Author Topic: Mtn bike advice  (Read 1228 times)

Svend

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Re: Mtn bike advice
« Reply #30 on: June 01, 2011, 09:51:35 am »
BTW, I don't think you have to worry that running at 35 psi is too low-- to a road rider, that must seem very low, but for a mtn. bike it's perfectly OK.  If my tire gauge is accurate, then we run about 35 to 40 psi for rides on our hard pack gravel rail trail, and that is plenty firm.  Doing the thumb press test doesn't give much deflection -- it's pretty hard.   No worries about pinch flats at that pressure.

I drop it to 25 to 30 psi for rides in the woods, so I guess our present tires must have reasonably strong sidewalls, as we have not had pinch flats at these pressures.  Having said that, our trails are not too gnarly -- no sharp rocks; just roots, some loose gravel and sand, but mostly hard clay.  I could imagine that hitting a sharp rock at high speed on a tubed tire at 25 psi might cause a problem, but we've never encountered that.

As an aside, that is why we don't need full suspension bikes here -- if we lived elsewhere where the terrain was rougher, we almost certainly would have rear suspension.  But in our area, it's just not needed.  The quickness and acceleration that we get out of a nice, light XC hard tail is just a blast, and there's nothing that a skilled rider can't handle here.