Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
When I was in my 20s and had a bike with tubular tires, tried to get over 100 PSI in them. That was before I realized that what really mattered was the suppleness of thr tire casing, not so much how high the pressure was (or looked at another way, how hard the road felt when you hit a bump).
I had a plastic frame fit Silca (still have it, have not used it in years), and one time when I got perturbed with how much trouble I had in getting much pressure, I calculated out the inside diameter of the pump tube, and from that calculated how many pounds of force I had to push my two hands together if there was no friction when you are pumping it that way, and was shocked to learn that there was no way I would ever be able to get the recommended pressure.
When I first saw the Lezyne and Toppeak pumps that had a foot rest, yet were small enough to carry on a bike, I knew that was the answer to life's problems.
My narrowest tire on any of my bikes is 28mm now, that still needs some good pressure, but since that rarely goes very far from home, I carry the Zefal HPX on it. I can ride that a short distance with less pressure. My rando bike, that as 32mm tires, also carry a Zefal frame fit pump on it, but when I ride a brevet I carry one of my pumps with a foot piece in the saddle bag.
I have still have my old Silca Impero that came with the Campy head, and I got it in yellow to match the decals on my Trek at the time, I don't use it anymore either, kind of preserving it, so it sits on my bookshelf.
When I was in my 20's I was riding on 700x19 tubular tire on the front and a 20 on the rear, this was when narrow tires were thought to be the best due to aerodynamics. Due to those higher pressures needed, the Silca was used to inflate on the road after a flat. We carried two spare tubulars under our seats, plus had a tubular patch kit which contained a needle and thread, but to repair a tubular on the road could take up to 45 minutes, which is why I packed 2.