recommed tyre pressure on wet off roads please?

Anonymous

Hello, Just a short question, due the bad weather we had recently, I was wondering what tyre pressure people use on the wet off roads trails like Afan, etc

I ride steel hardtail and my body weight is 13.5kg, I did a small ride at my local woods, the rear wheel kept was slipping when pedal hard uphill on wet rocks, is that normal to expect that or my tyre is likely too hard?

Any advice will be appricated, thanks

bike-a-swan

at 13.5kg i imagine you could pretty much run what you like without pinching..

either way, the standard advice seems to be to start around the bottom of the recommended pressure on the tyre and play around there until you find something that feels right. depends on the tyre and your priorities really. saying that, wet rocks on a climb can be asking a fair bit regardless.

Shaggy_Dog

Good advice, also try spinning smaller gears and aim to pedal as smoothly as possible, clipless pedals make wet riding much more do-able. I've been known to run as little as 18PSI on Bontrager Mud-x's when using Stan's Notubes tubeless conversion, I wouldn't run any less than 25 if you use tubes.

Alex

If you're riding cross country, with normal sized 1.9-2.3" tyres, and are of an average weight you really don't want to be running any less than 25psi, probably nearer 30

Why? Because the majority of your route will disadvantage lower pressures, be that through a higher risk of pinching on rocks or roots, or simply the fact that low pressures on narrow tyres give very high rolling resistances, or from a safety point of view, running low pressures on XC tyres gives a high risk of the tyre rolling off the rim, or exposing sidewall to the ground during corners which could lead to an accident.

Without a tyre designed to be run at low pressure, you gain nothing from running low pressure. This is equally true of non DH specific UST tyres. Underinflated, they drag, burp and roll.

It is worth lowering your tyre pressure if conditions are slippery, but not by much! 5psi will make a VAST difference to the way the tyre performs. The writing on the sidewall isn't a guess, it's a recommendation for best performance.

Better still, ride to the conditions.
The classic noob error is to approach too slowly, to bump into the obstacle with all your weight, start to slow, and then to attempt to pedal, the rear wheel slides, your knee connects with the stem, you swear, stop, and then your buddy rides into the back of you. Generally there's an audience and you feel like a prat. We've all done it.

When you approach a slippery obstacle, carry some momentum and go light over the most slippery bit, easing off the power. That means you won't slip, which means you'll stay composed and you'll get over the obstacle.

Imaginet, when you're climbing something like the steep rooty rocky steps on Afan's Whites Level climb, that you're Danny MacAskill (especially @1:47 of this clip), after all Trials is derived from Cross Country. Lift your front wheel so that it lightly passes over the obstacle, as soon as it's on the top, transfer your weight to the front of the bike and scoop up the back, allowing it to go light, in doing so moving the bike forwards underneath you.
Kabam, you're over the obstacle.

This works for any situation where you need to go from one level to another without the ability to just pedal up it or slam into it. That's walls, benches, grassy banks, steps, rocks, rooty things, anything.

Trail centres are a chance to hone your skills, to make the equipment you've got do things that you didn't think it could do.

If you can't do something at a trail centre, don't be scared to get off the bike, wheel it back down the trail 50 yards and have another go. Don't be defeated by terrain!

Northwind

Alex wrote:

Imaginet, when you're climbing something like the steep rooty rocky steps on Afan's Whites Level climb, that you're Danny MacAskill (especially @1:47 of this clip), after all Trials is derived from Cross Country. Lift your front wheel so that it lightly passes over the obstacle, as soon as it's on the top, transfer your weight to the front of the bike and scoop up the back, allowing it to go light, in doing so moving the bike forwards underneath you.

Then ride vertically up a tree, and do a backflip

Anonymous

Thanks for the replys, will take board your views and adjust my riding in the wet trails aswell different tyre pressures.

Cheers