Daspydyr 

A recent thread on Tire pressure got me wondering about riders style, experience, terrain and riding style. If you would, please provide some details for a less than scientific survey.

Rider height and weight, Bike (rigid, HT F/S) favorite terrain, favorite style (XC, DH, Commuting CX, other you may think of) and level of riding (novice, recreational, sport and competitive) tire size and tire pressure.

Humor me!

Santaria

6' @ 220 lbs; 2013 Salsa Vaya 2, road/gravel, Commuting, CX. Cat 3 still, 700x38 - 60PSI (the max my rims will support).

dminor 

6'-1"; 185 lbs; both full-suspension (lots and lots more); fav=DH, nxt fav=AM; Cat 1, competitive; Tires: DH=2.5 @ 20-25 psi; AM=2.25 @ 30-40 psi.



Oh, and it's 'poll,' not 'pole,' you pollcat - - FTFY.

Pamestique 

Santa Cruz Superlight and Juliana (girly Superlight), ride mostly cross-country terrain but trails can be rocky, rooty and sandy. Riding mountain bikes since mid-80 still have the original rigid Rockhopper. No longer agressive (serious recreational) but like to climb - favorite thing to do is a long, grinding climbs on fireroad and flow downhill on singletrack. Sunday did a 6 mile climb on singletrack and a short crazy downhill on fireroad and then a short singletrack before returning on fireroad.

5'8" weight: none of your business but I post in C & A; bikes - both full suspension 26ers, tires on both bikes 2.2 Kenda Nevergals. psi generally 35- 40 depending on what trails I am riding.

Daspydyr 

OH me, 6' 3" 225, Cross country, desert country 90% of the time. Single track, power line road double tracks. Full suspension Scott Spark 20 running a Geax Saguaro 2.0 on the back, 30 pounds, Kenda Karma 2.1 at 35 up front. Getting ready to replace the front with a Maxxis High Roller.

Zephyr11

5'3, 110lbs
Yeti ASR-SL, Jamis Komodo, DMR Drone
If it were up to me, I'd do nothing but packed dirt and rock gardens, but since I've been stuck on the east coast it's been more rooty crap. It's mostly XC-ish stuff, and the Komodo is overkill, but whatever, it's fun. I prefer rides that are mostly up then mostly down so I get the boring part over with and out of the way. Ideally the Drone would be on dirt, but lately it's been wood and concrete. With wrong tires for wood and concrete.
Recreational, I guess. I don't compete on the bike. I compete pretty seriously with running and that's enough competitive stress for me...the bike is my chill-out fun time.
2.1 on the weeniemobile, 2.35 on others (Drone is a 24")
I pump them up to 30, but don't pump them up before every ride, so they probably get quite a bit lower. Oh, and the Drone gets more, depending on what I'm doing with it.

Dannihilator

6' 200lbs.
Bike: Rigid 26x2.2, Continental Race Kings when in dirt mode 65 psi, 26x2.2 Maxxis Holy Rollers @65psi when in street mode.

ColinL

6'0 176lbs that's a big fat ... should be 165-168 in top riding shape. Working a lot of OT this year.

Bike: Santa Cruz Blur FS 26" MTB with Geax Saguaro TNT 2.2" F & 2.0" rear (tubeless)
singletrack - 27psi F / 30psi R
pavement - 35 psi F/ 40 psi R

Bike: Cannondale Quick CX with Hutchinson Bulldog CX 700x34 F&R (tubeless)
sidewall says 33-50 psi tubeless. 33 doesn't work for me at all, anywhere. 50 is sluggish on the road but I never feel the rim.
gravel road - 45 psi F / 50 psi R
pavement - 60 psi F / 68 psi R

Bike: Litespeed M1 with Continental GP4000S 700x25 F&R
pavement - 90 psi F / 100 psi R

paradigm shifte

6' 175lbs

A mountain bike, 2.4 front tire usually really squishy, 2.4 rear a little less squishy, used for mountain biking.

Papa Wheelie

6'3", 205 pounds Salsa Spearfish (full suspension, XC) 32 front and 34 rear Specialized Stumpjumper (hard tail, XC) 30 front, 32 rear Cannondale Six13 90 front, 100 rear

Duke of Kent

28 year old male XC/AM rider/racer. Pro XC racer, been known to race a Super D or two as well, when my profession allows. 5'6" 143lbs.

