If you are anything like me, the pressure in my mountain bike tires is very important. Mountain bike tire pressure can make the difference between my bike feeling like it is rolling on rocks or ready to slide off the hill. High volume, wide tires are also more sensitive to pressures as they are able to run less than the narrower counterparts. That’s right…the 35 psi 1.8 tires are gone!
So how do you ensure that you get your right tire pressure every time you hit the trail? Here is how I do it.
Have the correct setup with your tires
I know this is a given but I wanted to start here. If your tires are leaking, you are going to fight tire pressure all of the time. They will also like to burp more on the trail if they do not have a good seal.
If you are running a tubeless setup, make sure your bead is set and you are using a good sealant that hasn’t gone bad in your tire. Lately, I have been using the Orange Seal and it has worked out great. They recommend changing out/redoing your sealant once a year.
When I used to run a tubed setup, I would make sure that I was using quality tunes and the same size/thickness consistently. This just gets rid of another variable that can effect how your tires ride at a given tire pressure.
Adjust mountain bike tire pressure at the trailhead
I bring my tire pump and gauge with me on every ride. Right before the ride starts, I check and adjust my tire pressure as needed. This insures that I am at the right pressures when I start the ride.
It can be a pain bringing the extra gear with me on every ride but there is a specific reason for it. Temperature and altitude can effect your tire pressure. There are a lot of rides that start at elevations higher than my house and farther north. As a general rule, you will lose tire pressure with colder air and higher elevations. There are times when I can have everything perfect at the house only to find that I need to add a little bit more when I actually get to the ride.
Use the same pump every time
Once you have figured out your ideal mountain bike tire pressures for your bike, tires and riding style, it is important that you use the same pump every time you adjust. The gauges on tire pumps are notoriously wrong. Have you ever used a friends pump, went to your normal PSI and then realized it was nothing like yours? That is extremely common.
The thing we are looking for with using the same pump every time is consistency. The 21 psi you are reading on the pump is probably incorrect but it is your pumps “correct pressure”. As long as you are using the same pump every time, you will have correct pressures when you are ready to ride.
This is also the time that I get the right “feel” of the tire. I squeeze the sidewalls and push down on the tread. That way…if for some reason my pump gauge isn’t reading correctly…I will know from how the tire feels to the hand and can correct for it. This is also great for trailside repairs where you may not have a gauge available at all on a hand pump. When you do it enough, you can get pretty accurate on feel given it is the same tire every time.
If you want to get really geeky on it…digital tire gauge
If you don’t want to worry about what pump you are using and you really want to dial in the exact pressure in your tires…you need a Topeak tire pressure gauge. For $35, you can make sure that your tire pressure is absolutely perfect every time you ride. All you have to do is pump up you tire past your normal psi and then attach the gauge and let it out until you hit your desired pressure. It really is that easy and accurate…it just costs another $35 to get there.
Those are my tips on getting the perfect mountain bike tire pressure before every ride. They have proven to work well over the years but I am sure there are some other tips out there. What do you use and how to you keep your pressures consistent?
3 comments
You’ve got it backwards. If you fill your tires at low elevation and then go to higher elevation, the PSI of the tire will go up, not down. That is because there is less atmospheric pressure at higher elevations pushing back against the tire.
Just so you know, the word “insure” means just that, to buy insurance. “Ensure”, on the other hand, means to make sure of something. I do wish that someone would offer insurance on tire pressure, as not even my local bike shop can get my front tubeless to seal. I guess I will have to buy new rims and/or tires.
Mark…thanks for catching that. When you are your own proofreader, sometimes something falls through the cracks. Fixed!