Old 01-13-16 | 10:55 AM
  #12  
FrozenK
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Joined: Jan 2009
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Originally Posted by Hypno Toad
I use a standard floor pump for the fat tires and carry a Serfas compact pump. I have never tried pumping the tires with the hand pump. However, I will tell you with the floor pump, ~10 strokes gets you 1 to 2 psi. Since the tires are high volume and low pressure, it's honestly not too different from a high pressure, low volume tire.



I totally agree and that's why I added temps, it make an amazing difference riding in the cold... I don't have a great way to compare pressure versus speed at the same temp. But clearly, lower pressure equals more work and slower speeds. Shocking, I know

Take this for example, two rides over the same route:

-10F, 25 miles, average pace 9.4 mph with Strava Suffer Score of 134
45F, 28 miles, average pace 14.6 mph with Strava Suffer Score of 56

I know that my tires were higher pressure on the 45F ride (no snow or ice) but I don't know what the pressure was at, likely 12 psi since that's my typical 'summer' pressure. Regardless, the level of work (Suffer Score) and the average pace, people get a great idea how much more work it is to ride in the cold.
I don't disagree, but I wanted to point out that the increase in rolling resistance is (probably) less dramatic than the numbers suggested.

And yes, it is very difficult to compare winter rides. Temperature and snow conditions have a huge influence. A one hour ride can turn into a three plus hour slog in soft snow. Last year's Iditarod Trail Invitational (ITI) record to McGrath was less than two days. There have been years people took two days to the first checkpoint.
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