Max Tire Pressure Label (700 x 32)
 

Hello All,
I have a quick question about tire pressure for my road bike (Trek Domane SL 5). The tire is the Bontrager R1 700 x 32 Hard-Case Lite.
If I remember correctly, the LBS inflated it to 90 and 95 psi (front and back). I weigh 190 lbs and live at 1200 ft MSL and the temperature is currently 60 deg F.
I went to air it up today and noticed that the tire is labeled with a "Max Air Pressure of 70 psi."
What should I air it up to?
Thanks!

Here are the labels on the tires.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0dc98451d0.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...478dac0264.jpg

If it really says max 70 psi, then you should adhere to that. > 70 psi or less.

60

Rule of thumb (which isn't always true) is that you can ignore the max pressure on the tire, but should pay attention to the max pressure of the rim.

But for a 32 mm and a not super heavy rider, experiment in the 50-60 psi range. More if you ride in a velodrome, on glass, or some other perfectly smooth surface, less on rough gravel. Lower pressures on wider tires (wider compared to the 23 to 25 mm many racing bikes use) are much more comfortable. Wider tires aren't meant for high pressure.

WTF... Looked it up online... One site recommends at my weight to go to 80 psi. https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/p...ressure-270668
I called the LBS where I bought it and they said to go to 90.
I called another LBS and they said to stick to the max of 70.
The tire specs on the Trek website for this tire say max of 50! https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...-tire/p/25927/
This seems like a huge percentage of variation, but I'm not sure as I'm new to this.
For today's ride, I'll stick to 70 to be safe.

Ok thanks. I do remember when I was picking up the bike that the guy actually measured the width of the tires and they were actually a bit wider than the label (he said it was due to the rim). The other LBS also mentioned that the Domane series has wider than normal tires.

I'm in your weight range and would run 30mm tires at 65-70psi, so 32s could run a little lower.

I usually air about 10-15% less than what tire recommends.

As you already know, nothing terrible will happen if you air up to 95 psi. However, the primary reason to run a 32 mm tire on a road bike is to run at lower pressures for a better ride and reduced rolling resistance. There is a substantial consensus among manufacturers, consultants, racers, coaches, riders, and commentators that you'll get the best results running MUCH lower pressures than we all used to run 10-20 years ago.
Zipp and Silca both have up to date apps that let you plug in your weight, tire specs, and type of riding for recommendations. Those are great places to start. Zipp's app is Tyre Wiz, and Silca's app is off their main page.

Is that was my wheelset, I'd run them at 70, then drop the pressure in 2-4 lb increments til I started bottoming out then move up one notch. You can probably run your tires at 60 or so with no problems.

tubed or tubeless might be a valid datapoint?

You should know those are max pressures, not a recommendation. Proper pressure is not related to the maximum the manufacturer thinks is safe.

I would not go over 70 psi.

if it were me & I was riding good quality pavement, I'd go max rear, 10 psi less up front. if I was riding gravel, depending on the quality of the surface I might go 60 rear & 50 front

Not really, unless you are using extremely low pressures.

I'm a little lighter(about 185#) and inflate 30mm tires to 60/55psi.

Using a popular bike tire pressure calculater I get 59 psi front and 72 psi rear for 225 lbs weight of rider and bike. I would use the max recommend 70 psi rear and 60 psi front. Of course there is a safety margin with the max recommend pressure. You just got lucky it didn't blow up at 95psi.

There is no need to over inflate your tires. It may be that your tires have stiffer sidewalls and do not even require the pressure indicated with the calculater. Over inflated tires are not only dangerous, but can actually slow you down on less then perfect roads as well as offering a brutal ride. Significantly under inflated tires can lead to pinch flats, can increase rolling resistance, and are unsafe too as control is compromised.

On the high end of pressures, running a tube seemingly allows 15% higher PSI inflation while remaining in safe limit (subject to the actual tire and rim's ratings of course). See linked article near the end (sentence above their inflation charts) of the linked article below. Unclear though if they're referring to specifically running tubes in a TLR tire.

That said, the OP's tire I believe is for running with tubes only so probably a moot point.

https://engineerstalk.mavic.com/en/t...ght-rim-width/

:rolleyes:
Do you ever ride, or just read about it?

The article you linked is irrelevant to the OP's question.

kinda testy this morning, huh?
I said it was moot since I hadn't originally realized the OP's tires were tubed only. To anyone else, I thought it an interesting factoid that from safety perspective you can 15% more pressure if running tubes than if running TL.

Not really, but you frequently answer questions with a link to something you read, instead of talking about your actual experience on the subject.

I ride in the same area as the OP, and told him what actually works well for those conditions.

70psi is the max inflation for his tires, but it's 10-15% higher than what he needs,

Fine.. though that's the same as everyone else had already suggested, so felt it was covered. I commented on your original reply that implied you should inflate a tire to the same pressure regardless if TL or tubed. I don't run tubeless myself so can't comment on this specifically, but I believe I generally see most on these forums suggesting running lower pressures for TL than if running tubes.

Note that the OP is asking about a very specific model of tire. That specific model Bontrager tire as compared to a "standard or average" road bike tires is specifically designed for very low pressure. The maximum recommended is 70 PSI and he should not exceed that. For ultimate performance combined with maximum ride comfort on typical asphalt roads for all but heavy riders should be about 50-60.

It might be due to the surface, but I regularly run 23mm GP4000 on the velodrome at 140-160. I weight 235lbs. I don’t remember max pressure for the tire, but I think it is lower than the pressure I use. If you don’t get a pinch flat or the tire doesn’t blow up, you know you haven’t reached the limit 😂😂

Tubeless tires allow you to run lower pressures, without the risk of pinch-flatting the tube. I've gone as low as 25psi in 30mm G-One Speed tires, but only to see how low is possible.Tubes will allow you to use higher pressures, but there's little benefit to that in the real world.

For the OP running 32mm with tubes, there's no reason to use anywhere near the max inflation of 70psi. 55-60psi should work well without risking a pinch flat.

@Metallifan33 In this area you should seriously consider going tubeless. Everything that grows here has a thorn, and unless you run highly puncture resistant tires(that ride like rocks) you'll be fixing punctures regularly.