Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
You reported what most others have reported. A few like their tires rock hard but in reality their loosing performance on street use due to the tire actually hopping or skipping over road imperfections, rock hard tires only work on very smooth surfaces like a velodrome and even there you don't want them to hard due to loss of cornering traction. Sheldon Brown I believe talks about the fallacy of using too high of pressure. And that Michelin calculator formula had been around a very long time, I used the formula back in the 80's! We had a chart instead of a calculator.
The steering feeling light could be the bike, it could be the brand and model of tire, tire width, if it's a new bike you may not be use to it yet.
Michelin calculator gave results within 1 psi of bike quarterly's calculator. 67 and 44 psi. Did another commute home via a rougher trail and again the bike feels more planted to the ground, cornering feels much safer and vibration is very much reduced.
I'll let it drop naturally to 45 psi and just maintain it from that pressure.
The tyres I'm using aren't the best but as I can't justify simply replacing them I'll have to wear them out first. They are 700 x 38mm almost slicks with a very shallow tread cut in them and the lightest of dimples printed on the shoulders.
Ideally as I ride a mix of road and rough cycle tracks I'd like a tyre with a smooth centre centre section for road use but with bigger shoulder tread for the rougher stuff.
Something like the Continental Top contact.
Recently returned to cycling after 10 years out and am just about to cross the 20 mile mark on the bike in 5 weeks so still getting used to things again.