Forums

General Cycling Discussion - Air pressure - problem if over inflate mtb tires?

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.

PDA

View Full Version : Air pressure - problem if over inflate mtb tires?

markm109

06-24-04, 02:11 PM

MERTON

06-24-04, 02:54 PM

Retro Grouch

06-24-04, 04:03 PM

I just put some Kenda 26x2.1 tires on my mtb, the knobbies were wearing out. These have tread, but smoother for the road.

On the side of the tire it says max pressure 40psi. That seems low to me, the tires I took off had a max of 65psi. I rode the bike with 42psi in them and they seemed ok, but just a touch mushy.

If I inflate to 50 or 60 (and the tire doesn't pop :eek: ) would this damage tire or make it wear out faster?

Mark

Depends.

Good quality modern tires and good quality modern rims have a "hook bead" interface that makes it possible to use relatively high air pressure without blowing the tire off of the rim. Few people have the expertise to tell by looking if their tires and rims have this design. Frankly, 40psi sounds like a pre-hook bead specification to me.

Now I have no way of knowing why Kenda thinks that 40psi is the right maximum pressure to recommend on the sidewall. They might be being conservative in the event that somebody would install, and subsequently blow off, the tire from a non-hook-bead rim. They might have had a frequency of customers blowing tires off of their rims and successfully sueing Kenda. I'm not in a position to know. I doubt many other posters will have that kind of inside knowledge either.

What I do know is that if you exceed their maximum inflation recommendation you might be all right, but you will certainly be on your own.