Your TIRES are LYING to YOU! 

Ha.

We can top that here. Some of the ones here drop you to the center of the earth.

Some "pothole gardening" are started, in fact, in UK. _Weather_ is key word.

Everything is bigger in America, even the pot holes ;-) ... (my first impression at a visit)

Sounds like none of you guys have been in Belgium... Here in Belgium instead of repairing the potholes they place permanent roadsigns that say 'wegdek in slechte staat' or translated 'road in bad condition'... Why you think so many belgian riders won 'Paris-Roubaix' if you look back in history :D

Dean Herde yes but, blissfully, with fewer potty words.

"Did you see a sign in front of my house that said.... "

If the word "right" was a pebble, this conversation would be a gravel road.

Yes. He is a happy genius. A rare creature indeed.

No mention of foot fetishes

Thomas Benenati I like to work on eating in 2-3% more in Dec to prevent the need to let the air out of over inflated tires! 😂

#supplelife

Smart. I do similar things according to temperature. When it's warm I raise pressure. The tire is more supple when it's warm so it gets squishy when pressures are too low. When it's cold I lower temperature maybe down 5 or even ten psi because the compounds suffer greatly when cold. Tires lose grip when they are cold. This effects grip when power is applied due to deflection and lack of grip when cornering due to the hardness/deflection ratio. Cold over pressured tires can be deceptively dangerous when taking a corner where you are used to one cornering speed on a known path when warm and then grip is significantly less cold. Think race cars wherein they do a setup lap getting tires up to temperature before they do a timed lap or the danger of becoming passed due to a lack of cornering speed because their tires where cold coming out of the pits. Same principle, different application of that science.

I just got a Midnight Special that weighs 38% more then my Giant TCX with exact same gearing. The TCX had 38mm and 60 psig and the Surly has 650b 47mm tires at 42 psig and multiple trips on my 15 mile test loop is 8% slower! Supple life AND speed, thanks @pathlesspedaled

@RollinRat I like the summary you've given this presentation. The point I'd contest might be unloaded weight off the seat for general duration riding. Obviously, off the saddle during high intensity transitions is a very good thing. Yet, people are speaking more (in endurance and touring) of the reduction in muscular load when the rider is not constantly tensing against vibration and increasing tenseness in lifting their entire upper mass off the saddle. So, just a bit more to consider as we define our approach to efficient riding. Cheers!

RollinRat -Thanks for the wealth of information based on real-world experience! Tubulars really do make sense for racers with lighter rims, lighter, more supple tires, and the safety factor and ability to ride on with a glued tire. That said, some time trialists on the tour now use tubeless fronts. As disc wheels start supporting tubeless, I expect that we’ll see them on the rears now soon. I’m guessing that this is just for flat stages. And maybe they’re being adopted for budget/workload reasons. Road tubeless has been flawless for me. I run 25s at 70-75 psi and 28s at 60-65 psi for for rough, Southern Oregon roads. I weigh 180ish. When the weather improves and I get some time, I’ll grab a notebook and optimize things. Your post removed any last inkling of me using tubulars. Even with perfect reliability, the cost and maintenance seem painful! Thanks again for your awesome post!

RollinRat Could be an expensive test ride, lol. I risk tubular addiction! I’ve been riding 25 and 28c tires on 19mm internal rims. I’m getting an ENVE 4.5 AR Disc wheelset with 25mm internal width. I’m hoping that will provide a more supple ride with the ease of a tubeless setup.

RollinRat I’m going with Schwalbe Pro One TLE 28mm tires. I’d try the Conti GP5000 tubeless, but ENVE doesn’t recommend them on these rims. And yes, I check my pressure and lube the chain before most every ride. Maintaining tires and drivetrain is easy money!

I think it's the opposite isn't it? i.e. that the tire can deform more easily on a narrower rim, not a wider rim. On a wider ID rim, the sidewall becomes more vertical. Jan Heine's article on rim ID says what I just did - that's where I got it.

I think of it this way. A tire on a wider rim becomes an effectively wider tire, so it’s got a larger effective radius from sidewall to contact patch to sidewall. That means that more of the tire is close to the angle of the road. Anyway, it makes sense to me and aligns with the interview info.

