Being new to the fat bike game, there have
been a number of little surprises. The
first surprise was how easily the bikes roll and the second was how low the
tire pressure is on a nearly 5” wide tire.
I am used to 110 psi on my road bike and 20 – 30 on my mountain
bike. Fat bikes tires need pressures
hovering around 10 psi or less (I will cover my experience with various
pressures in another installment)
Another revelation has been how temperature
affects tire pressure as I had never ridden a bike in sub zero temperatures… On my first ride, I felt the tires were
getting softer shortly into the ride.
Sort of felt like I was getting a flat!
After checking in with a few folks who were “winter riders”, I learned
that due to the low pressures, even a drop of a 1 or 2 psi would result in a
significant change in the handling.
I needed to conduct my own
experiment…. I filled a tire to 9 psi,
set it outside at minus 15 degrees Celsius and measured the pressure after two
hours. The pressure went down to 6.75 psi,
a drop of 25%. Good to know!
I found a Botranger chart that can be used
as a rough guide for various temperatures.
I say “guide” as my experiment showed less of a loss than the
chart. Tire volume is a variable.
My lesson learned? Fill up at home, expect a couple psi drop and plan to adjust on the trail depending on temperature and conditions.
My lesson learned? Fill up at home, expect a couple psi drop and plan to adjust on the trail depending on temperature and conditions.
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