Bicycle Quarterly Tire Pressure Chart

Frank berto s tire pressure chart above first published in bicycle quarterly many years ago has received much attention.

Bicycle quarterly tire pressure chart. Road bike tyre pressures. 90psi 6 2bar front 93psi 6 4bar rear. Road bike tyres are run at a higher pressure than mountain bike tyres to reduce rolling resistance and the chance of pinch flat punctures. This tire has too little air it s squishy and hard to turn.

Secret gravel passes of the cascade range randonneurs in mid century france forgotten japanese mountain roads. According to enduro mountainbike magazine the psi varies if you have tubed or tubeless mountain bike tires. Heine believes that you lose the. Suggested tyre pressure for road bike tyres 25mm for a 70kg rider.

Narrow tires need more air pressure than wide ones. The problem with berto s chart is that he measured actual tires but back then wide tires weren t supple so his narrow tires are more supple than his wide ones and his pressures for wide tires are too low for. At bicycle quarterly we ve done a lot of research into the rolling resistance of tires at various pressures and on various road surfaces. Technical articles on the performance of wide tires frame stiffness and.

But what is the right tire pressure. These two extremes however represent only the upper and lower pressure limits. But as editor jan heine discusses here bicycle quarterly s real world testing indicates that when tyre pressures get too high there s no further reduction in rolling resistance. In bicycle quarterly you ll read.

This tire has too much air. It was already known that when measured on a smooth drum rolling resistance didn t decline much beyond a certain pressure. Inner tube tyre. Features that bring you inspiring discoveries.

A thin road tyre would have 6 8 bar of pressure much like a road bike have a look at our tyre pressure calculator for road bikes while for a fat bike tire a pressure of 0 5 bar will suffice. Mountain tires 25 to 35 psi. According to frank berto and jan heine of bicycle quarterly magazine two top bicycle science guys the most efficient bicycle tire pressure is one that gives you a 15 drop in tire height when you get on the bike. Note that the weights are per wheel.

And hybrid tires 40 to 70 psi. It appears to be linear for the slope of the curve see berto s tire pressure chart we are working on a new version of that for a bicycle quarterly feature on tire pressure. If you use tubed tires that are between 2 35 and 2 4 inches the pressure per tire should be 29 psi. For standard trekking wheels the most frequent choice would be a tyre pressure between 3 and 4 bar.

For tubeless tires that are the same size the pressure should be slightly lower just 26 psi.