Kids tyre pressure
johnboy183
Posts: 832
Morning all
My 10 year old is loving cx at the minute. He's consistently achieving mid-table mediocrity which I think is great, given he always has to start at the rear of the field. He races on his (admittedly) high-end mtb which is both a help and a hinderannce. His weight is 30kg approx. So what pressure should I be looking for in his tyres please? Would 30psi be to low?
TIA
My 10 year old is loving cx at the minute. He's consistently achieving mid-table mediocrity which I think is great, given he always has to start at the rear of the field. He races on his (admittedly) high-end mtb which is both a help and a hinderannce. His weight is 30kg approx. So what pressure should I be looking for in his tyres please? Would 30psi be to low?
TIA
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Comments
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Can you clarify what tyres/what size - would be useful
If you are looking for improvement, then a CX bike is probably the way forward..0 -
26" clinchers. Probably get a CX for next season but for now just wondering what general advice would be...0
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30psi is in the ballpark, depending on conditions. You still didn't say what tyres you have, so maybe try fitting a pair of 26" CX Pros as a start and see if that helps.0
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got my lad a cross bike and its helped no end, i run his tyres at around 30psi he is also around 30kg0
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Stumpmagnet wrote:got my lad a cross bike and its helped no end, i run his tyres at around 30psi he is also around 30kg
So that will be in narrower cross tyres vs MTB tyres of the OP's kid. 30 sounds like it could be on the high side depending on the tyres. I ride with about 35 on my MTB (2.35 tyres) and I'm a lot more than 30 kg.0 -
30 psi sounds very high to me. I can't recall exactly what I put in my lads' tyres but it is nearer 20 psi.
My two race under 10s and under 12s and are both quite skinny, although I am not sure exactly how much they weigh. They have both been on the podium so that pressure seems to work for them. They use 35mm Schwalbe CX Pros. On a MTB tyre you could probably go lower. I am fairly sure I have gone below 20 psi before now, but if you go very low you start picking up bits of grass and the like in the rim, which implies to me that there is a chance of rolling a clincher at those pressures.
Running low pressures also presumes the technique to avoid tree roots and the like.
For comparison, I am 75KG and run PDXs with butyl inner tubes at around 28 psi and haven't had a puncture. I can't see why a 10 year old would need a higher pressure than me!0 -
johnboy183 wrote:Morning all
My 10 year old is loving cx at the minute. He's consistently achieving mid-table mediocrity which I think is great, given he always has to start at the rear of the field. He races on his (admittedly) high-end mtb which is both a help and a hinderannce. His weight is 30kg approx. So what pressure should I be looking for in his tyres please? Would 30psi be to low?
TIA
I run 30psi for rock bashing on my MTB, at 90+ kg
For CX i.e. Grassy muddy parks I'd start at 20psi and see how much the tyres squirm.0 -
Thanks all. Can't remember precisely what his tyres are but definitely knobbly mtb, possibly 1.9" and relatively new, kenda possibly? Will try different nes before tomorrow's race and see how he feels0
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It also depends a bit on how stiff the sidewall of the tyre is. If it is very stiff then at low pressures it can sometimes fold in corners. Basically just use common sense!0
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For proper muddy races, we go way low. Last season my daughter was about 32-33kg, and in the really muddy conditions she was going very well indeed on about 8psi. I generally start with the pressure I think is right for me, scale according to relative all-up weight (bike + rider) and then add a couple of psi because she's on clinchers rather than tubs.
Bear in mind that because they're going more slowly, kids generally don't corner as hard as we do. However, because they carry so much less momentum, they are more prone to run out of traction on short climbs.Pannier, 120rpm.0 -
We're probably in danger of overthinking this a bit. Does he slip out in muddy corners? Does he suffer from a lot of pinch flats? If the answer to these two questions is no then it's probably about right. Anything else is just guess work.
We gauge our pressure by riding the course and adjusting as needed. Let him do a practice lap and ask him. Although my son has been racing for four years and I just whack his tyres up to what feels about right, let him ride and ask him if his tyre pressure is ok. Not once in 4 years has he not said, it's fine. Which suggests to me that either I've miraculously got it at the right pressure for the course and conditions every time or it doesn't really matter that much.0 -
Yes, fair point. The only time I recall my kids complaining was one race this year when the eldest's tyres clagged up so much that his wheels wouldn't go round after half a lap.0
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devhads wrote:We're probably in danger of overthinking this a bit. Does he slip out in muddy corners? Does he suffer from a lot of pinch flats? If the answer to these two questions is no then it's probably about right. Anything else is just guess work.
We gauge our pressure by riding the course and adjusting as needed. Let him do a practice lap and ask him. Although my son has been racing for four years and I just whack his tyres up to what feels about right, let him ride and ask him if his tyre pressure is ok. Not once in 4 years has he not said, it's fine. Which suggests to me that either I've miraculously got it at the right pressure for the course and conditions every time or it doesn't really matter that much.
Suspect I'm with you on this really. He's never complained about traction or lack of, so I guess I'm a bike/tyre pressure guru :roll:
Thanks all for the responses and maybe see you tomorrow at chetwynd barracks...0
