After I saw your post, I decided to lower my tire pressure.
I have been riding for 12 days now, I have a 24 in Torker LX that came with a 24x1.95 tire. The info on the side of the tire said between 40 and 60 pounds, so I pumped it up to 50
Today I dropped it down to 30 and riding was much easier. I went double my normal distance at the lower pressure.
I was concerned that running on lower than 40 might cause some damage. If it makes any difference, I weigh about 175 pounds.
how to calculate appropriate psi with 1.95 inch tire
Would this ratio (1psi/10 lbs) apply for riding on my 1.95 inch street tire? I weigh about 170, but unless I increase it to at least 25 lbs, I feel like there is too much resistance caused by the lower pressure. My uni is a stock 24’ Torker LX if that helps for making comparisons.
I’m just learning to ride and not doing any jumps/drops, etc.
No, that’s for a big fat muni tyre ridden off-road. A road tyre should be quite a bit harder. I don’t have much experience of road unicycle riding, but the 1.85" tyre on my 20" freestyle uni is at about 50 psi, and I’ve heard people saying they run Big Apple 29er road tyres at 60. So I would guess that somewhere between about 40 and 60 should be the right sort of range. Anybody confirm or dispute that?
Some of the best offroad tyres ride very poorly on pavement. Unless you change the pressure. How much? Depends on all those previously mentioned factors.
So far from all I’ve seen and read (and experienced), there isn’t any useful formula for what’s the “right” amount of pressure unless you get very specific indeed. Such as: 24 x 1.75 tire for indoor riding with rider weight of 125 lbs or more = 50 psi. Something like that. Take the same unicycle outside, and the numbers change. Make the tire wider, they change again. Ride on bumpy stuff, they change some more. Ride on sharp rocks, you have to change it again.
So I have a nice general rule I use:
Enough to keep the rim off the ground.
This is always the most important one. The wider the tire, generally, the less pressure you can get away with. This is good if you want traction and “rollover” of obstacles. If you want low friction, you want to go high. If you ride a skinny tire offroad (like we originally did on our 1.75s), you’ll have to up the pressure to protect yourself from snakebite punctures.
If youi’re riding indoors or on a smooth surface, then go by the amount of traction you want. For lowest traction, more air. For lots of traction (or steering control for beginners) let some out.
Always start with more pressure than you think you’ll need. It’s easier to let some out than to keep adding more. Get a small frame pump to carry with you if you ride offroad. Make sure it can work with both major valve styles or else the first time you need it (maybe for someone else) it’ll have the wrong one.
Beyond that, we can only estimate recommended pressures if you tell us how much you weigh, the type of rim and tire you’re using, the type of terrain, and what you’re doing on it.
For general muni usage, I think 1 psi per 10 pounds of weight is just about a perfect starting point. Unless you run a Large Marge rim, and then it’s more like 1 psi for every 15 pounds of weight.
I run a higher pressure if I’m expecting high speed and relatively low technical runs. A higher pressure rolls better, but will buck you off once it gets rocky.
But you can always let some pressure out.
I think a very wise thing is to get a pressure gauge, find a few psi settings that work well for you and stick with them according to the readings of the particular gauge you use (the readings can vary quite a lot, gauge to gauge).
Running too low a pressure makes the muni hard to turn and you’ll eventually pinch flat when you rim out.
