MTB tyre pressures What are you all running?

[Eddie Strohacker]

I've just been out for a ride & as ever, checked my pressures on the way out. I usually run at 35psi or so & for a change, dropped to 30. On road, it's a bit sticky, on the trails though, I felt much more planted & as a consequence, more confident in technical bits, feeling I could give it a lot more in descents & gullies and so on.

[james7]

22 and 27 ish. 20 and 25 felt a tad too low for my large self.
I used to run them a bit higher on my old bike (29er and tubes) but new bike, 650b, and tubeless it seems about right.
I might get a bit brave and try them a tad lower at some point.

[P-Jay]

40ish rear, 32 front - it's not the most on-fleek set-up but I don't like squirming tyres and try to run them as firm as I can get away with without it being to jittery a ride.

[Eddie Strohacker]

P-Jay said:

40ish rear, 32 front - it's not the most on-fleek set-up but I don't like squirming tyres and try to run them as firm as I can get away with without it being to jittery a ride.

Yeah, jittery is what I've been experiencing. Very flinty trails here so maybe it's that or possibly a bike that's sensitive to pressures.

[Kawasicki]

20 front
22 rear

I'm light, 63 or so kg.

[HoHoHo]

35 front, 40 back.

I'm tubeless so have to check frequently albeit the tyres seem to hold pressure for quite a long time.

Edited by HoHoHo on Tuesday 1st August 21:24

[Eddie Strohacker]

HoHoHo said:

35 front, 40 back.

I'm tubeless so have to check frequently albeit the tyres seem to hold pressure for quite a ling time.

40 is highish? You don't think that's making you the local pre-eminent Mr. Crashy?

[HoHoHo]

Eddie Strohacker said:

HoHoHo said:

35 front, 40 back.

I'm tubeless so have to check frequently albeit the tyres seem to hold pressure for quite a ling time.

40 is highish? You don't think that's making you the local pre-eminent Mr. Crashy?

You can feck right off

Possibly but at the moment tyre pressures are the least of my worries!

Edited to add......I was a super hero going down Chantonbury that fast (for that one moment shortly before........crash, bang, wallop )

Edited by HoHoHo on Tuesday 1st August 21:23

[Eddie Strohacker]

Down the front or past the waterworks? To be fair, they're both a bit committing. One has no grip & the other is plain lunacy.

[HoHoHo]

Eddie Strohacker said:

Down the front or past the waterworks? To be fair, they're both a bit committing. One has no grip & the other is plain lunacy.

It's known as 'Chanctonbury Seg 1' on strava and to be fair I was number 1 today out of 2 PistonHeads riders and it was for a fleeting moment my PB

I was also 53rd so far this year albeit the current fasted time is half mine

I'll tell you what........it doesn't half hurt when you hit the deck at speed. Also lucky I had a helmet on, my head took a right thump

The entry to the forest is at the junction where you can turn left to go up the hill or through the forest and eventually end up at the junction of the Steyning road where I go straight across to head towards Ashington.

Edited by HoHoHo on Tuesday 1st August 21:45

[Herman Toothrot]

Tyre casing alters it a fair bit, also tubes or not. Tubeless super gravity casing Magic Marie's front and rear 24 - 26psi on my downhill bike, trail bikes Magic Mary front snakeskin, rear Nobby Nik 26-28psi, on my tubed XC pub bike with cheap Continental X kings 28psi front 30psi rear. I'm 73kg.


It's a balance between flatting or not, the rougher and less grippy it is you want to run lower but not low enough to flat. Harder smoother surfaces higher pressures are faster. Whatever the surface I see no need to ever go above 30psi but then I'm quite good at line choice and don't slam my rear wheel into stuff.

Saying that I've bent tubeless rims to the point they will never seal again, but not punctured on my downhill bike, so maybe if longevity over speed and grip is a priority then stay above 28psi rear maybe, it's quite subjective.

[Herman Toothrot]

This I only found a few days later, no air loss, a super gravity casing Rock razor tyre on an Easton ARC rim at 28psi in the ridden hard in the rocks of Malaga, would 30psi stopped it, maybe.

Edited by Herman Toothrot on Wednesday 2nd August 00:33

[John Laverick]

I always used to be 30/30 but since moving tubeless I've dropped the front to 25.

I'm more of a fast XC rider though so sacrifice the grip for less rolling resistance.

