What are you at now?

I ride about 15PSI most of the year @150lbs on 2.2X26.

Various people have said this is too low, however my track record in rear rim preservation has been pretty good.....Knock on wood.

That said, I was setting up the same tires for my kid @105 lbs, and it didn't really work to go lower than 13-14PSI, even with a much lighter rider.

Your tire casing may make a difference too. Some tires feel like rocks at 15PSI, some feel like mush.

If you're in the no-rock areas of Ontario (Toronto and east, west of Waterloo) you can probably go lower than if you're in the escarpment area/cottagecountry/Kingston.

 

Nice, thanks for the reply. Yeah not a ton of rocks for most of my riding. Toronto, Kitchener, Durham, Copeland forest, Jefferson, etc. Decent amount of roots though.

Any idea how that pressure you're running would translate from 26 to 27.5" tires?

I usually run 17/18 psi with my set up. Currently running high roller 2 in front (3c, EXO, Maxx terra) and DHR 2 EXO in the rear (likely going to change the tires I run though).

What are you at now?

I ride about 15PSI most of the year @150lbs on 2.2X26.

Various people have said this is too low, however my track record in rear rim preservation has been pretty good.....Knock on wood.

That said, I was setting up the same tires for my kid @105 lbs, and it didn't really work to go lower than 13-14PSI, even with a much lighter rider.

Your tire casing may make a difference too. Some tires feel like rocks at 15PSI, some feel like mush.

If you're in the no-rock areas of Ontario (Toronto and east, west of Waterloo) you can probably go lower than if you're in the escarpment area/cottagecountry/Kingston.

 

Depends on what kind of line picker you are, how fluid you tend to ride to a degree. If you’re a basher, then you’re going to want to run slightly higher pressures than if you’re a gazelle.

I weigh 183# and run 16#F & 19#R in the summer (less in the muddy off-season.) Wheels & tires are 29x2.6.

My GF weighs 104# and runs 11#F & 12#R. She’s on 27.5x2.6.

We’re in the PNW.
=sParty

 

Depends on what kind of line picker you are, how fluid you tend to ride to a degree. If you're a basher, then you're going to want to run slightly higher pressures than if you're a gazelle.

I weigh 183# and run 16#F & 19#R in the summer (less in the muddy off-season.) Wheels & tires are 29x2.6.

My GF weighs 104# and runs 11#F & 12#R. She's on 27.5x2.6.

We're in the PNW.
=sParty

Depends on what kind of line picker you are, how fluid you tend to ride to a degree. If you're a basher, then you're going to want to run slightly higher pressures than if you're a gazelle.

I weigh 183# and run 16#F & 19#R in the summer (less in the muddy off-season.) Wheels & tires are 29x2.6.

My GF weighs 104# and runs 11#F & 12#R. She's on 27.5x2.6.

We're in the PNW.
=sParty

Depends on what kind of line picker you are, how fluid you tend to ride to a degree. If you're a basher, then you're going to want to run slightly higher pressures than if you're a gazelle.

I weigh 183# and run 16#F & 19#R in the summer (less in the muddy off-season.) Wheels & tires are 29x2.6.

My GF weighs 104# and runs 11#F & 12#R. She's on 27.5x2.6.

We're in the PNW.
=sParty

Wow, a lot lower than I'd expect! Good to know.

Any issues with rim dings on small-medium sized drops and jumps? And any idea what that'd be equivalent to with 27.5x2.3 instead of what you two are running? I believe with your gf's fatter tires she'd be able to run lower pressures than if she was using the same tire widths as me, although I may be mistaken...

 

No idea. Don’t forget that one gauge’s reading typically varies from other gauges.

I actually think mine tends to read a bit low, but this doesn’t matter to me. I just find the right pressure and then go back to that number whenever I air up.
=sParty

 

No idea. Don't forget that one gauge's reading typically varies from other gauges.

I actually think mine tends to read a bit low, but this doesn't matter to me. I just find the right pressure and then go back to that number whenever I air up.
=sParty

For sure. Fair enough. Thanks for the input.

 

Drop 1psi each ride until you get a rim strike. Then go back up 1.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

I guess that works! Just scared of breaking a wheel during this parts shortage period!

 

You'll need a low pressure gauge or digital to read accurately that low.

I weigh 100kg and ride aggressively.

I normally run 14.6 psi if running a Dhr2 2.6 up front, 20 psi Magic Mary 2.6.

I've run as low as 8 before, however that was silly. Lots of roll in the corner.

 

You'll need a low pressure gauge or digital to read accurately that low.

I weigh 100kg and ride aggressively.

