Can i pump my tyres up more than the recommendation on the tyre wall?

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Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
The tyres on my new bike seem soft. When i squeeze them they have quite a bit of give in them. If i squeeze them on the tyre wall between my thumb and forefinger they go in a few millimeters. If i use my thumb nail to press the top of the tyre(the bit that makes contact with the road) they go in about 2 millimeters. The minimum pressure recommendation is 86 psi the maximum is 100 psi. This is the lowest top recommendation i've ever had on a road tyre. The tyres are 25mm Hutchinson Nitros 2. Cheap tyres that come with a bike i know, but i'd like to keep them till they start to become puncture prone. I normally have 100 psi and the others seem rock hard, but these seem soft.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
If you consider them cheap, treat them as such.
Having a tyre blow out on you is no fun.
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Don't have a definitive answer on the Nitros 2, but maybe Hunter can help with some general thoughts on tyre pressure...

“The Coupe de Ville is not your ideal machine for high speed cornering in residential neighborhoods. The handling is very mushy… unlike the Red Shark, which had responded very nicely to situations requiring the quick fourwheel drift. But the Whale Bad of cutting loose at the critical moment – had a tendency to dig in, which accounted for that sickening ‘here we go’ sensation.

At first I thought it was only because the tires were soft, so I took it into the Texaco station next to the Flamingo and had the tires pumped up to fifty pounds each which alarmed the attendant, until I explained that these were “experimental” tires.

But fifty pounds each didn’t help the cornering, so I swent back a few hours later and told him I wanted to try seventy five. He shook his head nervously. “Not me,” he said, handing me the air hose. “Here. They’re your tires. You do it.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You think they can’t take seventy-five?” He nodded, moving away as I stooped to deal with the left front. “You’re damn right,” he said. “Those tires want twenty eight in the front and thirty two in the rear. Hell, fifty’s dangerous, but seventy five is crazy. They’ll explode!” I shook my head and kept filling the left front. “I told you,” I said, “Sandoz laboratories designed these tires. They’re special. I could load them up to a hundred.

“God almighty!” he groaned. “Don’t do that here.”

“Not today,” I replied. “I want to see how they corner with seventy-five.” He chuckled. “You won’t even get to the corner, Mister.”

“We’ll see,” I said, moving around to the rear with the air-hose. In truth, I was nervous. The two front ones were tighter than snare drums; they felt like teak wood when I tapped on them with the rod. But what the hell? I thought. If they explode, so what? It’s not often that a man gets a chance to run terminal experiments on a virgin Cadillac and four brand-new $80 tires. For all I knew, the thing might start cornering like a Lotus Elan. If not, all I had to do was call the VIP agency and have another one delivered… maybe threaten them with a lawsuit because all four tires had exploded on me, while driving in heavy traffic. Demand an Eldorado, next time, with four Michelin Xs. And put it all on the card… charge it to the St. Louis Browns.

As it turned out, the Whale behaved very nicely with the altered tire pressures. The ride was a trifle rough; I could feel every pebble on the highway, like being on roller skates in a gravel pit… but the thing began cornering in a very stylish manner, very much like driving a motorcycle at top speed in a hard rain: one slip and ZANG, over the high side, cartwheeling across the landscape with your head in your hands.”

-Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I know that some people don't seem to agree, but pneumatic tyres were invented to act as a simple form of suspension and they can't do that if inflated too hard!

As Classic hints at, over-inflation could result in the tyre blowing off the rim. You would probably get away with a few PSI here and there but you shouldn't need to do that.

Bigger tyres need less pressure than otherwise similar smaller ones. I run my 25Cs at about 85-90 PSI rear and 75-80 PSI front. I add 5-10 PSI to 23Cs.
 

AndyRM

XOXO
Location
North Shields
Don't have a definitive answer on the Nitros 2, but maybe Hunter can help with some general thoughts on tyre pressure...

“The Coupe de Ville is not your ideal machine for high speed cornering in residential neighborhoods. The handling is very mushy… unlike the Red Shark, which had responded very nicely to situations requiring the quick fourwheel drift. But the Whale Bad of cutting loose at the critical moment – had a tendency to dig in, which accounted for that sickening ‘here we go’ sensation.

At first I thought it was only because the tires were soft, so I took it into the Texaco station next to the Flamingo and had the tires pumped up to fifty pounds each which alarmed the attendant, until I explained that these were “experimental” tires.

But fifty pounds each didn’t help the cornering, so I swent back a few hours later and told him I wanted to try seventy five. He shook his head nervously. “Not me,” he said, handing me the air hose. “Here. They’re your tires. You do it.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You think they can’t take seventy-five?” He nodded, moving away as I stooped to deal with the left front. “You’re damn right,” he said. “Those tires want twenty eight in the front and thirty two in the rear. Hell, fifty’s dangerous, but seventy five is crazy. They’ll explode!” I shook my head and kept filling the left front. “I told you,” I said, “Sandoz laboratories designed these tires. They’re special. I could load them up to a hundred.

“God almighty!” he groaned. “Don’t do that here.”

“Not today,” I replied. “I want to see how they corner with seventy-five.” He chuckled. “You won’t even get to the corner, Mister.”

“We’ll see,” I said, moving around to the rear with the air-hose. In truth, I was nervous. The two front ones were tighter than snare drums; they felt like teak wood when I tapped on them with the rod. But what the hell? I thought. If they explode, so what? It’s not often that a man gets a chance to run terminal experiments on a virgin Cadillac and four brand-new $80 tires. For all I knew, the thing might start cornering like a Lotus Elan. If not, all I had to do was call the VIP agency and have another one delivered… maybe threaten them with a lawsuit because all four tires had exploded on me, while driving in heavy traffic. Demand an Eldorado, next time, with four Michelin Xs. And put it all on the card… charge it to the St. Louis Browns.

As it turned out, the Whale behaved very nicely with the altered tire pressures. The ride was a trifle rough; I could feel every pebble on the highway, like being on roller skates in a gravel pit… but the thing began cornering in a very stylish manner, very much like driving a motorcycle at top speed in a hard rain: one slip and ZANG, over the high side, cartwheeling across the landscape with your head in your hands.”

-Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

One of my favourite passages of his. A thing of beauty.
 
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Accy cyclist

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
Succinct and accurate.

They might "feel" they can go higher but it could be risky. Have you been out on them?

Yes i've done 80 miles. They ride ok and don't feel soft while i'm riding but it's like the rubber feels softer than other tyres. I'm squeezing them now, they feel like they are around 70 psi.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
So don't pump them higher than 100psi, even though they feel they could go higher?
Have you ever actually managed to pump a tyre off the rim?
Done once, using a compressed airline. Having done the front to 115PSI(5PSI) over the marked limit, checked with a pressure gauge, I moved to the rear wheel. Dust cap off and in the hand, when the front exploded inside a building.

You can chance it and maybe nothing will go wrong. Or as a relative who used to cycle commented, the pressure is going to blow it off the rim, but still felt soft to him. That was 85PSI.
 
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Accy cyclist

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
I suspect that Accy is actually suffering from 'riding into potholes and puncturing' anxiety! :laugh: (He did that twice recently.)


Too right i am Colin! Since that Trough of Bowland pothole incident(and the double pothole puncture(s) 5 days before) i'm on the constant look out for holes in the road. So much so that my one advantage i had over the other riders, my daredevil descending:rolleyes:, has been curtailed from around 45mph to around 30mph.:sad:
 
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