I am in the process of yet another revamp of my homebuilt SWB. When completed, I'm selling it to a friend. The object of the retrofit is to get even closer to the Lightning Thunderbolt.
All my bent riding, to date, has been on high pressure tires (100 psi). The ride has always been tooth jarringly harsh. The bike is getting all my low budget parts. The buyer could care less about speed. So it gets steel rims and 60 psi tires.
When I test rode it, I was amazed at the difference in comfort. The lower pressure, larger tires add quite a bit of suspension effect to the ride.
-- Miles of Smiles,
Tom Blum Winter Haven, Florida Homebuilts: SWB Tour Easy Clone Speed Machine Clone
Total agreement. I ride a trike with 100 psi max tires. At 100psi the steering is "hyper quick" and it takes effort to spin smoothly enough to not get the "tadpole weave" when acclerating. High speed is scary. At the recommended 60-70 psi the ride is cushy soft, only slightly less fast, MUCH nicer to handle and even fun at high speed. I was amazed that tire pressure could make that much difference! Now when I see two people disagreeing about the ride of some bike or trike, I figure one may well have ridden at max psi and the other at something less. THAT much difference.....
