Tyre Pressures recommendations

[cougie uk]

Hello! Just use the top end of the recommended pressure on the tyre side wall. If you can't read it, it's probably time for new tyres!
Buy a floor pump with a pressure gauge and holes for schrader and presta valves. It can be dangerous to use the "squeeze test" - if the pressure is too high and you go over a create in the road the tyre could burst. Likewise if the pressure is too low, the rim is more likely to damage the tyre.

That's rubbish advice. My 32mm contis have a max pressure of 102 psi.

I use 50 front and 60 rear.

Far better to follow a recommended pressure chart - you'd have me riding rock hard tyres Mr cheap bike man. Awful for ride comfort and bad for grip.

 

[Alex321]

Hello! Just use the top end of the recommended pressure on the tyre side wall. If you can't read it, it's probably time for new tyres!

That would be way too high for most people.

If they also have a minimum marked, then for most people, somewhere roughly in the middle of that range is likely to be best.

The top end of what the tyre is rated for should really only be used on very smooth surfaces, and a pretty heavyweight rider.

Buy a floor pump with a pressure gauge and holes for schrader and presta valves. It can be dangerous to use the "squeeze test" - if the pressure is too high and you go over a create in the road the tyre could burst. Likewise if the pressure is too low, the rim is more likely to damage the tyre.

I wouldn't say it is likely to be "dangerous", although it isn't at all accurate. Long before it reaches the level where you could risk bursting the tyre, it will feel absolutely rock hard. And well before it is soft enough to be likely to damage the rim, you will be getting pinch punctures (if running with inner tubes).

 

[simongt]

I have seen a few of these on my rides, often next to gates 😉

Which reminds me of the scene in Jacque Tati's classic film 'Jour du Fete' in which, in an inebriated state, he tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to mount his bike which is leaning up against a fence. A masterpiece of individuality.

 

[Biker man]

Finger and thumb test every time. Never used a pressure gauge.

Exactly I put slime in my front tyre it's blocked the value up.Havnt pumped it up for 18 months but it feels fine.

 

[Dogtrousers]

We are a bit obsessed with "accuracy" these days. In the 70s and 80s I never possessed a pump with a guage, or a track pump. I just had the pump that clipped into my frame and I pumped my tyres up until my arm hurt/I got bored with pumping. Nothing bad happened, my tyres never exploded, I wasn't plagued with pinch punctures and I never found myself yearning to know exactly what pressure I had.

These days I even have a guage on my little portable pump (Road Morph).

 

[simongt]

I pumped my tyres up until my arm hurt/I got bored with pumping.

Or as an old LBS manny said in the pre gauge days of the mid '60s, 'Pump them up hard as boards lad - !'

 

[andrew_s]

I tend to put about the same amount of air in all my tyres, whether they are 28 mm or 38 mm - about 100 pumps of my HPx.
The pressure works out about right, with the larger tyre having a lower pressure than the smaller, and they feel similar on the squeeze test too, as the same pressure feels harder in a large tyre than a small one.

 

[classic33]

Hello! Just use the top end of the recommended pressure on the tyre side wall. If you can't read it, it's probably time for new tyres!
Buy a floor pump with a pressure gauge and holes for schrader and presta valves. It can be dangerous to use the "squeeze test" - if the pressure is too high and you go over a create in the road the tyre could burst. Likewise if the pressure is too low, the rim is more likely to damage the tyre.

I've tyres for use, 20", on a BMX, which I use on a load carrying quad. Top pressure is 120 psi, which is too high for use when loaded. On a BMX they'd blow in no time.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

You can't beat the good old Frank Berto pressure chart. He did the cycling world a huge favour by going to all the trouble of compiling it, and in my experience it tends to be pretty close to optimal. My rule of thumb on flat bar bikes is I set the rear tyre to the recommended pressure for the width then I inflate the front tyre to about 75% of the rear.
For instance the other day i topped up my Raleigh MTB's 2" rear tyre to about 48 PSI and put about 38 PSI in the 1 3/4"wide front. I didn't have any lack of grip issues with all the autumn leaf mush, although I admit I was taking it easy as the stuff was everywhere.