[yellowjack]

MTB tyre pressures?

I have a Giant Anthem on 27.5" wheels. Schwalbe Nobby Nic up front with about 24psi and a Racing Ralph out back with about 28psi in it. I'm 5'6" and somewhere around the 70kg to 73kg mark.

Obviously the pressures get adjusted up if I'm heading out somewhere I know is fast and firm on the trails, but I kind of play that by ear.

Having said that, I occasionally "go daft" and take my road bike out on some of the easier, drier trails. That's a Trek Emonda SL 6 running Ultegra with Continental GP 4000 S2s at about 85psi/95psi. I'm almost as fast around a local (5.2 mile) Strava Segment called "Grim duathlon 2014 lap" on the road bike as I am on my MTB. The road bike was good enough for a "4th overall" Strava trophy, less than a minute down on my best time on the Anthem. At one point it was my PR on the segment. It's a slop-fest in the winter with lots of muddy wheel ruts full of water (it's an MOD training area) but in an extended dry spell it's properly fast-running heathland fire roads and some (non-rooty) tracks.

The higher your tyre pressures, the more important line selection becomes. Well, that was my experience anyway. I used to ride a GT Avalanche 26" hard tail on 45 to 50 psi tyres when I first got into MTBing in a big way. I learned on that to choose my lines well, as it was a VERY unforgiving bike, set up less than ideally for the riding type I was doing. I learned a lot about tyres, pressures, and generally setting up suspension when I got my Anthem, from the Pedal Powered PHers and also from talking to local riders at races and on the trails. But I'm thankful for the period I spent on the Avalanche for forcing me to have better technique to make up for my shonky equipment and poor set-up.

I'd even consider adjusting my pressures down if I felt I could get away with it. Sadly my tyre budget meant lower spec tyres, and they have stiff sidewalls, so I think I'd have to go "squirmingly low" and risk flatting to overcome the tyre construction. This is with innertubes fitted too. Folk on here, and friends I ride with, are always pushing the tubeless idea, and I'm starting to come round to the idea of giving it a try. Perhaps with the next change of tyres I'll pluck up the courage to give it a try...?

[Celtic Dragon]

Im 90kgs, on a 29er tubeless, on 2.2 tyres and run 30psi front and 27 rear. When bikepacking I run 32 psi front and 29 psi rear as the gear adds another 6-7 kgs.

[joshleb]

DH bike running at 26F 28R.

Tried lower but we have a few drops and jumps onto dodgy landings and could hear the pinging at those lower pressures.

Edit - Should say this is still on 26 with a Demo 8 and Minion DHF dual plys and tubes.

[Bill]

Looks like I should up my pressures. I run 20 F&R on 27.5" 2.4 WTB something or others. I'm 90kg. In my defence my regular ride takes in sand, often mud, and rocks.

[budgie smuggler]

23 / 28. I'm using 2.25 tubeless Smorgasboards.

[james7]

yellowjack said:

I'd even consider adjusting my pressures down if I felt I could get away with it. Sadly my tyre budget meant lower spec tyres, and they have stiff sidewalls, so I think I'd have to go "squirmingly low" and risk flatting to overcome the tyre construction. This is with innertubes fitted too. Folk on here, and friends I ride with, are always pushing the tubeless idea, and I'm starting to come round to the idea of giving it a try. Perhaps with the next change of tyres I'll pluck up the courage to give it a try...?

I recently got a new bike so different bike and different tyres etc but i have noticed much more grip in the really muddy bits with lower pressures. Previous bike did improve with lower pressures but kept getting pinch punctures so i gave up on that.
Self repairing small punctures has to be worth it alone i reckon

[yellowjack]

Tubeless?

james7 said:

...Self repairing small punctures has to be worth it alone i reckon

I was thinking this when I had to give up on the idea of repairing the punctures in an innertube recently.

There were at least four tiny holes in the tube, all caused by small thorns. I got home on it OK, but after a few days sat idle in the garage it was properly flat. Patching four holes would have used up all my remaining patches too, so I gave up with that idea and slung a fresh tube in. No guarantee that there wasn't at least one other tiny hole in the tube too.


Having said that, I've seen friends fail to start races, and bail out of social rides with issues with tubeless tyres failing to seal after punctures, or burping all their sealant out and being generally difficult to re-seat on the rims. The jury is still out for me on the subject of tubeless tyres...