Tyre pressure: what you running at?

[Mr Moofo]

I run about 28 psi at the back, 25 at the front - based on the Schwalbe recommendations.
Talking about my list of offs and damage I had caused myself, my clinical physio suggest I should run at no more that 18 psi!
Really ?

[weeksy]

The boy runs 18F 20R mostly, apart from Dyfi/Fort William where we'll up it to 22F/25R

Me, i'm 22F/24R pretty much everywhere, apart from Dyfi where i'll go 25ish both ends.

Reading lots of articles over the years i'm often surprised by the numbers you see in both terms of pressures and bar width, with pressures being higher than you'd expect in Enduro and DH and bars being narrower than you'd expect on both.

Obviously tyres can play a massive factor in all of this, he runs Continental Kryptotal DH SuperSoft on the back and Argotal DH supersoft. I'm currently on an Argotal Endurance/trail on the front and a Specialized Butcher on the rear.

[MingtheMerciless]

Curtis, 22-24F 24-26R. Kenda Piner F and Minion SS R
Epocalypse, 25-26F 26-28F, Assaggi F Michelin Ewild Enduro R

When I was running the superbly with Michelin Muds in winter it was 18F and 20R but they had super strong side walls and me and the bike weighed nothing.

[mboy]

HIGHLY subjective...

This is literally a big part of my job, so fire your questions away...

There's so many variables in here... In no particular order... And by no means exhaustive...

-Tyre Size
-Rim Width
-Tubeless/tubed
-Sidewall/carcass stifness
-Tread compound/s
-Tyre inserts or not?
-Type of tyre inserts
-Rider weight
-Bike weight
-Riding Style
-Where you ride/terrain
-Conditions
-Personal preferences

Small changes in any of the above can make quite pronounced differences in the grip experienced by the rider, so until you've fully experimented with all of the above variables with a control rider/bike/setup then recommending tyre pressures to someone else based upon what you run yourself is pretty meaningless to be honest... I'm 94kg right now. I would run pressures 10-15% higher now than when I was 78kg for a similar effect, all things being equal. But in reality, I now tend to run a stiffer carcass tyre now than I would back then and with a (small) insert in the rear usually now too.

My point...? Make a note of your base pressures, and go out there and experiment... Go up, go down, see what works for you. Don't work in psi so much as % changes... At 20psi, a 1psi change is a massive 5% difference. Some people may not notice that at all, for a pro it could be the difference between coming 1st or coming 51st!

In my job I HAVE to recommend pressures for people, but they will always err on the conservative side, and I will ask a serious of questions first before I can even use my experience to make a sensible base pressure as a recommendation...

Please please please... I cannot stress this enough... Asking someone else on an internet forum what pressures they run in their tyres, without any context or knowledge of them, their riding style, or in fact any of the above bullet points I listed above, is more than likely counter productive!

Reading lots of articles over the years i'm often surprised by the numbers you see in both terms of pressures and bar width, with pressures being higher than you'd expect in Enduro and DH and bars being narrower than you'd expect on both.

Working for a tyre manufacturer at the cutting edge of the race scene, I'm not at all surprised... Racers are racing against the clock, not waging fashion wars on internet forums! OK, maybe that's a bit harsh, but it's worth remembering that some of these racers are pushing things that much harder than us average mortals can do, that to make things work for them they're running much higher pressures than you might be used to...

They also run narrower bars typically, like you say, and more frequently these days, LESS IS MORE when it comes to tyre inserts! Tyre inserts act like volume spacers inside a tyre, which more often than not is actually counter productive to grip and speed... Certain rim manufacturers are now actually advocating against tyre inserts at all, saying that they transmit more shock to the rim in many cases then would be transmitted otherwise. Certainly I have seen a huge swing back to smaller tyre inserts, often only run in the rear. I spent quite a bit of time at EWS Innerleithen last year working with amateur riders struggling for grip in softer conditions even running mid teens pressures, the root cause being overly large tyre inserts... In fact, I had an in depth conversation with the owner of Rimpact @ Ard Rock about the possibility of designing a tyre insert using the same "activated carbon" technology as found in those Trutune fork volume spacers (I was an unbeliever, but it actually does what it says on the tin to be fair!)... After all, there's a reason we run 2.4" tyres, not the 1.9" tyres we used to run back in the 90's!

