I am interested in lowering the pressure to achieve the 15% drop talked about in that Bicycle Quarterly article. But I have two problems:
1. There is no drop provided for a 40 or 42mm tire on the chart.
2. If I go below recommended low tire pressure listed on my tire, will it damage the tire to ride it that way? The low end is 50psii on my tires, and looks like I will be in the 40's from what I see on the chart. .
Try my attempt at capturing that chart with a formula...
But after you compute nominal front/rear pressures, pump up your tires to precisely that, and take a test run in a driveway or parking lot with some obstacles that represent what you might encounter in the wild. Like how about a broom handle (branch in the road?) or try bumping up and down curbs and driveway lips. Ride carefully and pay attention to tire deformation, or have somebody else (your weight) ride and watch from the side. That should give you an idea whether you can tweak the computed numbers in either direction.