What should bicycle tire pressure be

It may also be worth mentioning to your burgeoning roadster as he or she is learning the basics of hand braking. In short, don't do either. If you overinflate, you run the risk of blowing the tube either while pumping or while riding due to sudden or constant impact. If underinflated, the low pressure could cause pinch flats. This occurs when the tube becomes squeezed between the rim and tire casing by hitting a bump with an underinflated wheel.

Not only does this damage the tire, it can also hurt the rim. Plus, flat tires slow you down and make you pedal harder, which is just no fun.

The answer depends on how often and how hard you ride. Some people break out the pump every few days, others once a week, and still others even less regularly than that. Even if you or your kids have left your wheels in the garage for months, air tends to seep out slowly, anyway. Therefore, as a bike-safety best practice , just like a car it's certainly never a bad idea to check your tires before each ride. Especially if it's been a while. The pro's choice, floor pumps do a great job.

They are easier to pump and attach, and will pump your tires up much quicker than a hand pump will. Some come with gauges, which eliminate 1 the need to switch back and forth between a pump and standalone gauge, or 2 if you're really lazy, outright guesswork.

However, some expert cyclists are cautious of floor pumps with gauges, as the accuracy of the gauge can svary and may be off by as much as 10 PSI. On the plus side, if the gauge is consistent you can calculate the difference and adjust your target PSI to compensate. Don't forget, as well, that many riders prefer to use a slightly lower tire pressure on the front tire. This can provide a more comfortable ride without sacrificing performance.

Beyond those general guidelines, proper tire pressure is a matter of personal preference. To get your tire pressure sweet spot, you don't need to look at a bike tire psi chart. Just start by inflating your tire to its maximum pressure every tire has the maximum tire pressure marked on the side of the tire. Make sure you don't exceed this number! Ride around for a while, then lower your pressure by 10 PSI. Observe the handling characteristics as you ride your normal riding style. Keep adjusting your pressure by five or 10 PSI until you feel like you have found the sweet spot for you, and remember that number for the future.

Cycling Weekly is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number Cycling Weekly EST. Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter. The more you weigh, the higher your tire pressure needs to be. For example, if a pound rider uses psi on his road bike, a pound rider should run closer to psi, and a pound rider could get away with 80 psi.

Never go above or below the manufacturer's recommended tire pressures, which are listed on the sidewall. Tires leak air over time.

A properly set up tubeless tire, and tires that use butyl tubes the most common type , leak far less than lightweight latex tubes. But air seeps out of all tires, from as little as a few psi a week to drastic drops overnight.

And the rate of loss increases with pressure and in reaction to outside factors like lower temperatures about 2 percent vanishes for each degree dip in Fahrenheit.

Some of us at Bicycling check pressure before every ride, some once a week. And always check the pressure the day after you repair a flat with CO2 canisters. Carbon dioxide is highly soluble in butyl rubber nitrogen and oxygen, which make up 98 percent of our atmosphere, are far less so , so it basically permeates right through the tube wall, and fast.

In fact, if you flat early in a ride and fix it with CO 2 , check the tire again after an hour or so—it will probably need topping off. Traditional wisdom says that higher tire pressure equals lower rolling resistance, because on a smooth surface, hard tires flex less and create a smaller contact patch.

But no road is perfectly smooth.