So I tried a bunch of different tire pressures to see what was best for me. I’ve come to 9-10lbs seems to work good. More seems too bouncy and less was too squishy. Although I felt that 9-10 was rideable on pavement it felt sluggish. Looks like I might need another uni for pavement only!
To understand why 9-10 psi is optimum for you, I would need to know what kind of tire you have, how much you weigh, what kind of riding conditions you have, etc.
I weigh 210 lbs and use the 2.4 in Maxxis Ardent on my 26" mUni. I typically inflate it to 32 psi. This setup is not optimum for many specific riding conditions, but it is a compromise for a variety of conditions. The Ardent has no side wall support, so it starts folding under low pressure.
…And then you took your muni on a different trail…
Never got peoples obsession with sciencing out tire pressure. I just pump it up until it feels about right, and on my muni, I add air when it feels to soft/I hit my rim on a drop, on my trial/street/flat I usually start with too much air, and then let some air out until I feel it is about right.
10 psi sounds very low to me, I would rather have a little more to be safe from snakebites, there is always that one root or rock that suddenly pops up just where you land a drop.
Ditto. I remember asking a guy in our local club what his tire pressure was. He just shrugged and said, “I dunno.” I though that was odd until I started riding a lot off road, and I got it. Now, I give the same response. I just sort of want it a little mushy and bouncy, but I can tell from riding if it gets too low. If I ride it on hard surfaces, I pump it up to a higher PSI, and then I let some out for off road.
I just ride it, and if it seems too high, I let some out, and if it seem to low I add a little. I don’t really look at the actual PSI much. It’s more about how it feels on a given surface. I agree that fixating on a given PSI for muni is limiting and I’d rather focus on the feel than on the numbers. Like John Foss just posted, "…And then you took your muni on a different trail… ".
That’s basically how I do it for Muni or Road rides. Especially if it’s a Muni ride that starts out easy, or with a lot of uphill. Once I get to the “fun” part I’ll let some out, and adjust if needed.
Me too, but that depends on the details. If it’s a fatty-fat tire, that might be an awesome pressure. If it’s a typical entry level unicycle with 1.75" tire, your rim is already on the ground. And that’s if you don’t weigh much.
Variables variables variables. Not to mention the accuracy of the tire pressure gauge you’re using. Most aren’t accurate to a single pound, and have a much larger margin of error.
For those reasons, my general rule for optimum tire pressure is:
ENOUGH TO KEEP THE RIM OFF THE GROUND.
Obviously that changes with equipment, rider weight, rider’s personal riding style, tire width and terrain. So don’t fixate too much on a number, because it’s going to change when those parameters do.
I started muni with my 26/ Duro widlife 3.0. That heavy tire had a thick casing. I rode it kind of mushy and it bulldozed through nearly everything, it was awesome. Now my preferred tire on the 26 and 29" is the 120tpi Knard. I cant stand having a mushy tire now. It just feels darn slow and much less responsive. I run it at least 22psi on all the trails, about 3 or 6 psi more for flat trails and roads.
It’s not an obsession just very practical to know how much pressure you need in your tyre. I always adjust the pressure before I leave my house, so I don’t have to be bothered with that out on the trail.
It seems to me that the readings gives pretty much the same tyre pressure each time. Wether it is accurate compared to another gauge doesn’t really matter. You can’t ask other people what tyre pressure they use anyway. Everybody needs to figure that out for themselves.
This is what I’m aiming for, so knowing the PSI makes the adjustment easier and faster.
+1, I really like this very versatile and rather light “+” tire on my 26+er, that became a g26+ a bit latter and that is now back to unguni since I will put the geared hub on a 29er with the 120 TPI knard as well.
When a lot of solid floor (road, bike paths, sidewalks) is involved I put 30/31 PSI.
For the lower range I can go as low as 15 PSI for very hard trails with a lot of roots and rocks, but I discovered yesterday that a 47mm rim handles better low PSI than a 42mm one.
What rim do you have on your 26er and 29er UPD?
is it geared?
for my future G29+ I’m hesitating between the kh freeride rim (47mm) and the Dominator2 (42mm).
I’m also on your side, I have a digital stuff to read PSI that I always bring with me (and a mini pump) so that I can reproduce exactly the PSI that I know working good, depending on where I am riding.
I prefer knowing that wondering.
Hi all
I also go with ‘the feel’ for the tyre pressure. I run the Duro on my 24, keep the tyre pressure quite low and it works really well. On the other hand I’ve got the Knard on my 26 and I have to keep the pressure much higer than in the Duro otherwise it folds really easily when doing side hops, etc… I have the Knard on a 40mm rim so not sure if that ‘encourages’ the folding (at low pressures) even more than it would do on a 47mm rim…
Maybe how you ride makes a difference to, for me riding Muni usually means doing “boring” (to me) bits of cross country until I find a nice and difficult section, or the start of a nice trail, and I’ll usually take a drinking break there anyway, so pumping up my tire too in those breaks is not bothering me in any way. Where as if you prefer to do long loops without stopping, I can see having to adjust your pressure being really annoying.
I am yet to adjust my tire pressure down on a Muni, I only increase it when it gets to low. I don’t think of it as suspension, (26x2.4" is to small for that, I guess), if I set it to a pressure where I can land ~ 1m drops roughly without hitting my rim, it only smooths out minor stuff anyway.
I am riding a KH 26 with a Surly Knard 26x3. I weigh about 195 and the trails are not too extreme . Some roots a lot of small rocks, a couple of small dry stream crossings.
This is probably very true. I still new to uni riding so I’ve been going on the same trails which still have quite a few challenging sections for me. When I can clean the entire trail I’ll start hitting more difficult ones and will probably have to rethink my pressure. I’m not obsessed with the pressure but I’d like to come as close as possible to the settings from my previous ride. Since I am new to this it helps me figure out if I’m having a good or bad day skill wise. It takes out one element of the equation.
I’ve got an nimbus 26 with a duro wildlife - do you recommend the knard? - I am very tempted. I tried a holy roller but it was really bad tracking on cambered roads when at low pressure - as you say the duro plows through stuff really well, but a bit heavy when hill climbing
Has anyone tried the surly 26 x 2.75" dirt wizard?
A smaller rim would result in a skinnier tire, but I don’t know how that affects folding. You would have to run lower pressure to get the same traction as on a wider rim, which would result in more folding, but I suspect that traction it isn’t what you base pressure off of.
As a sidenote, does anyone here run tubeless?
I was sceptical towards the Knard at first, but now i love it. Check out the Duro vs. Knard thread: Duro leopard vs surly knard