One thing I’ve been noticing as I’ve gotten better at hopping and have started doing it on inclines is that at my preferred tire pressure I will often notice the tire folding to the side when hopping. I’m not really sure how I want to address this. Adding pressure is going to make traversing rooty or rocky areas harsher. I’ve also heard people mention tire liners. I’m currently using a Duro Wildlife tire, so the sidewalls are already pretty significant. Should I just add another 5-10 lbs of pressure or is there a better way of dealing with this?
I don’t know about tire liners as I’ve never used one, but I don’t have folding issues at higher pressures(45psi+). Adding 5-10 psi to your current setup sounds like a reasonable compromise to me.
45 psi is way higher than I am currently running. Probably around 25-18 psi. On a nominal 24x3, (actually 24x2.8), I normally pump it up to about 24 psi and when it seems to be getting soft I’ll pump it up again. I’ve run pressures as high as 65 psi on the road, but these days I don’t come close to that. Typically I’m probably running about 22 psi.
Probably adding pressure or avoiding hopping sideways on inclines are the best solutions, since you have strong sidewalls already. It’s always a case of finding the best compromise with tire pressure unfortunately, in this case it’s deciding which part of riding is more important to you.
I usually only do 2-3 hops on an uphill to get over a root or reset my balance, so I think it’s possible to just “deal with it” and keep your otherwise preferred pressure.
You can also try to do your hopping up inclines at a 45° -ish angle forward, so that the tire isn’t under as much of a sideways pull- it will probably feel a bit tricky at first, but it also offers more grip.
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I think I’ll try an extra 3-4 psi and try the 45* method. I don’t have good enough control yet to only do 2-3 hops and often have to pogo quite a bit to get my position and lean right.