Dark Arrow

Gday all

I'm looking to do a month long tour with my wife around July. We ride daily and I check our tyre pressures once or twice a week. I refill tyre pressure back to where we want them about once a week. Now that is all great with a nice tyre pump at home here but on the road even though I will have a nice (small) pump I realise that even checking tyre pressures will allow some pressure to reduce,,, so begs the question to you more experienced tourers..

How often do you check your tyre pressures when on tour?

Bear

Steve0000

I give them a squeeze every morning to ensure there is enough air in them. That's accurate enough for me.

staehpj1

With a gauge? Not at all except with the gauge on the pump when filling or topping off. I usually give the tires a squeeze with my thumb daily or even a couple times per day and top them off every few days or any time they feel soft.

prathmann

Do a quick finger check in the morning and pump up about once a week. Don't carry any pressure gauge when touring.

Rob_E

When I used to run 700x30-something, with pressures upwards of 70 psi, I found the squeeze test was insufficient, but I could feel a squirm when they were a little too low. At that point I’d watch for an opportunity to use a floor pump with a gauge, or, failing that, just give it a couple of pumps. Now that I’m running fatter, lower pressure, 26 inch tires, I find that I can use the squeeze test pretty reliably. At home I pay attention to the actual pressure, but when traveling, I will fly with the tires deflated, fill them with my portable pump, and ride for weeks without ever looking at a gauge. I feel like the more heavily loaded my bike is, the more immediately obvious it is when the tires are low.

Tourist in MSN

Touring, I use 37mm tires or 50mm tires or 57mm tires. The 37mm, maybe once a week. The 57mm tires, about every two weeks. The 50mm tires, have not been on a long enough tour to need to check them. Narrower tires seem to need more frequent checking in my opinion.

I wrote up a piece on some commonly used pumps for touring a few years ago. The forum people changed software since then, so the graphics are now pretty weird, but you might want to review what I had to say on a couple pumps.
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ive-pumps.html

gerryl

A couple of times a month, clearly not enough. 🤔

Dark Arrow

Thanks everyone,, Yes I did mean checking with a gauge.

I notice about 5psi loss (maybe a little less but somewhere around there) every week from a total of 80psi to start with

This opens an even bigger can of worms as to what pressure to ride at.
I'm not light 95kgs (down 11kgs from a year ago) My Mrs is a tiny girl though 50 odd kilos so she isn't as much of an issue as me
We are on steel touring bikes with a full load of camping gear.
We have DTSwiss 545d wheels that are marked 5.5bar (80ish psi) max for 32mm to 35mm tyres

Our Schwalbe Marathons state Pressure:4.50 - 6.50 Bar (65 - 95 psi)
It doesn't take much loss to get below the 4.5bar 65psi lower limit.
Looking at the DT Swiss site they have changed the spec on the DT 545d to 6.8bar for 32mm tyres and 6.0bar for the 35mm tyres.. That gives a bit more comfort space in my mind but our rims are tagged at 5.5bar so not sure if they updated the rim or the rating lol.

All that got me thinking I will need to ensure my tyre pressure is high enough to avoid snake bite but low enough to not cause trouble with our rims. A guage seemed like a good idea.. but at the cost of losing some pressure each time it was used.

Thanks for the link Tourist MSN.. I will read it now

Bear

Dark Arrow

LOL I was just reading your post and thinking it looked familiar.. Then I noticed I made the last comment (to this date).. I'm getting old

Bear

FBinNY 

I toured for years (and still ride) tubulars with latex tubes. These lose about 10-15% of the initial pressure overnight, so every day started with the daily tire pump ritual. So no mini pumps, for me.

I rely on a full length frame pump capable of filling the tires to required pressure with minimum rime lost. My standby is the classic Silca Impero pump, and I know by arm feel when I'm finished. Usually it's 7 full strokes per tire per day.

If you're not riding tubulars, you can probably go a few days between topping off tires, but you still want to stay within 10% of your target. Doing so, not only ensures consistent performance, but I find it easier to top of smaller amounts more often.

MarcusT

Ditto

pbekkerh

I just look at my tyres, because I use tyre pressure indicators.

