Neuvation

The 15% Rule Of Tire Inflation.

A good customer and newsletter reader, Charlie Zwick, sent me a copy of a great article from Bicycle Quarterly about tire inflation. It says, for most riding, tires should compress about 15% when you get on your bike.

The front and rear tires, typically take remarkably different pressures. To determine yours, put your bike on a bathroom scale (with one wheel on a block of the same height) and get into your riding position. Record both front and rear wheel scale readings.

Bike and rider for me is about 210 pounds with 40% on the front wheel and 60% on the back. The chart indicates that I should be running 88/132 psi for 23C tires and about 75/100 for 25C. If we factor in an additional 11% pressure reduction that the wider rims offer (according to Steve Hed), that would equate to 67/98 for 25C and 78/117 for 23C. Note how low the pressure is in the "controlling" front tire - that, my friend, can change your world.

My significant other who with bike, hits the scales at about 140, would have these numbers. Normal width wheels 25C 55/75, 23C 62/88 and with wide rims 49/67 on 25C and 55/78 on 23C.

Tire pressure will affect your ride much more than any other factor – both in terms of comfort and performance. My guess is that less than 1% of bike riders are riding on the right tire pressures. You can experiment with tire pressures for free. Have fun.

Thanks for reading – John Neugent

For the first time ever and for a limited time, we are now offering out R28 SL custom build wheels with either the wide rims ($395) or with our regular 19 mm rim for $325. Pick hub colors, decal colors, and spoke nipple colors and also take another 10% off. Yes, you can get some cool custom built wheels with red hubs and spoke nipples and even red decals (or yellow, for that matter) for under $300. The hubs are due in Friday or early next week and we are amost a week behind on builds so you will have to be a little bit patient.

Take an extra 10% off all of our custom wheels. Note that Neuvaton hubs are now coming in red (they should be in the building within the week). The discount is automatically applied at checkout.

The carbon clincher rims are here. (C45 and C55). These are going to go fast only 5 sets left and the next ones are due in the middle of May. Take an extra 10% off through the end of the week. Discount applied at checkout. I have also added photos to the C45 and C55 items so you can get a good look at them. These are also now available with red anodized Neuvation hubs.

bikebreak

I think this distribution is accurate for flats, but not hills. Going uphill you are going to have much more weight on the back (depending on body position) and descending way more weight on the front wheel.

I suspect you are going to need more pressure if you do hills.