tire pressure for crit

ecandl said:

I've been training for a criterium this saturday by taking hard corners (75 degree turns) at speed (18-22 mph). Several times I have hit grape size or smaller rocks at the apex of the turn and have felt my wheel lose contact making it difficult to stay on my line. One time, my front tire skidded sideways and I had to bunny-hop the curb and cross a lawn.

1. Is this normal?

2. What can you do to better stay on line when you hit a rock?

3. Is lower tire pressure better? ( I weigh 155lbs and I dropped my psi from 115 to 105 and it seemed to help although the rocks may have been smaller today) I don't want to increase rolling resistance unless I need to.

I would hope a crit course would be free of debris but this race will be on city streets and I would assume conditions will not be perfect.

Thanks

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usually organizers will sweep the corners of courses, there should be no debris on corners of your race... if there is bring it to the attention of race officials.

i find the best way to deal with debris on a corner is to corner into the the turn - do a straight line though the debris and come out of lean - then corner after the debris to finish the turn... there is no answer to cornering through debris... you either you slow down or you make sure you while you are going though it you montenarily straighten up your bike and your line.... just can't lean on debris at speed.

also, don't know if you know this but when cornering all you weight needs to be on the outside leg...

105 sounds pretty good for your weight... i would rather go with a lower pressure for crits and be more sure footed and be able to corner at higher speed.. i'm 122lbs and run ~80lbs front and ~85 rear and it's like riding on rails, you just have so much more confidence.. doen't slow you down.. with the higher pressure you'll actually ride slower because you'll be skittering through corners and you'll be too scared to really go fast an lean into corners...