Air Pressure Is King: Fat Bikes

The Blackborow DS on the way home from work Saturday.

 We finally got enough snow here over the last several days to make using a fat bike a smart choice. I managed to be able to hit the streets on Saturday well before the plows were out and had near perfect snow conditions. 

Sounds good, right? Well, that all depends on whether or not you hit on the "right" air pressure choice. Air pressure in fat bike tires probably makes more difference in how you ride, or even ride at all, than it does with any other type of bicycle. 

For one thing, you have a massive tire with a lot of volume. This dictates a much lower pressure than you might use in a gravel bike, and extremely different than a road bike would use. Because a fat bike tire doesn't need a very high pressure to work correctly, a little air taken out or added in can make a big swing in handling and ride feel.  

Then you have the way cold air can make your job setting air pressure a lot fussier. Cold air has the effect of lowering air pressure versus what you may have set in a heated garage or workshop. Because a little change in a fat bike tire can make a big difference in how the bike will ride and handle, as stated above, you should account for the change in air pressure cold air can cause. A good way to accomplish this is to set your fat bike air pressure after the bike has been out in ambient temperatures for at least 15 minutes. 

I set my tires up at seven psi knowing this would drop a bit after being outdoors. (I didn't have time before work to set the bike outdoors). I took the gamble, and it worked great. The streets were 100% covered in soft snow at about three to four inches. Same thing when going back home with the exception that we had received another 4" while I was at work. 

The Blackborow DS did really well. I will say the pump you choose to use makes all the difference in the world when dealing with low air pressure. I had been using seven or eight psi as it read on the dial of other pumps but this newer SILCA Terra pump has a lot more accurate low psi capability and it showed up for this ride. My feeling is that seven or eight on the other pumps is actually a bit higher than seven or eight psi on the Terra pump! 

I'll have more to say about air pressure throughout the week, so stay tuned.....

More Tire Talk

The most recent Guitar Ted Podcast was about tires.

About a week ago, I wrote up a mini-series about tires and the questions folks have about them which end up, generally speaking, in a discussion that looks a whole lot like a discussion about religion. 

The tire theme is a VERY popular subject on the podcast I do, on Riding Gravel, and almost anywhere that there are more than two people in a forum online. I guess tires matter to y'all, and so I keep talking about them and writing about them here and elsewhere. 

In the latest "Guitar Ted Podcast" episode, I mention in the podcast that "air pressure is the most misunderstood thing about tires." I mentioned this in my mini-series briefly by saying the following:

"Tire pressures are another easy to understand difference here. But these settings should always change with weight, terrain concerns, and with regard to the weather conditions. Tire pressures are "set and forget' for many riders, but this is an oversimplification and those folks are cheating themselves of the best results that they could have. But then again, if you don't care......"

I made a mistake in that quote by saying simply that "Tire pressures are another easy to understand difference here." when I should have said "....easy to understand once you examine the reasons why." The thing is, most riders don't think about this, so they misunderstand, or maybe more accurately, are ignorant to, the differences tire pressure can make for a rider. 

In other words, you should carry a gauge and a pump for reasons of changing tire pressures more than you should for flat repairs. I said it on the podcast, but think about any motorsport: They make micro-adjustments to tire pressures all the time to effect various performance outcomes. We cyclists even practice this with our 'more sensitive to air pressure changes' tires such as fat bike tires or "plus sized" tires. (If you aren't doing pressures adjustments with fat bike tires, YOU NEED TO!) 

A tire's construction should inform tire pressure choices.

Not only should you be experimenting with tire pressures, you should also understand that how a tire is made should inform which tire pressures you should use. 

For instance, a tire that is simply a folding bead tire with no extra puncture protection belts or that is not tubeless can be run at a higher pressure and have a certain performance outcome. Now, switch that tire out for a puncture protected tire that is tubeless ready. What should you do? 

If you understand that puncture protection belts and that tubeless construction techniques make a tire sidewall stiffer, then you might understand why a lower pressure than you used with the first tire will help you reach the same/similar performance outcomes of that first tire. 

This can be illustrated by a tire I used when testing 29"er products from GEAX, (now Vittoria). I had run one of these tires which was not puncture protected and was used at about 28psi. When I got a hold of the armored tire in the same size and model, I had to lower my tire pressure into the upper teens to realize similar riding characteristics to the previous tire. 

