Tyre pressures

[ianrauk]

what psi do we reckon stuaff runs?

 

[Borbus]

For my town bike with Schwalbe Silento IIs I inflate to the max which is 60psi. For my road bike I put in about 110psi which is a lot lower than the max of both the tyre (140psi) and the rim (12psi).

Generally harder tyres will have lower rolling resistance and be more puncture resistant; softer tyres will have greater rolling resistance but therefore more grip also, and they may be more comfortable. Personally I find hard tyres more comfortable than soft tyres, though. I hate to feel any "give" in the tyre either from the road or when cornering.

 

[Bicycle]

On my geared bike I have 700c x 23 Gatorskins and run 110 on both. It's lovely.

On my fixie I have 700c x 20 tyres. I now run 130-ish rear and 110 front*.

On my MTB I don't use the gauge on my pump. I pump the tyres up according to a thumb/index finger squeeziness that I feel happy with.





*I tried 130 in the front of my fixie (I try stuff rather than ask around).

The result was an even twitchier front end, a feeling that it fell into corners more (rather than rolling into them) and about an hour after a 35-mile ride my wrists and forearms were aching A LOT.

I dropped the front to 110 and it's been lovely ever since. Rear still at 130.

There was no reason for trying 130 other than the idle curiosity of a bored cat. It hasn't killed me yet.