I normally run 14.6 psi if running a Dhr2 2.6 up front, 20 psi Magic Mary 2.6.

I've run as low as 8 before, however that was silly. Lots of roll in the corner.

Yeah I should really get one. Wow, again surprised by how low given the weight. Thanks for the input.

 

I'm 165 post covid, pre clothes.
I run 13 front 17 back, not a basher, but I'll ride that in the rockiness of Moab with no problems. That's with 29x2.3 rear, 29x2.4 front. It's what I ran on my 27.5x2.6 as well.
All tubeless.
My digital gauge is within 1 psi of my digital gauge on my floor pump.

 

145 and run 14 f/b 29 x 2.4, though I did get a light rim strike the other day when I charged into a high square edged rock. This is a rigid bike so no give in the fork, though.
12 f/b 27.5 x 2.8, also rigid.
mid upper 20s on my 29 x 2.2 full suspension w/tubes

I use an accu-gage for the rigids, just a floor pump with the tubes.

 

Air pressure is only part of the equation. Last year, after dealing with front end washouts for too long, I finally experimented with different tires. It can make a big difference, as can riding style (weight the front or unweight the front, depending on the circumstances.) Nobbier tires can make a world of difference if you're running XC tires. The downside is they roll noticeably slower. Side note, I was riding a 27.5 and increased from 2.2 to 2.5 in front which helped a little. As for weighting the front end, you can change stem length to change how much you typically weight the front. A longer stem generally leads to more weight on the front compared to a shorter stem that has you sitting more upright.

The only downside to experimenting with tires the damn things are expensive. The answer is to ride a lot so you wear them down. ;-)

 

Started with XC tires, but now I run a lot more tire than I probably need for the trails I ride - and it helped a ton. And yeah I can definitely continue to work on my technique.. but I do think tire pressure must be a big part of it, since some of the guys on here are running a similar or lower pressure than myself and weight 20 to 100 lbs more! Thanks for the input.

 

You can work out the lowest pressure at the roughest segment of your trail.
Take a gauge and frame pump in your pack.
Session the segment lowering your tire pressure each run until you start to get rim hits.
Then up the pressure by a pound.

 

Not a bad idea, thanks!

 

I've never found front end wash outs to be a tire pressure problem.

How much have you practiced cornering?

 

I'm about 142-145lbs. When I had 2.35's I ran 14f and 16r. Those are absolute minimum pressures. Any lower and I would feel my tire contact the inside of the rim. Generally the smoother your trail...the lower pressures you can run. At least for me...the smoother the trail...the more pressure I like to run. Low pressures on smooth trails feels like the tires are dragging. You say that you do drops too...that will also limit on how low you can go.

Eb makes a good point about inflating according to the roughest part of your trail. I have to add 2 psi to my tires when I'm at the bike park...or else I'll be slamming my rims.

 

For sure. That's helpful to know. Gives me some confidence that I should be able to easily get away with 14f, 16r even on the small/medium drops I do given I'm 30-35 lbs lighter. And that's still a couple PSI lower than I'm currently running. Thanks!

 

Yeah, keep dropping 1 psi until you either have a rim strike or the tire feels squirrely. For me, the front loses stability well before a rim strike. For the rear it is rims strikes.

I am ~180 fully geared up, and run 22/25 psi with 2.3s. For your wieght that would com eout to around 14/16 or 15/17 (F/R) on the same size tire. So while it is impossible to know what actaully will work for you, going lower than where you are at is not crazy.

 

Awesome, appreciate that input!

 

No discussion of rim width? That affects how low pressure one can go. With wide rims and a reasonably firm tire casing one can run down to 10% of body weight without undue squirm. For me squirm becomes a problem before rim strikes do - again, it depends on tire and rim.

 

Good to know. Yeah I mentioned somewhere above what tires I'm running. As for rim width, it's 30mm internal. 10% of bodyweight would bring me down to 10-11 psi - wow! I don't think I'd ever bother/risk going that low, but interesting about squirm vs rim strikes.

 

Tire pressure has very little to do with traction. That mostly comes down to tread and rubber compound. Lower pressure can help on rougher terrain where the tire can mold to the terrain better but that's more of an improvement of consistent grip rather than actually because more grip.

On smoother trails higher pressure can have more grip than low. It gives the cornering knobs a firmer platform to dig in and bite.

 

Just be careful, burp a tire clean off the rim ,, and broke a clavicle, on landing a jump in to a right hand turn, a few extra psi would of been awesome

 

Ouch! Yeah that's why I figured I'd ask here 1st instead of learning the hard way 😅

 

If the problem is losing traction on loose stuff, I think it is definitely worth looking at lowering tire pressure.