Air Pressure Is King: There Is No "Correct" Air Pressure

 Ironically when I started thinking about this blog series I came across a post on social media where a user was contemplating a series on bicycle air pressures for their own blog. The idea put forth was to do a more "scientific" look at air pressure for cyclists and then there was a request for readers to give the poster their favorite air pressure calculator and why. 

And there isn't anything necessarily "wrong" with the approach this person wanted to pursue, however, I have always believed that there are so many variables to finding a "perfect, simple air pressure guide" that finding an answer is nearly impossible. 

What I mean by "nearly impossible" is that it would entail possibly millions of user's data, and thousands of hours of time with the detailed data recorded, to even approach anything useful to most cyclists. Plus variables would necessarily need to be accounted for which would possibly take finding an answer into rabbit holes we don't even consider now. Nevermind the expenses involved. 

Again, I'm not saying it cannot be done, but we're talking a major funded effort with real scientific equipment and oh.....how many users do you want to include? And after all of this would we get a hard number for any rider to use? So, yeah, good luck with that idea. And maybe something like this has been attempted. I don't know, but if it has been attempted the results are not widely distributed, or I would have thought I'd have come across them by now. If you are aware of a study which fits this criteria, answer in the comments, please. 

All the above does not mean you cannot do some thinking, experimenting, and come up with what works best for you. In fact, I am of a mind that personal experimentation is exactly what you should be doing. If you are not changing up air pressure from time to time, why not start now? You might learn something useful. 

Science can help. In fact, those air pressure calculators are not a bad place to get you in a ballpark. I tried SILCA's before and it was near enough to what I use most of the time to make me impressed. I wouldn't take the recommendation you might get as gospel though.

You still need to experiment. So much can affect where your air pressure should be set at. Tire construction - puncture protected or not? Rim width. Loaded down, no load, or something in between?  Rough surface, smooth surface, snow, mud, or dry? 

You get the picture. Air pressure should be changing for your rides all the time, especially the wider and more voluminous the tires. Roadies running the old 23mm tires had little room to adjust. However; even roadies should be thinking about adjusting their air pressures now with tires going from those skinny widths to 28mm and even as high as the mid-30's millimeters wide on today's road bikes.

I like to think there is no "correct air pressure" and no "wrong air pressure" for anyone. There is "air pressure that works this time", and maybe "most times", but air pressure should be something which is not locked on a single number no matter what. 

More tomorrow....