There is one type with a specific pressurer and another one that adapts to the start pressure and warns when a drop of a certain percentage is reached

J.Higgins 

Yep me too. You develop calibrated fingers after a while!

52telecaster

like some have said i check with my fingers every morning. i use a park frame pump so its pretty easy to bring them back up to plenty stiff... my personal psi!

Leebo

Check when needed? I use a topeak road morph with a built in gauge, works well.

Tourist in MSN

I learned when I worked at a bike shop and checked tire pressure several times a day that my thumb was not calibrated very well. I do not trust that for accurate estimate. But it does tell me if my pressure is going down fast so I still use my thumb to see if there was a sudden loss of pressure. Since I put less pressure in the front, I can use that as a semi-calibration tool, the front should feel a little softer by thumb measurement, but not by a lot.

The 15 percent tire drop theory was popular a ways back but not many references to it any more.
https://www.adventurecycling.org/def...SIRX_Heine.pdf

Unfortunately the chart does not go as far to the right as I would need for my loaded bike rear tire, so I drew straight lines further to the right to figure out what pressure to use for the weight on my rear tire.

Front wheel, the chart provides a pressure that in my opinion is too low, thus I instead usually run a front pressure that is about 75 to 85 percent of the rear pressure.

Unfortunately when I tour on a 50 or 57mm tire, the chart is of no help. But I never get pinch flats on those wider tires so I never worry about it that much. Just use a pressure that seems reasonable.


Send them an e-mail and ask if they changed their rim rating with no change in the rim or if they changed the materials and/or dimensions that warranted a change in rating.

Dark Arrow

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fietsbob

Unlike OP with his admittedly small on-board pump, I carried a long frame fit pump.. long stroke, for higher pressure..

622-40 , thorn resistant P/V tubes bumped up the rolling resistance.. and let me know when the PSI dropped..

rode for months, puncture free.. I had a light weight plastic p/v tire gauge with me..




....

acantor

The best thing about the Road Morph is that, despite its small size, it's easy (at least, relatively easy) to pump tires to high pressure. That's because it has a built-in foot rest.

jefnvk

I've taken to doing it every morning. Takes me all of 30 seconds with my Road Morph, and I set off knowing I am good.

djb

I am on a trip presently and I like to check every week, ish. The other day the front didn't feel right and when I stopped to check, the pressure had gone down to 35 psi , and felt a little squirmy and slow, so I got it back to the 42 that I've found to work for the load I have on the front of this bike, 45 rear.

I hadn't overly noticed the pressures going down in the previous days because I has been on some rough roads and some dirt/ sand, so the lowering of pressures had been a bonus, except now on good roads and another days worth of lower pressures, it was too much.
As a counter, yesterday s ride had some bad rough stuff, and if I had been less lazy, a couple of psi down on both tires would have helped, but I didn't expect such rough roads.

These pressures are with 50mm, actual measuring 45mm tires, with a 62kg guy with about 45 or 50lbs of stuff. 20kg 23 maybe?

Ps, I have a pump with gauge but still bring my old yet light decal gauge,I like how it's easy to read and use

Dark Arrow

Ok I got a response this morning. Although from a localish supplier and not DT Swiss themselves

Luke Dewar <Luke@apollobikes.com>
9:58 AM (6 hours ago)
to me
Hi,

Sorry for the delay. All DT SWISS product can follow the latest tire pressure sheet on website/ It will overrule how the sticker indicate.

Thanks,

Luke Dewar
Product Manager
Mobile 0439 799 471




3/333 Frankston Dandenong Rd, Dandenong South, VIC, 3175
Tel: (03) 9700 9400 /  Mob: 0439 799 471 /  Web: apollobikes.com

pdlamb

Thumb test when I remember to check it. Otherwise when the bike seems to be slow. That's 2-3 times a week where it's flat, 2-3 times a day in the mountains.

djb

Dark arrow, re testing pressure and losing air, I've never found that I lose more than a psi, but off course that depends on user error and how you do it.

Basically, you'll get a feel soon enough of how many psi you lose per half week, full week. Unless there is a partial leak, you should lose about the same per week, and a good pump will get to or past your ideal pressure.

jackrippah

Just my calibrated thumb and index finger + I know within feet of pushing off (especially when loaded) if I have low pressure and I bet you do too...