brake shoes. It also has to work without a receiver, because there is no harness to tap into and nobody who will pay for the installation labour.
The vehicle is a working asset, not a hobby. A commercial motorcycle or a passenger three-wheeler earns money on every day it moves, and it is loaded beyond the figure in the manual as a matter of routine. Pressure is therefore a running cost rather than a comfort item: a soft tyre burns fuel, destroys the casing, and on a three-wheeler carrying passengers it changes the way the vehicle steers under braking.
Buyers in this channel compare the fitted cost of the whole system, not the specification of one part. That is the single most useful thing to understand about this market: a receiver is not just another component, it is another part to buy, another place to mount it, another thing that can fail, and another installation step that somebody has to be paid for.
What fits this market
- One SKU across makes. The sensor fits the valve, not the vehicle, so a distributor is not asked to stock a part number per brand.
- No receiver, no harness, no display. Three things disappear from the bill of materials and from the fitting time.
- Workshop-level fitting. Screw it on, pair it with a phone, done — no specialist tool and no configuration visit.
- A cell a shop can stock. The CR1632 is replaceable and lasts about 1.5 years on average, so it is a service item rather than a sealed unit that gets thrown away.
- Positions marked at the factory. Front and rear, so a reading never has to be guessed at.
What we can do for a programme here
- English labelling, with artwork agreed for your market rather than fixed by us.
- Your brand on the sensor, the pack and the app.
- Bulk workshop packs or small retail packs — the channel often wants both from the same supplier.
- Marking conventions agreed with you, including the wording the workshop will actually read.
- A first order sized to test one regional channel instead of a national launch.
- Answers in writing, because a verbal assurance is worth nothing when the container is on the water.
Heat, dust, rain and load: what the tyre actually sees
Ambient temperature is high for most of the year, and a tyre that stands in the sun and then runs on hot asphalt gains pressure as it warms. That is ordinary physics, and it is why the useful reading is the one taken cold, before the day's work — which is exactly the reading nobody takes. Our app shows pressure and temperature per wheel, so a rise that is only heat can be told apart from a wheel that is genuinely losing air.
The dry season brings dust, and dust works its way into valve cores and around beads. The wet season brings standing water and potholes that were not there the week before; an impact that damages a bead or bends a rim can start a slow leak which only becomes visible days later, usually as a ruined casing. In both seasons the failure is gradual, and gradual failures are the ones a daily check catches.
Second-hand tyres and patched tubes are part of this market, and they are part of the failure picture: a patch that weeps, a tube that has been fitted twice, a valve that was never designed to carry a screw-on sensor. Here a trend is more useful than a specification sheet. A wheel that has lost pressure overnight is telling you something that an afternoon gauge reading will hide, because by then the tyre is warm and the number looks normal.
What the sensor is, in full
| Wireless | Bluetooth 5.1, 2.4 GHz — no receiver required; the phone is the reader |
|---|---|
| Pressure range | 0–500 kPa gauge (0–600 kPa absolute), about 5 bar |
| Accuracy | ±2 kPa |
| Battery | Replaceable CR1632, average service life about 1.5 years; no re-pairing after a change |
| Operating temperature | −20…+80 °C |
| Sealing | IP67 |
| Size | Ø21 × 16 mm |
A receiver can be built to order when the data has to reach a controller or a display instead of a phone — serial (UART) or CAN output. That is a different configuration, not a different sensor. Specifications are subject to change; laser marking follows the wheel positions and branding agreed for your programme.
What we do not do
- We do not quote market-size figures. Volumes differ by state, by city and by channel, and a number from a report would not describe the street your distributor actually sells on. Ask your own distributor — they know.
- We do not assume a regulatory position for you. Requirements differ by product, channel and destination; ask us and we answer with the current status for your market, in writing, rather than with a generic statement.
- We do not name our customers. If you want a reference, tell us which market and which channel, and we will say what we can say.
Tell us three things and we can answer properly
Which matters far more than a long enquiry: the vehicle class (motorcycle, passenger three-wheeler, cargo three-wheeler), the number of wheels on each vehicle, and the market you are selling into. With those three we can say which configuration fits, what the labelling should say, and whether the standard pressure range covers the tyres you actually run.
Want samples or a specification for your programme?
Tell us the vehicle, wheel count, where the data should go, and the label language for your market. We answer in writing.