Deflate air in your tires?

[Jay_2004]

I was wondering if it was true...that if you deflate your tires on your bike...that you will have better traction on slippery surfaces...(more tread on surface)....is this true?...

[Ebbtide]

yes, it is true. but only a little air. Same concept as letting air out of the family 4x4 before rides in the sand.

[Dave Stohler]

Yes and no.
Yes, if the snow (or whatever) is deep enough that you can't sink through it to the pavement. This also relies on you having some sort of tread able to grip said stuff. A wide, bald tire will be worse than a thin, bald tire in such cases...

[90210]

you can deflate a mountain tire to about 20 psi before you get into problems. I do it all the time and I dont have any!

[mike]

It's true. It is a good idea to slightly deflate your tires for winter riding.

[summitlt]

I do, also you can go really far (like 10 psi) and i have no problems, but that when you take it real easy. It helps on ice also, not a lot, but enough to get you where your going. On snow its great.

[Guest]

I did the same thing last winter, but this winter, I said screw it and live dangerously, so I haven't deflated at all, although I did change one of the tires to knobbies.

Koffee

[jeff williams]

We had snow for 4 or so days - i took advice from the forum and deflated my mtb knobbies and rode street- seemed to work well until we had the thaw, re-freeze ice roads..I think next worn mtb tires I have, I'm going to keep instead of tossing and make my own ice tires.

[ngateguy]

Snow yes, wet NO

[mike]

I did the same thing last winter, but this winter, I said screw it and live dangerously, so I haven't deflated at all, although I did change one of the tires to knobbies.

Koffee

The true lazy man's way is to not check the inflation of your tires through the season transition from summer to winter. Your tires will naturally deflate. ;)