160 PSI

[rugby bloke]

Bought a track pump on Saturday and noticed that it was calibrated up to 160 PSI. Out of interest, when would tyres be inflated to such a pressure, would it be for track racing or do some road tyres inflate to this pressure ?

Pardon the general ignorance, I'm just curious to know !

 

[fossyant]

Generally means the pump will inflate to regular pressures easily. One rated to 120 PSI will struggle.

 

[Elybazza61]

Track tyres probably.

 

[martint235]

I used to run my 23mm Duranos at 145psi. I guess it's there to give some "spare"

 

[raleighnut]

One of my bikes runs Continental Grand Prix Supersonic 18mm tyres (well it does when I put the wheels with them fitted on it) I have to run the rear at 150psi to avoid pinch flats but their max rated pressure is 170psi.

 

[Pale Rider]

I haven't got that many pounds per square inches in both my tyres.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

My car's speedo is marked to 240kph.
My bathroom scale is marked to 150kgs
I don't get to use that end of the calibration much.
Don't try and inflate a wide tyre such as 25 or 28mm to anything near. It will blow off and probably damage your rim on the process.

 

[winjim]

160, is that all? Mine goes up to 240psi. It does make the gauge somewhat difficult to read with any great level of precision though.

 

[Globalti]

Interesting, isn't it how tyre widths are increasing and pressures reducing? I see this as part of the popularisation of road cycling along with wide padded bars, SIS, compact gearing and wide ratio cassettes, carbon frames, comfortable saddles and so on. Back in the 80s I had a steel "racer" and it was not a particularly pleasant bike to ride by modern standards, my admiration goes out to people who cycled a lot in those days.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Interesting, isn't it how tyre widths are increasing and pressures reducing? I see this as part of the popularisation of road cycling along with wide padded bars, SIS, compact gearing and wide ratio cassettes, carbon frames, comfortable saddles and so on. Back in the 80s I had a steel "racer" and it was not a particularly pleasant bike to ride by modern standards, my admiration goes out to people who cycled a lot in those days.

It is a function of physics, not of cycling trends. If the industry could have it they would boast higher maximums because that's one of the arbitrary ways of how consumers judge quality.
If two tyres are exactly the same in construction i.e. the same strength and quantity of cords, same rubber etc, the fatter one will fail at lower pressure than the thin one. One way to visualize the reason for this is to see the tyre as a single strip of rubber, say one inch wide, complete with bead on the left and on the right. If the total length of this little strip is just three inches (to cover the radius of the little tyre strip from left bead to right bead), then at 100PSI the total force on that bead would be 300 pounds (100PSI x 3 inches blocks). Now make the tyre wider so that the radius is say 4 inches and you'll see that the total force that the bead has to resist is 400 pounds (at 100PSI).
If you plot the maxium pressures of similar tyres with different widths you'll find that this formula confirms the assumption.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I went on a road ride with someone who used to pump their tyres up to 130 psi, which was fine, until we stopped at a pub, in the middle of the day, on a hot sunny day. The sun heated up the tyres, his inner tubes both blew out, he had one spare tube, I had none left. I rode home.

If you want to pump your tyres up that much, you will need a pump with spare capacity, 160 psi would be plenty of spare capacity.

 

[Globalti]

Ouch. Even on my Roubaix a front tyre pressure over 95 makes my hands go numb and tingly on British roads. I'm sure that wouldn't happen on smooth European roads though.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Ehh tubs?

 

[bikie]

Used to time trial on my 18mm tubs at 160psi.

 

[Drago]

I'm a husky fellow, probably not many riders more, even, muscular than me and I run my 23c's at 105PSI. Why anyone would want 130, never mind 160, is a bit of a mystery.