Now, that is obviously an extreme example, but it illustrates that choosing an air pressure to run tires at arbitrarily and loosely based on the flawed maxim that "higher pressures roll better", is bad thinking. It is a mistake that many riders still make. 

Now, you may be thinking, "Okay Ted, but your examples are all for MTB and fat bike tires which you say are more sensitive to air pressures. What about gravel tires?" 

Even gravel tires, like this 40mm IRC Boken, are sensitive to air pressure changes.

Gravel tires respond to changes in air pressures also. The difference is that the amount of change is more to effect a change than it is with high air volume tires. 

So, for instance, my 'plus sized' Teravail 29" X 2.8" Coronado tires can be noticeably different in ride feel when changing from 18psi to 20psi. You can feel a BIG difference. Now, changing a gravel tire's pressure by 2 psi makes no discernible difference, but it makes a difference. If you want a discernible difference, you'll likely have to change the pressure by at least 5psi. So, I like to say that your "window" of hitting it right for what you are looking for is wider with a gravel tire than it is with a fatter, plus sized tire, or even a fat bike tire, where going 1psi either way is noticeable in terms of ride performance in snow or mud. 

Okay, so tire construction will help you choose tire pressures, and making changes in air pressures experimentally will help me dial in a "right" pressure for me and my riding style. But when you arrive at :The Pressure", you're done, right? 

Wrong!

 Conditions also will dictate what pressures you should be running. Are the roads you are going to be riding fairly clear of loose gravel and hard, or are these roads littered with fresh gravel? You need to adjust pressures accordingly. I mean, obviously, if you don't care, you can ride whatever pressures you want. This advice is for anyone wanting to arrive at the best performing tire and best ride feel that they can get. 

So, think about all that and see if it makes sense to you to try different air pressures or not. The bottom line? Just ride. You are better off riding your bike, no matter what the air pressures are, than not riding and over-thinking the minutiae of tire pressures. 

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

More Tire Talk

The most recent Guitar Ted Podcast was about tires.

About a week ago, I wrote up a mini-series about tires and the questions folks have about them which end up, generally speaking, in a discussion that looks a whole lot like a discussion about religion. 

The tire theme is a VERY popular subject on the podcast I do, on Riding Gravel, and almost anywhere that there are more than two people in a forum online. I guess tires matter to y'all, and so I keep talking about them and writing about them here and elsewhere. 

In the latest "Guitar Ted Podcast" episode, I mention in the podcast that "air pressure is the most misunderstood thing about tires." I mentioned this in my mini-series briefly by saying the following:

"Tire pressures are another easy to understand difference here. But these settings should always change with weight, terrain concerns, and with regard to the weather conditions. Tire pressures are "set and forget' for many riders, but this is an oversimplification and those folks are cheating themselves of the best results that they could have. But then again, if you don't care......"

I made a mistake in that quote by saying simply that "Tire pressures are another easy to understand difference here." when I should have said "....easy to understand once you examine the reasons why." The thing is, most riders don't think about this, so they misunderstand, or maybe more accurately, are ignorant to, the differences tire pressure can make for a rider. 

In other words, you should carry a gauge and a pump for reasons of changing tire pressures more than you should for flat repairs. I said it on the podcast, but think about any motorsport: They make micro-adjustments to tire pressures all the time to effect various performance outcomes. We cyclists even practice this with our 'more sensitive to air pressure changes' tires such as fat bike tires or "plus sized" tires. (If you aren't doing pressures adjustments with fat bike tires, YOU NEED TO!) 

A tire's construction should inform tire pressure choices.

Not only should you be experimenting with tire pressures, you should also understand that how a tire is made should inform which tire pressures you should use. 

For instance, a tire that is simply a folding bead tire with no extra puncture protection belts or that is not tubeless can be run at a higher pressure and have a certain performance outcome. Now, switch that tire out for a puncture protected tire that is tubeless ready. What should you do? 

If you understand that puncture protection belts and that tubeless construction techniques make a tire sidewall stiffer, then you might understand why a lower pressure than you used with the first tire will help you reach the same/similar performance outcomes of that first tire. 

This can be illustrated by a tire I used when testing 29"er products from GEAX, (now Vittoria). I had run one of these tires which was not puncture protected and was used at about 28psi. When I got a hold of the armored tire in the same size and model, I had to lower my tire pressure into the upper teens to realize similar riding characteristics to the previous tire. 

Now, that is obviously an extreme example, but it illustrates that choosing an air pressure to run tires at arbitrarily and loosely based on the flawed maxim that "higher pressures roll better", is bad thinking. It is a mistake that many riders still make. 

