Rock hard or hard. Best way to avoid a puncture

Trampas

What pressure should you place in your tryes.

I have DAWS Discovery 401 with slick tyres.

daymobrew

The tyre sidewall should list the max pressure. For my slicks, with max 85psi, I put in 75-80psi. I like 'em well 'ard.
My road bike recommends 100psi with 110psi as the max. I was surprised that the recommended pressure was so close to the max.

ash h

The harder your tyres are the faster they will roll.Dont go above they maximum pressure though.I run about 40psi but i downhill - softer tyres = more grip and less punctures.

mockerydawg

40 is a bit hard for dh, try 30 to 35. or stick in dh tubes and you get away with 20psi

kincsem

I use 100 psi for my road bike. You can hear the pebbles pinging away like bullets when you roll over them. And the first time I used a track pump to get the pressure up to 100 psi (from 35 psi) my time for my regular spin was 1hr 40 mins. Previous average was 1 hr 55 mins.

I think you get less punctures at 100 psi, but I have only had one puncture in a year so that is not a big enough sample size. If you rode over a pin with tyres like rocks or tyres like marshmallows in which would the pin stick?

Just back from a spin ..... time down to 1hr 29 mins ...... I must be getting fitter, or lucky, or something.

Civilian_Target

Yeah - was thinking of going for some high pressure myself - at the moment I keep my front wheel rock hard but my back wheel a good bit softer, for better take-offs at lights, grip and weight bearing, but can't help but think that 70psi would be a lot better. Does high pressure result in more punctures for the average commuter? I'd imagine it must...

daymobrew

Civilian_Target wrote:

Does high pressure result in more punctures for the average commuter? I'd imagine it must...

You should have less tyre surface in contact with the ground so you mightn't.

Alkers

I always found higher pressure = less punctures.

milod

Yeah I agree - I run mine at 100psi (Sp Armadillo) front and back and I deffo get fewer punctures. It seems counter intuitive but I read an article a few years ago about it and the physics involved does make sense (something about the shape of a piece or gravel/metal/glass etc, and how a soft tyre can envelop it, allowing a greater puncturable surface area, etc etc ZZZzzzzzz snore...)

As kincsem says tho' you can do some damage with gravel pellets flying left and right - some arsewipe in a Penis-Extension, sorry... a Pick-Up, tried to remonstrate with me after I sent one pinging off his door last week along the Quays...

youcancallmeal

Just got a set of slicks myself which are rated at 65psi, havent got a decent pump so am I safe enough pumping them up with those electronic pumps for cars at petrol stations?

ciaranr

Yeah go for the petrol station, been doing it four years and no problems. It's free and as an extra bonus you often find spare dust caps that careless motorists leave lying around. I've replaced all my familys' and friends' lost dust caps by now!

crashoveroid

Cool all really good advice