Tyre Pressure

foy

What tyre pressure should i be running on a hardtail with wtb 27.5 x 2.8 tyres. Mostly canal towpath and disused railway type cycling.

cooldad

2.8 tyres for canal paths?

foy

Yes cooldad the bike is a cannondale beast of the east, what size tyre would you suggest for the type of cycling i am doing?

cooldad

No idea, a fatbike just seems overkill for canal paths.

The Rookie

For canal tow paths, a 1.8 would be fine! You can usually ride them (carefully) on a road bike.

chrisdouglas

Does seem a tad overkill and I've no idea what fat bike pressures are anyway. But there's no definitive pressure to use it's all a matter of preference. You just gotta try some different ones out and see how it rides for you.

The Rookie

For full fat bikes tyres typical pressure are 6-8 psi, the BotE is a 27.5plus size tyre, I'd start with about 25% more than the minimum pressure stated on the sidewall or tyre manufacturers website*, if there is nothing there, 20Psi sounds sensible as a starting point.

* EDIT No pressure given http://www.wtb.com/products/bridger
1.2Kg each - holy mackerel - and that's with a 'lightweight' casing!

rockmonkeysc

You've got the wrong tyres for a canal towpath. No larger than 2" would be ideal with 45psi.
Doesn't matter how much air you put in a 2.8" tyre you're going to get lots of drag.
These semi fat bikes are ideal for Arianna or Utah. Completely wrong in this country. Having ridden one on a damp trail I'd certainly never buy one.

foy

The rims on this bike are 50mm wide rocketmonkey, have you any idea what size tyre i could maybe fit?

cooldad

It's just not really a towpath kind of bike.

foy

Cooldad taken on board your advice, good job i did not buy the bike then, i have hired it for the week but was thinking of swapping some tyres i had spare, they are 2.2 inches wide so probably will not fit the rim, thanks anyway for your advice.

The Rookie

I wouldn't recommend 2.2 tyres on a 50mm rim.

foy

Thanks rookie i will give that a miss like you said, bloody good job i did not buy the bike as it was £1099.

rockmonkeysc

For towpaths a hybrid or Cyclo-cross bike would be best.

Monty Dog

20psi would be too high for a 2.8" tyre IMO - I run my 29x3" Knards normally at 8F 10R (tubeless) so maybe 12/14 for smaller tyre/heavier rider - and the guy on the CX bike I passed at the weekend riding my 5"tyred fatbike obviously hadn't got the memo ;-) If you look as the amount of tyre tread in contact with the trail on a rounded plus tyre in comparison to a regular 2.2" tyre they're ain't much different plus you get the benefit of lower rolling resistance.

rockmonkeysc

In the dry the contact patch depends entirely to tyre pressure so a tyre a tyre at 14 psi will have double the contact area of a tyre at 28psi. Tyre width is irrelevant.
In the wet, when carving a rut in soft ground the fat tyre has to move more mud so resistance is much higher. A full fat bike tyre has so much area it doesn't often sink in to the mud and they're better than skinny tyres.
I notice that plus size tyres haven't got as popular as predicted and I haven't yet seen any pro racers (xc, enduro, dh) using them.

VWsurfbum

http://mtb.ubiqyou.com/