All about bicycles

I'm running 4.6 inch Ground Controls and have a hard time in snow...unless I drop to 2-4 lbs psi, and then I've occasionally ripped my valve stem from the tire moving on the rim. I do get pretty good traction though.
I ride from the house to the trails and it's an awful feeling riding tires that low on solid surfaces. I don't run tubeless because I don't want to clean out my tires every year. The sealant will dry out.
 
garrett said:
Much of that old brick road is covered in sand. Sand is very unpredictable to ride in. In one spot, it caused me to drift off the road to the left only to get redirected back to the right just as an exposed section of the road appeared. I nailed the curb with the front tire and hit the bricks, quite literally. I collected a bruised thigh, bruise and road rash on forearm, and a cracked helmet. Bike and other gear came through totally fine except for a scuff on the derailleur.

Luckily it was low speed. I was only going about 10 MPH. Helmet did its job and absorbed the impact. No signs of concussion, so I rode the remaining 35 miles and finished strong. New helmet (VERY important) for the next ride a couple days later and all good.
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So you have a -

Pretty
Rigid
Skull

alantig said:
Nah - just remember to lift with your legs.
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What a show off, everyone else uses their arms.
 
Spudman said:
I'm running 4.6 inch Ground Controls and have a hard time in snow...unless I drop to 2-4 lbs psi, and then I've occasionally ripped my valve stem from the tire moving on the rim. I do get pretty good traction though.
I ride from the house to the trails and it's an awful feeling riding tires that low on solid surfaces. I don't run tubeless because I don't want to clean out my tires every year. The sealant will dry out.
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I do drop the pressure for winter. I run between 4&4.5 psi. Closer to 7 in the summer.
I go to the trail from my backyard, so roads don’t matter.
Hardtail and I drop the seat on ice.
 
Yesterday I had the idea to go and check out the train derailment on the path to Mud Bay.
I had no clue as to what the situation would be 7 days later.
Was a bit cool at 7C so took my heated gloves and headed out.

Lots of sun...



Hmmm... a warning that I hoped would not be accurate when I got to the section this sign refers to...



Well, the warning sign was accurate. Rats, you can see the security car there. I decided to go up a steep path to the road (64th Ave) and carry on South to Watershed Park...



And here's the other end of the section, also shut down. My curiosity left unsatisfied...



I was an idiot and forgot to charge the heated gloves, and the right one died. My fingers were numb, so I headed up this steep path and took the road back home...



Short ride, but good to get out...
 
Serious question. My bike tires look flat if I sit on it with 20psi. They need at least 45 or so to not flatten noticeably when I sit on the bike, and I am not a heavy dude. How are you running tires at 4 or even 2 psi? I’ve been into cars, bikes and motorcyles all my life and 4-5 psi doesn’t compute.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Serious question. My bike tires look flat if I sit on it with 20psi. They need at least 45 or so to not flatten noticeably when I sit on the bike, and I am not a heavy dude. How are you running tires at 4 or even 2 psi? I’ve been into cars, bikes and motorcyles all my life and 4-5 psi doesn’t compute.
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I'm thinking you'll only see that on fatties, like 4" and up...
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Even there, curious about how this works. 4psi is not enough to support the weight of a man without riding on the rims...
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I'm no expert, but fatties are part of the ride/suspension. pressures over 10 psi can be like bouncing around on a balloon, depending on the ground surface.
So lower means more absorption of rough bits like rocks/roots. There is so much more volume for the air.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Even there, curious about how this works. 4psi is not enough to support the weight of a man without riding on the rims...
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Bigger tire = larger air volume = less air pressure required

As an example, for me (I'm light):
28 mm road tire - 70-ish PSI
40 mm gravel tire - 32-ish
54 mm MTB tire - 20-ish

Fat bike tires are like 100+ mm
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Even there, curious about how this works. 4psi is not enough to support the weight of a man without riding on the rims...
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The tires are really big. Mine are 4.6”. With the weight of me plus bike, ballpark 210 pounds. Let’s round to 100 pounds per tire. Contact patch is almost 5” wide and 4-5” long at 4 psi. A pretty good match to 90psi on a 1” wide tire.
 
