Don’t over-inflate your tyres!

This article is for mountain bikers who ride their bikes on the road. Be careful with your tyre pressures!

Recently I received a wheel for repair. The rim had split inside, along the spoke holes. Check out the pic ->

In my opinion, only one thing can cause damage like this – excessive tyre pressure. It’s important to note that today’s tubeless-ready mountain bike rims, like those from Spank, are not designed to handle pressures above 5 bar. For optimal traction, comfort and rolling resistance off road, don’t exceed 2 bar pressure. If you are riding your mountain bike on the road and wish to reduce rolling resistance, don’t exceed 2.5-3 bar, as you’ll experience no benefit.

How to determine optimal tyre pressure:

• Inflate your tyres just hard enough to prevent pinch flats, or snakebite punctures
• Consider your equipment – the wider your rims and tyres are, the more force air pressure exerts, so don’t over-inflate.
• Here is some anecdotal info from yours truly:
  • My rims are 30mm wide internally
  • I run 2.3 and 2.25″ wide tubeless ready tyres
  • My front tyre pressure is around 0.8 bar
  • My rear pressure is around 1.1 bar
• Experiment and find what works best for you.
  • Inflate to a pressure which prevents the tyre from feeling like it’ll roll off the rim during hard cornering and to prevent pinch flats
  • The lower the tyre pressure, the more the tyre will deform over bumps in the trail, improving grip and comfort