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Like I've said, I got a new 14 SG a month and a week ago. I have not been able to ride it yet due to the weather.. The two 50 deg, sunny days last week I worked a ton of hours.. Was planning to ride today as I had a very light day for once... Alas, it snowed again overnight.. Anyhow, to get to my point, last night on a whim I checked the tire pressures. My front and rear were both 26.. Yikes.. Dunno why I checked them, just did... So I pumped hem up to 36f, 40r; it's been cold all month, back to mid 20's today.. My bike is in a garage.
Did I put too much air in there? I'm wondering that after reading all of this thread.
All you need to do is get the tires to the pressure required for that brand/model tire, when the tire is cold. Seeing as it's a new bike I'm assuming that it has the original tires on it. Your owners manual will tell you what that pressure should be. Set it to that, with the tires cold. The next time you check pressures, do it when the tires are cold.
If you replace your tires then you go by the pressures stated by the tire manufacturer, not the manual.
Yeah, the book days 36/40. I had just been curious if once it warms up, reading all the above, is the warmth expansion going to be substantial, leading to too much pressure? or what..
Sorry for the silly question lol. Cabin fever. I wanna ride the damn thing instead of spending a month reading about it and second guessing every part it came with.. Lol
While there are rarely silly questions, there can be a bunch of silly answers. lol
That's why the COLD tire pressure as stipulated by that tire manufacturer is what you go by. That pressure takes into consideration the amount of expansion that occurs when the tire heats up. This occurs naturally just from riding the bike.
Some/most tires have the max (added) pressure on the sidewall of the tire.
While there are rarely silly questions, there can be a bunch of silly answers. lol
That's why the COLD tire pressure as stipulated by that tire manufacturer is what you go by. That pressure takes into consideration the amount of expansion that occurs when the tire heats up. This occurs naturally just from riding the bike.
Some/most tires have the max (added) pressure on the sidewall of the tire.
You should fill the tire to the maximum recommended pressure only if you will be carrying the maximum recommended weight on the bike. Which means, in general, riding two up with some gear. If I do not have near the MAX recommended weight (riding solo), I keep each tire at 2-3 psi less than the recommended MAX pressure as specified by the tire manufacturer.
Overfilling the tire unnecessarily only reduces the contact patch (traction) and cause unnecessary wear in the center of the tread.
You should fill the tire to the maximum recommended pressure only if you will be carrying the maximum recommended weight on the bike. Which means, in general, riding two up with some gear. If I do not have near the MAX recommended weight (riding solo), I keep each tire at 2-3 psi less than the recommended MAX pressure as specified by the tire manufacturer.
Overfilling the tire unnecessarily only reduces the contact patch (traction) and cause unnecessary wear in the center of the tread.
This is something I wonder about. There's less tread in contact with the asphalt at any given time, but isn't that tread being pressed onto the asphalt with greater force? If so, does the increased pressure make up for the reduced surface area?
I usually just check my tire pressure with the Tires cold, air them to within 2 or 3 pounds of the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall of the tire and ride. I don't worry much about the fluctuation due to ambient air temp
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This is something I wonder about. There's less tread in contact with the asphalt at any given time, but isn't that tread being pressed onto the asphalt with greater force? If so, does the increased pressure make up for the reduced surface area?
What would stop faster a car with bicycle tires or one with racing slicks?
also its not uncommon to lose around 1-2 psi a month with air.. Less with Nitrogen, IMO that's the biggest advantage of putting in Nitrogen in the tires, which I don't do because I check my tires every so often and I have the compressor in the garage when needed..
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