Two bikes:

Chinese carbon 29er HT with 100mm SID RCT3, on ENVE XCs w/240s, Rocket Ron at 24psi (f), Renegade at 26psi (r) or DT Swiss 950T w/TUFO XC2 Plus tubulars at 20psi/22psi (f/r).

Santa Cruz Blur LT Carbon w/DT Swiss EXM150 and Fox CTD: Chinese carbon 30mm wide rims on AC hubs, Nobby Nic 2.35 Snakeskin 25psi (f), 28psi (r).

Pamestique 

Daspydyr... thanks for starting this thread. I am beginning to think I use too much pressure in my tires. Might lower it a bit and see how the tire rolls...

slowride454

5' 11" 230 male - all around novice and fatty

bike:
GT Karokoram 29er hardtail - Kenda small block 8 - 29 x 2.1 w/ Stans tubeless conversion - mostly XC with a few races in the clyde class - also used for pulling kiddie trailer around town. 15-35psi depending on the trail. 50 on the road

Bike:
Soma Double Cross Disc - Panasonic Urban Max 700c x 35 - commuting and gravel grinding - 90psi

Bike:
Specialized Roubaix SL2 - Specialized Roubaix tires 700c x 25 - commuting, group rides, centuries - 110psi

Daspydyr 

Thanks Pam, I going to play with some lower pressure this weekend.

colleen c

5ft 8 1/2. Haven't look at the weight scale for a while nor am I planning to do so anytime soon. Bike is a 2012 stunpjumper comp FS with 2.1 ground control rear and 2.2 pergatory front. I run both at 35 psi. I have my Rear Triad shock set on pro pedal or open. Front shock were set in the softer side from the LBS. I ride mostly trail consist of single track and fire road. There are rooted and drainage pipe sticking out where I ride so some minor jumps are mixed in along the ride. No pinch flat so far.

The lower pressure works great for hard cornering where higher pressure skid a lot. Same with maintaining traction steep uphill. Only drawback for me is that I noticed a harder time preloading the wheel for a hop over obstacle when compare to higher pressure. This probably more likely due to my lack of skill. Oh well practice make perfect but the tradeoff is well worth it.

I am considering going tubless since the tires and rims are Specialized Bliss ready.

Medic795

6'3, 315 lbs, hardtail 29er, pressure 70 front and back, mostly cross country and singletrack riding (upstate NY), definitely a novice rider

JoeMan

5 ft 8 inches. I try to keep my weight what the pro peloton does - 2.1 pounds per inch of height.
My Cannondale F1 is no lightweight so I want to keep my own weight low to be a better climber.
I inflate my tires at the lower end of the recommended rates posted on the tire.

k_allison510

5'10" 210 lbs. and counting. Hard tail 29er. XC. Canyon trails and street. Keep it about 40 psi on the dirt and 70 on the street.

ColinL

interesting.. what's the sidewall of your tire say for max pressure?

k_allison510

It says the max is 75 psi. I didn't figure the extra 5 would make a difference so I run them 5 under just to be on the safe side.

ColinL

That's considerably higher than I would've expected. Normally you see 75 psi only on tires well under 2.0" wide.

DX-MAN

6'1", 235+; Kona Coiler Supreme (FS, 5+" travel f/r); flowing singletrack/light tech; commuting, trails, light urban; intermediate; 26x2.0, 50+psi. (MOST of my riding is the commute, but I use that to get silly sometimes....)

C Law

6'2'' 190 ish. Usually 20 ish pounds in 29er tubeless tires. XC riding and racing. Maybe a bit higher is the back after thanksgiving dinner but never more than 23-24. expert XC rider. And maybe a few pounds higher in the front running a suspension fork, but still never more than 23 or so depending on the course.

Pamestique 

So I rode last night - my local little route - it's alittle bit of everything - singletrack, fire road, rock garden, sand, short ups and down. I lowered the pressure to 30 psi both front and back. It seems like the bike did better through the rock garden and sand so I am going to experiment a bit more this week and get it dialed in - maybe 30 front and 35 rear.

I notice that everyone using lower pressure have tubeless - I am still old school with tubes so I suspect I should not go lower than 30...

dminor 

^^ All depends on your rims and how you ride. If you're not in the habit of attacking rock gardens full-on and/or your rims are decently wide, you probably have more room to get away with low pressures than you'd think.