Now, you may be thinking, "Okay Ted, but your examples are all for MTB and fat bike tires which you say are more sensitive to air pressures. What about gravel tires?" 

Even gravel tires, like this 40mm IRC Boken, are sensitive to air pressure changes.

Gravel tires respond to changes in air pressures also. The difference is that the amount of change is more to effect a change than it is with high air volume tires. 

So, for instance, my 'plus sized' Teravail 29" X 2.8" Coronado tires can be noticeably different in ride feel when changing from 18psi to 20psi. You can feel a BIG difference. Now, changing a gravel tire's pressure by 2 psi makes no discernible difference, but it makes a difference. If you want a discernible difference, you'll likely have to change the pressure by at least 5psi. So, I like to say that your "window" of hitting it right for what you are looking for is wider with a gravel tire than it is with a fatter, plus sized tire, or even a fat bike tire, where going 1psi either way is noticeable in terms of ride performance in snow or mud. 

Okay, so tire construction will help you choose tire pressures, and making changes in air pressures experimentally will help me dial in a "right" pressure for me and my riding style. But when you arrive at :The Pressure", you're done, right? 

Wrong!

 Conditions also will dictate what pressures you should be running. Are the roads you are going to be riding fairly clear of loose gravel and hard, or are these roads littered with fresh gravel? You need to adjust pressures accordingly. I mean, obviously, if you don't care, you can ride whatever pressures you want. This advice is for anyone wanting to arrive at the best performing tire and best ride feel that they can get. 

So, think about all that and see if it makes sense to you to try different air pressures or not. The bottom line? Just ride. You are better off riding your bike, no matter what the air pressures are, than not riding and over-thinking the minutiae of tire pressures. 

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

5 Things I Learned From Mountain Biking

Riding single track can teach you a lot of bike skills.

The innergoogles loves it when you post a title with a number in it, and marketers say that "list posts" are some of the most read posts. Whatever. I don't care. So, for no other sane reason than I just want to write about this, here we go with some things I've learned and valued along the way that came from my mountain biking experiences.

1: Look Where You Want To Go, Not Where You Don't: This sounds so simple it is crazy, but think about some crashes you have maybe had in your cycling. Many times that drop off, that rut, that bad pot hole, we look at it and we go right in to it. Bang! Crash!

The trick isn't to ignore things like that, but to identify them as hazards, and then look where you do want to go. Because if you keep an eye on that hazard, it will bite you. Look beyond the things you want to stay away from, focus on the good line. This is especially true for gravel road riding.

2: Arms & Legs Are Suspension Devices: Long ago all mountain bikes were rigid. Both ends. This meant that you either learned how to deal with trail irregularities or you crashed a lot and broke stuff regularly. This also meant that if you didn't want to crash and burn "you had ta get yer butt offa tha saddle and absorb them bumps wit da arms and tha legs". (Regards to the "Old Coot") Yes, arms were suspension and so were your legs.

Even today I lighten my pressure in the saddle whenever I see bumpy terrain by using my arms and my legs. You also use your core, but let's not get all technical here. You get the picture. I learned this from mountain biking on rigid mtbs in the early 90's. Still pays dividends today.

3: Go Low On The Air: Before there were fat bikes or tubeless tires, you had to learn how to play with air pressures as a mountain biker. Too high and you were washing out in corners, getting bucked and bumped all over the place, and rattling your eyeballs out. Too low and you were folding tires over in corners, pinch flatting on rocks, and denting rims. It was a delicate balancing act that, if you got it right, meant that your shred was stellar. Mountain biking taught me that tire pressures were never meant to be "as high as the tire sidewall said you could go". In fact, I almost always disregarded those recommendations. I still go as low as I can on gravel for the best ride quality, traction, and best rolling resistance characteristics.

Lessons learned from mountain biking. Here I am using really low pressures at the 2015 DK200. Arms and legs for suspension. Image by A Andonopoulous

 4: Check Your Fasteners Regularly: Having a rigid mountain bike taught me that things can and will vibrate loose over time. Important stuff like stem bolts, crank arm bolts, and rack or fender bolts all can work loose and if you do not check them regularly, you could be in for a big surprise someday. I find that gravel riding is actually worse than it ever was for mountain biking in this area.

