tire pressure

[Lhoffman]

I'm new at cycling, I've never tried riding regularly, but I thought I might give it a shot this
season to see if it's something I want to
do. I thought I might use what I have for now, and if I take to it, buy a decent bike next year. So
I dug up an old Ross 10-speed, took the whole thing apart, cleaned it and greased it, and
replaced what needed replacing. I've got it all back together and in good working order, but
before I hit the road, I need to know about tire pressure. The tires are still in decent shape,
so I have not replaced them. They say, on the side, to inflate to 45 PSI. Now, I've read that
road tires should be inflated to 90-100 PSI. So where does that leave me? I'm also wondering
about general guidelines for tire inflation, apart from PSI; that is, what the signs are of a
tire that is underinflated or overinflated.

 

[Antti Salonen]

lhoffman <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm new at cycling, I've never tried riding regularly, but I thought I might give it a shot this
> season to see if it's something I want to
> do. I thought I might use what I have for now, and if I take to it, buy a decent bike next year.
> So I dug up an old Ross 10-speed, took the whole thing apart, cleaned it and greased it, and
> replaced what needed replacing. I've got it all back together and in good working order, but
> before I hit the road, I need to know about tire pressure. The tires are still in decent
> shape, so I have not replaced them. They say, on the side, to inflate to 45 PSI. Now, I've
> read that road tires should be inflated to 90-100 PSI. So where does that leave me? I'm also
> wondering about general guidelines for tire inflation, apart from PSI; that is, what the
> signs are of a tire that is underinflated or overinflated.

Appropriate tyre pressure depends on the width of the tyre (air volume) as well as the weight of the
rider. 45 psi is too low for traditional narrow road tyres, because that pressure is not enough to
keep them from bottoming out if you hit something like a pothole. But perhaps your tyres are wider
than the traditional 20-25 millimetres. How wide are they?

-as

 

[Sheldon Brown]

lhoffman wrote:

> I'm new at cycling, I've never tried riding regularly, but I thought I might give it a shot this
> season to see if it's something I want to
> do. I thought I might use what I have for now, and if I take to it, buy a decent bike next year.

This approach _sometimes_ works, but sometimes those who go at it that way find that riding an old
clunker that doesn't fit them properly is awkward and uncomfortable.

I believe that a lot of people who _could_ have really enjoyed cycling get turned off by such
experiences.

> So I dug up an old Ross 10-speed, took the whole thing apart, cleaned it and greased it, and
> replaced what needed replacing. I've got it all back together and in good working order, but
> before I hit the road, I need to know about tire pressure. The tires are still in decent shape, so
> I have not replaced them. They say, on the side, to inflate to 45 PSI. Now, I've read that road
> tires should be inflated to 90-100 PSI. So where does that leave me? I'm also wondering about
> general guidelines for tire inflation, apart from PSI; that is, what the signs are of a tire that
> is underinflated or overinflated.

My general article on Tires goes into this in some detail, see: http://sheldonbrown.com/tires then
click on the link to the section on "pressure."

You might find more useful stuff at http://sheldonbrown.com/beginners

Sheldon "Info" Brown +----------------------------------------------------------+
| The people who live in a Golden Age usually go around | complaining how yellow everything looks.
| | -- Randall Jarrell |
+----------------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton,
Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts
shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

 

[Nospam@Killspam]

Grats! and welcome aboard!!!!

> I thought I might use what I have for now, and if I take to it, buy a decent bike next year. So I
> dug up an old Ross 10-speed,
Please, please, please!!! keep in mind that the 'ol 10-speed from yesteryear really can't compare
with today's modern bikes. There have been SO many advances and changes, it's hard to compare. I say
this NOT to tell you that your bike is crappy by today's standards, or to convince you to go out and
buy a brand new bike, but to plant the seed that if you get into this and find that you don't like
biking due to your BIKE, that's and easy thing to change. I started out much like you. Needed
something for exercise, wanted to try out biking since it was something I did in the past. Wanted to
start out with an old or used bike since I didn't want to sink alot of $$$ into it. I posted
questions here and got lot's of GREAT feedback. The #1 feedback and prob the #1 thing that I did
RIGHT was to go to a local bike shop (LBS) and actually tell them what I was looking to do. I tried
a couple of shops before I found one that I liked. Tried out some bikes from diff manuf and finally
got one. I've never looked back nor felt like I made the wrong decision.