Anyway, I digress... Just shocked you hadn't tagged me yet @weeksy

Happy trails boys and girls!

[weeksy]

I like to let people join in, not force them to do so.

[Flux]

On the trail bike I run 22f 24r, been as low as 18/20 but higher seems better compromise for me.
Dh bike is 24/27 (ish I'm not worried about a psi either way).

[Beancounter]

I don't have a presta pressure gauge so usually follow the 'more orange than apple' approach.

[weeksy]

I don't have a presta pressure gauge so usually follow the 'more orange than apple' approach.

LOL they're £20 mate... SKS.

[Mr Moofo]

Please please please... I cannot stress this enough... Asking someone else on an internet forum what pressures they run in their tyres, without any context or knowledge of them, their riding style, or in fact any of the above bullet points I listed above, is more than likely counter productive!

A bit like the physiotherapist telling me to run at 18 PSI then !
I realise that it is very subjective - and after some PMs with you I dropped my tyre pressures a tad. That has made the from on the Eeb grip better (or at least that is the perception)

I am guessing I was taken aback by the really low 18 psi suggestion, which is okay for Weeksy Minor as he weighs about 50kg, but for my 105kg frame, way off the mark.
As I said , I used the Schwalbe tool as a starting point - just wondered if I had missed the message that said much lower pressure are "it" now. I missed the really wide handlebar one, so I don't want people to laugh at me on the trails

[weeksy]

but for my 105kg frame, way off the mark.

Not way.... not even remotely way.. I've ran 18/20 more than a few times and it's perfectly fine in my book, i don't weigh much less than you.

I'm not going to tell you what's right.... but 18/20 isn't wrong by any stretch.

[Beancounter]

I don't have a presta pressure gauge so usually follow the 'more orange than apple' approach.

LOL they're £20 mate... SKS.

Yeah, I know I should but tyre pressures are the last thing holding me back.

[mboy]

A bit like the physiotherapist telling me to run at 18 PSI then !
I realise that it is very subjective - and after some PMs with you I dropped my tyre pressures a tad. That has made the from on the Eeb grip better (or at least that is the perception)

I am guessing I was taken aback by the really low 18 psi suggestion, which is okay for Weeksy Minor as he weighs about 50kg, but for my 105kg frame, way off the mark.
As I said , I used the Schwalbe tool as a starting point - just wondered if I had missed the message that said much lower pressure are "it" now. I missed the really wide handlebar one, so I don't want people to laugh at me on the trails

Do what works for you mate... Following fashions is for fashion victims!

And yeah, 18psi @ 50kg sounds about right... At 105kg, in a 2.4" tyre, the results would be quite different!

The Schwalbe tool is a good starting point. Usually I find peoples optimal pressures within about 10-15% (either way, depending on all the other variables) of what it suggests...

[mboy]

LOL they're £20 mate... SKS.

The best ones I've seen in ages, were the Fabric analogue ones CRC were selling for £9.99 a few months ago... Were £34.99 previously.

I bought several!

Have now lost 2 of them, and I'm keeping the others!

But if you manage to find a Fabric Pressure gauge anywhere, then buy it... Even @ RRP they're a good bit of kit...

[Mr Moofo]

Do what works for you mate... Following fashions is for fashion victims!

Coming from the man who said he couldn't ride an ugly bike

[Count Steer]

Do what works for you mate... Following fashions is for fashion victims!

Coming from the man who said he couldn't ride an ugly bike

Likes stylish bike gear too.

When riding a motorbike is one of the very few times I actually give a crap about what I'm wearing, and how it looks. I'm not trying to win any fashion awards, but if I'm paying decent money for something I want to feel and look good wearing it.

[mboy]

Coming from the man who said he couldn't ride an ugly bike

I ride 2 ugly bikes...

I do have to draw the line somewhere though... You wouldn't get me on a Kawasaki Versys if you paid me!