5: Shift Early- Shift Often: This is one that I repeated to myself all during the "DK My Way" ride about a month ago. It is also one I violate the most because, well........single speeding! I gotta learn when to not think like a single speeder.Which is tough, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, shift a lot and do it before you get a ton of pressure on the pedals.

Back in the early days of mountain biking, before shift ramps and pins, and Di2, you had to have some serious shifting skills. That or you'd be in the wrong gear a lot. Because if you didn't "let up" a bit on the pedals, spin a decent cadence, and if you waited too long before you got into that hill, you were single speeding! That old 18 speed triple drive train wasn't going to shift! So, you learned to "shift early" and you shifted a lot, or you were wasting energy. That still holds true today. Shifting early means less pressure on the chain, less wear and tear, and less chances for breaking the chain. Which, if you hadn't noticed lately, has gotten a lot thinner than it used to be. Plus, shifting early and often takes less of a toll on your body. 

There is my list. I have learned more than this from mountain biking, but those are the things that came to mind first. So there!

 

5 Things I Learned From Mountain Biking

Riding single track can teach you a lot of bike skills.

The innergoogles loves it when you post a title with a number in it, and marketers say that "list posts" are some of the most read posts. Whatever. I don't care. So, for no other sane reason than I just want to write about this, here we go with some things I've learned and valued along the way that came from my mountain biking experiences.

1: Look Where You Want To Go, Not Where You Don't: This sounds so simple it is crazy, but think about some crashes you have maybe had in your cycling. Many times that drop off, that rut, that bad pot hole, we look at it and we go right in to it. Bang! Crash!

The trick isn't to ignore things like that, but to identify them as hazards, and then look where you do want to go. Because if you keep an eye on that hazard, it will bite you. Look beyond the things you want to stay away from, focus on the good line. This is especially true for gravel road riding.

2: Arms & Legs Are Suspension Devices: Long ago all mountain bikes were rigid. Both ends. This meant that you either learned how to deal with trail irregularities or you crashed a lot and broke stuff regularly. This also meant that if you didn't want to crash and burn "you had ta get yer butt offa tha saddle and absorb them bumps wit da arms and tha legs". (Regards to the "Old Coot") Yes, arms were suspension and so were your legs.

Even today I lighten my pressure in the saddle whenever I see bumpy terrain by using my arms and my legs. You also use your core, but let's not get all technical here. You get the picture. I learned this from mountain biking on rigid mtbs in the early 90's. Still pays dividends today.

3: Go Low On The Air: Before there were fat bikes or tubeless tires, you had to learn how to play with air pressures as a mountain biker. Too high and you were washing out in corners, getting bucked and bumped all over the place, and rattling your eyeballs out. Too low and you were folding tires over in corners, pinch flatting on rocks, and denting rims. It was a delicate balancing act that, if you got it right, meant that your shred was stellar. Mountain biking taught me that tire pressures were never meant to be "as high as the tire sidewall said you could go". In fact, I almost always disregarded those recommendations. I still go as low as I can on gravel for the best ride quality, traction, and best rolling resistance characteristics.

Lessons learned from mountain biking. Here I am using really low pressures at the 2015 DK200. Arms and legs for suspension. Image by A Andonopoulous

 4: Check Your Fasteners Regularly: Having a rigid mountain bike taught me that things can and will vibrate loose over time. Important stuff like stem bolts, crank arm bolts, and rack or fender bolts all can work loose and if you do not check them regularly, you could be in for a big surprise someday. I find that gravel riding is actually worse than it ever was for mountain biking in this area.

5: Shift Early- Shift Often: This is one that I repeated to myself all during the "DK My Way" ride about a month ago. It is also one I violate the most because, well........single speeding! I gotta learn when to not think like a single speeder.Which is tough, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, shift a lot and do it before you get a ton of pressure on the pedals.

Back in the early days of mountain biking, before shift ramps and pins, and Di2, you had to have some serious shifting skills. That or you'd be in the wrong gear a lot. Because if you didn't "let up" a bit on the pedals, spin a decent cadence, and if you waited too long before you got into that hill, you were single speeding! That old 18 speed triple drive train wasn't going to shift! So, you learned to "shift early" and you shifted a lot, or you were wasting energy. That still holds true today. Shifting early means less pressure on the chain, less wear and tear, and less chances for breaking the chain. Which, if you hadn't noticed lately, has gotten a lot thinner than it used to be. Plus, shifting early and often takes less of a toll on your body. 

There is my list. I have learned more than this from mountain biking, but those are the things that came to mind first. So there!