Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
1) The maximum pressure rated on the tire is not the recommended pressure.
Serious enough over-inflation could blow a tire off an older non-hooked-bead rim too. I recently had a 25mm tire inflated to 115 pop off a Fiamme Yellow Label rim. It sounded like a rifle shot.
Glad I wasn't staring at it at the time. This isn't likely with newer rims but it underscores the meaning of the term "
Maximum Recommended Pressure".
In this case it had been inflated to 120 with an electric pump on the premise that some air would escape when I took the valve off. Then I rode for an hour, then cleaned part of the rim with alcohol, then left it in the 6PM sun which shouldn't have added much heat. 10 minutes later it blew in the spot where I'd been cleaning it. Maybe some alcohol seeped into the bead and acted as a lubricant.
I'm not convinced that it needs that much air anyway. (I weigh 170lbs.) But a buddy who used to race keeps telling me that 50 years of racing practice wouldn't have concluded more pressure is good if it wasn't so.