Since we’re talking tire pressure I’ll share a story told to me a few weeks ago by a friend who is a fantastic rider. He went down hard and was hurt pretty bad. He was running tubeless Schwalbe at 60 psi. No road debris or surface defects. His tire just became unseated. He had extensive conversations with Schwalbe who opined that his tire pressure fell below the minimum 55psi required to remain seated. My friend used a high quantity floor pump. Curious he inflated the tire to 60 psi with the floor pump. He then remeasured with a hand gauge. He got a reading of 54 psi. He repeated the test a few times with the same result. Scared me as I run the same tires at the same pressure.
 
tiboy said:
Since we’re talking tire pressure I’ll share a story told to me a few weeks ago by a friend who is a fantastic rider. He went down hard and was hurt pretty bad. He was running tubeless Schwalbe at 60 psi. No road debris or surface defects. His tire just became unseated. He had extensive conversations with Schwalbe who opined that his tire pressure fell below the minimum 55psi required to remain seated. My friend used a high quantity floor pump. Curious he inflated the tire to 60 psi with the floor pump. He then remeasured with a hand gauge. He got a reading of 54 psi. He repeated the test a few times with the same result. Scared me as I run the same tires at the same pressure.
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Brutal!
I'm a big tubeless fan (yes I'm over weight) :eek: and haven't heard stories like this until now.
TBH I thought road tires were typically over 80psi.
 
I never got hooked (pun intended) on tubeless road tires.

On the other hand... I've always been a fan of tubeless mtn bike tires, even back in the day (predating many tubless specific wheels and tires) when we did our own conversions slicing open a road tube and placing it between the tire and rim.

I worked as a professional bicycle mechanic for almost 20yrs and never did we see catastrophic accidents involving tubless mtn or tubed road. The amount of times we saw someone come in and say "my tubless road tire just blew itself off the rim"? Too many.

Still prefer good ol' fashioned tubes on my road bikes.
 
I run Zipp 303 hookless rims. They max out at 72 PSI. Even at 60 PSI I’m over Zipp’s recommendation for my weight. A couple years ago I had a Pirelli unseat on a descent. I was able to bring the bike to a stop without crashing. That’s why I switched to Schwalbe. I started running tubeless on my mountain bike in 2001. Never had a problem.

Today‘s ride was a cluster F. The ride leader’s electric shifting was dead despite being charged yesterday. Ten miles in another guy broke a chain. Two of the group came within inches of T-boning a delivery van two miles from the finish. On the positive side the noon start (to let it warm up) allowed me to get in a glorious 1.5 hours of loud guitar pre-ride. So now I’m home safe and with a full belly with half a drunk on. Wife left me this morning for some Florida sun with her girlfriends. College football tomorrow night and all day Saturday. Life is good. I just hope the bike pump doesn’t over inflate the blow up doll who comes out of storage when the Mrs. is gone. Lol
 
tiboy said:
I run Zipp 303 hookless rims. They max out at 72 PSI. Even at 60 PSI I’m over Zipp’s recommendation for my weight. A couple years ago I had a Pirelli unseat on a descent. I was able to bring the bike to a stop without crashing. That’s why I switched to Schwalbe. I started running tubeless on my mountain bike in 2001. Never had a problem.

Today‘s ride was a cluster F. The ride leader’s electric shifting was dead despite being charged yesterday. Ten miles in another guy broke a chain. Two of the group came within inches of T-boning a delivery van two miles from the finish. On the positive side the noon start (to let it warm up) allowed me to get in a glorious 1.5 hours of loud guitar pre-ride. So now I’m home safe and with a full belly with half a drunk on. Wife left me this morning for some Florida sun with her girlfriends. College football tomorrow night and all day Saturday. Life is good. I just hope the bike pump doesn’t over inflate the blow up doll who comes out of storage when the Mrs. is gone. Lol
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If the blow up doll is a Pirelli, I wouldn't chance it...
 
I'm not into tubeless or hookless for road. I'm happy running latex tubes. I've never been particularly puncture prone and the Continental GP 5000 tires I run hold up great. I have a few cuts in the rear tire, with only one of them resulting in a flat. I do want to get a couple of TPU tubes for compact spares, though.

I see tubeless as a must for the gravel here, which often consists of crushed seashells. I find so many little seepy holes in my tires. Being able to plug 'em on the fly is great as well; thankfully I've only had to do that once so far. My carbon gravel wheels are hookless, but I'm not sold on any of the claimed benefits. I'm much more impressed with the fact that the spoke holes don't go through the rim bed, so no tape required.
 
As usual Mr. Weatherman got it wrong by assuring us there would be no rain before 3pm. At noon, 20 miles into a cold raw day’s ride, the rain came. Fortunately, an available detour got us back to the start after enduring 5 miles of cold rain. I guess it’s better than being caught out in unpredicted snow which has happened to me on quite a few occasions over the years.
 
tiboy said:
As usual Mr. Weatherman got it wrong by assuring us there would be no rain before 3pm. At noon, 20 miles into a cold raw day’s ride, the rain came. Fortunately, an available detour got us back to the start after enduring 5 miles of cold rain. I guess it’s better than being caught out in unpredicted snow which has happened to me on quite a few occasions over the years.
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That's OK I guess... now to snuggle up to that blow up doll and a nice snifter of brandy...
 
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