Road Cycling - How do i test tire pressure?

I bought my first road bike and noticed the tire vavles are different then that of the mountain bikes I am use to. The guys at the store I bought it from gave me an adaptor to fill the tire with, but the pressure gauge i have will not fit on this adaptor. I am wondering do if need a special gauge for this adaptor or am I just putting my gauge on wrong? Thank you ahead of time for your answers and the sooner the better. I am afriad to ride now until I figure this out. Don't wanna ruin the tires.
Thanks
Dave

Well, I'm totally a newbie here too, but I'm very excited because I can kinda help you with this! The valves you have on your bike(same bike I just bought 3 days ago) are most likely presta valves. I went to Wal-mart and found a few pumps that have presta valve adapters with gauges. The problem is that my tires take 80 psi minimum and those pumps only go to 70 psi. I would check at a bike shop or a sporting goods store. I would bet that they have pumps with gauges built in.


Hopefully I helped :) If not...I've only wasted about 20 seconds of your life ;)

I bought my first road bike and noticed the tire vavles are different then that of the mountain bikes I am use to. The guys at the store I bought it from gave me an adaptor to fill the tire with, but the pressure gauge i have will not fit on this adaptor. I am wondering do if need a special gauge for this adaptor or am I just putting my gauge on wrong? Thank you ahead of time for your answers and the sooner the better. I am afriad to ride now until I figure this out. Don't wanna ruin the tires.
Thanks
Dave

Welcome to the wonderful world of road biking. As previously mentioned, it's best to get a good floor pump with a built in gauge (I have a Joe Blow that works well). Your local bike shop will carry these, or you can order through one of the bike catalogs. Here's a link to the pumps (http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=h3IuzdiD/R4&offerid=15847.10000067&type=3&subid=0) in the Performance Bike catalog.

In general, road bike tires should be hard when pumped up (typically, 100+ psi). When purchasing a pump, you might also want to pick up a CO2 powered inflator to carry on your bike, along with a spare tube and tire tools, for the inevitable flat.

I would think that "testing" a road bike with a pressure gauge after pumping would defeat your purpose, as it only takes a little air loss on a road bike to lower the pressure significantly, and I have never found an air gauge that didn't lose some air when you tested tire pressure.

Not so bad for a mtn bike tire as the have more "reserve," so to speak, and losing a little air is not going to drop the pressure much.

Check out www.Nashbar.com and www.PerformanceBike.com for sales on good quality floor pumps. The Joe Blow Sport comes to mind, with a dual presta/Schrader valve head.

Nashbar has a Joe Blow on sale right now for 24.95

http://www.nashbar.com/results.cfm?subcategory=1075&category=106&browse=&storetype=&estoreid=&brand=&searchbox=&start=1&orderby=price1&pagename=

On a road bike, tire pressure is extremely important. I pump mine before every ride to be sure I am at 120 psi.

Exercise the valve manually to break the seal before you put the adapter on (unscrew the thingy, depress quickly). Make sure you adapter is attached properly (thick end with knurls toward tire). Make sure you standard gauge goes up to the desired pressure.

Make sure to put the gauge on straight and be quick about it or you will let air escape as DnvrFox said.

Thanks for the link DnvrFox I went looking for a high quality pump today and couldn't find anything. All the stores seem to have are 70 psi max pumps for like 40 bucks!!! *sigh* only one sports store here in columbus and all the department stores have about the same amount of bike stuff ;) Anyways, I picked up the pump you recommended.

I got the Topeak Road Morph! Small pump that can be clamped to the under side of either your top tube or main tube. The neat thing about it is that it has a flexable hose with a built in gauge and the pumb actually "morphs" onto a very mini floor pump!! Way cool! I like it because it really reduces the risk of smapping off a valve when inflating. That is a REAL BUMMER 30 miles from home on a cold day!! I also use the Inovations CO2 inflater as an emergency backup!! It is over kill in some people's oppinion, but that way I can use the CO2 to inflate most of the way and top off with the pump. Then I have energy to ride home!! Also, as someone else on the forum has said, "A pump doesn't run out of air."

Good luck...Bill