Originally Posted by
William I am
.....both of my tubes blew out while my bike was sitting on the back porch of my apartment and both tires have separated from the rims - one of them appears damaged. So I'm guessing the gauge wasn't good. I am, however riding on an original rigida front chrome wheel and a no-name 27" steel rear with a thread-on freewheel (8-speed 34-13T).
The problem is not the tires, and probably not the pressure gauge you mention. The problem is that you're using straight-wall rims. Generally around 70-75 psi is the max pressure that's safe with those. If you want to run higher pressure, you're going to need more modern, hook-edge rims. The outer edge of modern clincher rims has a hooked-edge that allow the use of higher pressures with clincher tires.
So the max pressure that's listed on the tires is irrelevant, the overriding factor is the straight-wall rims that will not typically hold a tire safely above about 70-75 psi. The reason I'm confident the rims are straight walled is that you say they are chromed steel, and I don't think I've ever seen a hook-edged steel rim. Maybe they exist, but they're typically straight-walled. You can check to be sure.
