Forced

I was considering new tires due to a lot of slipping around corners in slightly muddy conditions. Even in dry dirt, I felt that the back tire would get away from me.

I was riding with 55 lbs and sometimes 50 lbs of tire pressure front and rear. Today I wanted to try something different. I lowered my pressure to 45 lbs and lowered my seat just about 1 inch. man what a difference in control. I went threw some mud on an angle and my bike cut right threw it. The bike felt tighter but loser. It had give which made it feel tighter. Hard to explain but if you experienced this , you know what I'm talking about.
My tires are Tioga Extreme 2.10 in the front and 1.95 in the rear. I was looking at the Tioga White tigers but I think I' am holding off until I play with these some more.
Today was the best control I ever had over my bike and man was it fun. My experience , well I'm still a rookie. I have now rode 200 miles on and off road. I just started riding about 3 months ago.

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FISH_FISH

hah! he has discovered!

try the seatpost as low as it goes, tyre pressure at 25psi, and then it gets interesting

Forced

Will do. I like the way it changes things up.

rasheed

yeah, tire pressure does make quite a difference. too much and you'll be bouncing around on the trail, tires won't grip as well as when the pressure's dropped a bit. too little and your tire will roll over too much on turn and give you the feeling that it continually wants to wash out - even on small little turns.

this is what was happening with me and my new tires. i don't have a pressure guage and am not really good at telling how much psi is in the tire by feel. yesterday after a horrible ride, in which i didn't feel confident on the new tires at all... i went to a gas station to put some air into my tires for the ride home. found out i only had about 10-20 psi in them. i'm surprised i didn't pinchflat on my ride. anyhow, i pumped them up to 30 and it made a world of difference. no more wishy-washy feeling in the rear. tires were hooking into the ground and didn't feel like they wanted to wash out. i also found out that my rear rim is in worse shape than i thought with the new 2.5 trailbear rubbing against the chainstay yoke at certain times during the wheel's rotation. i got some pretty bad flatspots on my rim . guess i gotta find a good wheel builder and get a new rim laced on, heh.

frankiee

I have been doing a lot of downhill everyday going to school and back.
I forgot that I pumped tires up to 30# and almost crashed 3 times going down a hill that I have hit 50 times or more.
I know that 20 # is to low and I have gotten pinch flats because of it but I like playing with tire pressures just to find out what they do. They do a lot.A whole lot. Even 5 #
I will likely go to a larger back tire but after that I will likely find a more dangerous hill and end up going down in pressures again.
I have also noticed that the bike I have now is light at the back and quite useless going up hill and down because the rear tire dont get the weight.
I think the Local Bike store should have a weighing scale to find the balance from front to the back.

Juniper

I wonder if at least part of that is due to how your body is positioned? How I shift my weight back and forth on both ups and downs makes a huge difference, as well as being seated or not. Could that be part of it?

frankiee

I have some other bikes around that include my wifes Haro V-1 and a old piece of junk Nakmanuro that I picked up new for $125. The Nak has semi bald street tires. Both the other bikes can walk circles around my Iron Horse when it comes to hills.
Without even being a contortionist on the bike.
I also have an old Fuego that I used to use as a winter bike. Same thing, just sit or stand and go up or down the hill.
Hop on my Iron Horse and I end up looking at the tire wondering what is going on, why is the tire spinning or sliding so much. Like I hit marbles or something.
Then I have to adjust my weight to get traction on a mild hill that any other old piece of junk from the box store would just walk up.
Had some cars like that in the winter.
Had an old truck with summer tires on it and It was glued to the road.
Had some cars with good snows on and they were useless.
Guess a lot of factors come in to play.
Just saying that all bike do not have the same characteristics just because the frame geometry looks close to the same.

graham heaton

try 35 in the rear and 30 in the front and you will get even better results

Forced

next ride out I'll try 35. I'm happy with the way 45 is holding.