I first came across it in windsurfing. When you just lean back, relax and enjoy a magic carpet ride, you're most likely fast. When everything rattles, you're slow.

This is the mantra for me from now on.

I strongly believed this too, until I had the opportunity to take a few hotlaps in a car driven by ex F1 driver Roberto Guerrero. I considered the laps violent. They were incredibly faster than any of the local "pros". They are able to redefine a standard quite different of where the ragged edge actually is.

Many years ago I saw a telecast of the DH Worlds. John Tomac was one of the last riders, and set the fastest time up to that point, but looked really ragged, on the verge of crashing for the whole run. The last rider was Nicolas Vouilloz who was super smooth the whole way, with little or no visible sliding. He absolutely nailed his run, easily setting the fastest time, while looking in total control the whole way. Smooth is good, and easier on gear too.

85-100psi seems fine for less than ideal road conditions on a 23-28c tire. Higher the pressure the less rolling resistance. Less rolling resistance = faster speeds. Larger volume tires can handle less psi. Smaller volume tires require more.

@@SugmaDLigmaNutz 28c is the ideal rolling tire usually anyway. might depend a bit on specific tires but i think that the consensus was 28 was best with 32 slightly behind by like 0.5W but much more comfort. 65 front and 75 rear is just fine.

?

Knowledge bomb!?!?!?! I love it! Should be a new hashtag #thesupplelife #knowledgebomb :)

vibratingstring ...Actually it's the base of my thumbs. Some arthritis from decades of twisting wire nuts. 👌

“Squidgy”, eh? When are you guys gonna crawl out of the Dark Ages and go metric? The term you are looking for is “hectopinch”. As in: “Lose me a few hectopinches, Alfred, as I intend to take the scenic route this morning.”

@@albertbatfinder5240 "hectopinch" is too precise and you'll have to get your inflation devise out every couple of yards (1828.8mm) to adjust for changing grit size. Rule of thumb every time for me ;-)

Someone has done this work with 700c widths but the link I saved is now dead :(. Another consideration is rider weight distribution between front and rear wheels.

Google Frank Berto tire drop chart. Remember the weights are per wheel...

@vibratingstring same , but I ride tube tires, if I go that low, they'll puncture, I leave it at 40. That's also why we don't want to lower our pressures on road bikes. My road bike has it at 115.

Spread the word brother, you could even save them from a fall one day.

Puncture protection is what keeps most gravel riders away from extra light (ExtraLight) tyres, tubeless or not.

Edit: After trying the “squirm test” I am currently running 30-35 PSI on my 50mm tires which is crazy for me to think about. I was curious however if there were any test that compares tire pressures with pedaling efficiency. I.E. does it take more power to pedal a tire at lower pressures vs lower tire pressures having less rolling resistance on rough roads?

Darrin Schwarz dude that’s insane. What frame do you have that you fit that one

@@sk1ppercat912 - I have no way of knowing what Darrin might be riding, but the Salsa Journeyman and Vaya will both run a 700x50 tire. (Panaracer now makes the Gravelking SK in a 700x50, and it's an awesome tire.)

k s biggest I’ve ever seen on a drop bar is 650*47. That blows me away.

There’s carbon gravel bike out there that can now run 650b x 60!

Not in any meaningful way.

Cycling Simmons use the Silva tyre pressure tool on their website. Enter rider and bike weight, tire width, and surface type. It will give you a recommended pressure.

I was hoping for that as well. I've been leaning towards supple for the past couple of years and always run 5-10 psi lower in my front tire. I aim for the rear to be as low as it takes to have the tire just starting to balloon under my weight. I'm 175lbs. Here are my pressures: Mtb, full sus, 2.4", tubeless. F: 20psi, R: 23psi Road, 25c, tubes. F: 75psi, R: 85psi Gravel, 38c, tubes. F: 32, R: 40 I'm still playing with my gravel pressures. The rear feels a little squirmy so I might need to go up to 42psi or so. The front feels fine at 32 but I want to test lower pressures for more of that supple lyfe.