Took everyone’s advice and practiced in the local tennis courts - it was much better (I won’t say easy), but still found myself diving for the fence when it all got too much! Also felt weird as sometimes I could get a whole wobbly pedal revolution without falling, then the next 5 attempts I’d just fall off, but I suppose I must be improving (however slight!)
Anyway, I wanted to ask another newbie question (sorry) - how hard should the tyre be? I’m used to mountain-biking where you have rock-hard pressures for road and a bit squidgy for off-road, but what sort of pressure should I be looking at for my uni? It’s a bog standard 20", and when I’m sat on it the tyre does look quite squashed (could be that I’m just lardy)
I have a pump with pressure gauge so I should be able to get it reasonably accurate.
Also, I’ve only just worked out most of you guys view this via the website and not via Usenet (although this posts to the newsgroup, or is it the other way round?!)…!
the tire manufacturer would’ve given u an indication on the side of the tyre of the ideal pressure
add about 30%
and wait a while, u’ll get plenty more better advice on how to figure it out
the learning curve is not a smooth upward curve
it comes equipped with peaks, troughs and plateaus
hang in there
while you’re learning, put that sucker up hard.
once you get more experienced, and stat hopping around, getting onto curbs, ect… you’ll want a lower (more absorbibg stuff) tire pressure
…ditto… You will lose a lot of controllability if your tire is squashed.
Increase the tire pressure, don’t put too much pressure on yourself, have fun and be patient,
Fred
>Anyway, I wanted to ask another newbie question (sorry) - how hard
>should the tyre be?
Keep the newbie questions coming - no problem, we’re here to help each
other. Yes your tyre should not squash very much so you probably need
more pressure. But not rock hard. Rock hard imho is only for unicycle
racing. What psi (or bar) did you have in?
>Also, I’ve only just worked out most of you guys view this via the
>website and not via Usenet (although this posts to the newsgroup, or is
>it the other way round?!)…!
To read and post, most use the website, some use Usenet, and a few
die-hards use an e-mail list. The three are linked to each other by
two-way couplings so basically what you use is a matter of personal
preference, as it ends up in all three anyway.
Oh, and occasionally Google Groups is used, which is a web-based
method to read in (and post to) Usenet.
I checked last night and the tyre is marked 35-50psi, and there was 40 psi in there.
I took it up to 50psi, but I’ve read somewhere you can go 30% over the marked limit - is this safe? It did seem noticably less squashy when I was on, and I made it about 3 foot (before launching into a hedge of conifer face first) so it was definitely an improvement!
Some even go as much as 50-100% over the rating on the side of the tire. I’m comfortable with going to the 50% more psi point and cautious going to the 100% more extreme with a good rim. I’m a rather large person and need more pressure in my tires. Once upon a time, I went to 65 on a 40 psi rated tire but the tire was on the standard Torker rim and I blew the rim, meaning it exploded, bent, twisted, etc. I’m not sure that the bead was seated correctly though which may have been my downfall.
I’m a mountainbiker as well. You know the pressure you need when you are doing an XC run? Not rock hard, enough so you can’t press it down with your finger easily, but If you bunny hop, the tire will squish a little?
I’ll second that. In my day we didn’t have pressure gauges, we just squeezed the tyre. Never did me any harm. (Youth of today… blah blah… don’t know they’re born… mutter mutter etc. ad nauseam…)
Try this simple rule of thumb:
Really really hard for fast but uncomfortable
Quite firm for reasonably fast but a softer ride
Firm enough to keep the rim off the floor at all times.
Sometimes (sez me) people look into things far too deeply.
