Originally Posted by
koamileli
..Speaking of PSIs, I have also been told many many different things by shops on this topic. Anywhere from 100-120!! I just go by what the tire says, and it says 115 so that's what I put in there.
The basics of tire pressure are two easy guidelines:
1) don't go (much) over the recommended max, as it might cause blowouts. Note that some tires might require temporary overpressures to seat evenly.
2) Stay high enough to avoid snakebites, and for MTB folders, tire slipping on rim.
Somewhere between those is your ideal, where you try to balance out ride comfort, rolling resistance and tread squirm against each other by varying your tire pressure. Your "best" may be quite different from another riders "best".
I carry a pannier on my commuter, and prefer to run quite high pressures to help me deal with the curbs I have to cross. Comfort for me is definitely a secondary concern. I'd rather deal with some road buzz than have to fix a flat by the roadside.
Last set of MTB tires I ran were beasts to slip on the rim, so it ended up being a compromise between traction and not tearing valve stems off while braking.
Originally Posted by
koamileli
...I recently came across some info telling me that hanging a bike upside down by it's wheels is BAD BAD.
That is just dead silly, and the easiest way to prove it is to think about the spokes. Each spoke pulls inward with a force that is several times greater than the weight of the bike. Hanging the bike by the wheels isn't going to hurt anything. At most you might scuff the rims if you have some burrs or something on the hook.
The only time hanging a bike upside down can cause something is if it has oil-filled shocks, and maybe certain hydraulic brake systems. I've read about some suspension forks behaving badly after being suspended upside down, which can cause the oil to seep away from where it's supposed to be.