> They say, on the side, to inflate to 45 PSI. Now, I've read that road tires should be inflated to
> 90-100 PSI. So where does that leave me?
Don't worry about what other people say road tires need to be inflated to. You need to adhere to
what YOUR tires state. Obviously, just because most people are running 90+ these days, doesn't mean
YOUR tires will run that. Sheldon replied to your post. Listen to the man! Read the info from his
site and try out his suggestions. Bottom line, you're going to find out pretty quickly if you're
overinflating or underinflating your tires.

It's a GREAT sport to get into. One that CAN be done with the old 10-speed from yesteryear. Alot of
it has to do with your mindset. If you are just looking to get out and get some exercise and enjoy
being outside in the fresh air, you can do that on pretty much anything. But if you are looking to
spend more than occassional time on the bike. PLEASE listen to people's advice and go to the LBS and
get fitted for a bike properly. It will make your time on the bike that much more enjoyable.

Hope that helped.

 

[Ru]

Not really about tire pressure - about the bike:

Almost 11 years ago I was still riding my 1979 Motobecane - a pretty nice bike for its time, I
think. I enjoyed riding it, and did about 1000 miles on it the last year I owned
it.But it was stolen. So I bought a new bike - a Giant road bike. Not such a great bike for its time
(budget dictated) - but *way* better than the old Motobecane! The number of miles I rode
immediately increased by a *large* amount. Since then I've averaged 3,000 miles a year - all
because the new bike made it *so* much more enjoyable.

The moral: Ride and enjoy your old clunker - but seriously consider getting something newer/better

"lhoffman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm new at cycling, I've never tried riding regularly, but I thought I might give it a shot this
> season to see if it's something I want to
> do. I thought I might use what I have for now, and if I take to it, buy a decent bike next year.
> So I dug up an old Ross 10-speed, took the whole thing apart, cleaned it and greased it, and
> replaced what needed replacing. I've got it all back together and in good working order, but
> before I hit the road, I need to know about tire pressure. The tires are still in decent
> shape, so I have not replaced them. They say, on the side, to inflate to 45 PSI. Now, I've
> read that road tires should be inflated to 90-100 PSI. So where does that leave me? I'm also
> wondering about general guidelines for tire inflation, apart from PSI; that is, what the
> signs are of a tire that is underinflated or overinflated.

 

[A Muzi]

"lhoffman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm new at cycling, I've never tried riding regularly, but I thought I might give it a shot this
> season to see if it's something I want to
> do. I thought I might use what I have for now, and if I take to it, buy a decent bike next year.
> So I dug up an old Ross 10-speed, took the whole thing apart, cleaned it and greased it, and
> replaced what needed replacing. I've got it all back together and in good working order, but
> before I hit the road, I need to know about tire pressure. The tires are still in decent
> shape, so I have not replaced them. They say, on the side, to inflate to 45 PSI. Now, I've
> read that road tires should be inflated to 90-100 PSI. So where does that leave me? I'm also
> wondering about general guidelines for tire inflation, apart from PSI; that is, what the
> signs are of a tire that is underinflated or overinflated.

When we say "road tires" here on r.b.t. we usually mean a 700-23 or 700-25.

Your Ross is probably a 38-590 ( 26x1-3/8 EA3) which is a larger cross section. There are better
quality tires made in that size ( _is_ that your size?) by IRC for example rated at 65psi.

Generally wider tires need less pressure and skinnier tires higher pressure. There are other
variables such as rim material and section, tire casing material and manufacturing size
variance of both.

--
Andrew Muzi http://www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April 1971

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Wed, 04 Jun 2003 11:28:40 -0400, Sheldon Brown <[email protected]> wrote:

>My general article on Tires goes into this in some detail, see: http://sheldonbrown.com/tires then
>click on the link to the section on "pressure."

That'd be http://sheldonbrown.com/tires.html . The other link 404s.

Jasper "Addendum" Janssen

 

[Chris Zacho "Th]

If the tire says 45, inflate it to 45. The road tires you are thinking of are the narrower, usually
higher performance "racing" tires. The narrower cross section requires higher pressures to make up
for the shorter distance between rim and road, thereby preventing pinch flats.

Your tire sounds like what used to (and may still be) considered a middle weight tire.

May you have the wind at your back. And a really low gear for the hills! Chris

Chris'Z Corner "The Website for the Common Bicyclist": http://www.geocities.com/czcorner