Originally Posted by
The Historian
I don't believe in over-inflating tires. I don't want to test the limits.

+1 on that. I made that mistake this Winter. It was cold and dark one morning. I was adding some air. Somehow my brain did not engage properly and I miss read the tire pressure on the sidewall and thought it said 6.5 bar it should have been 4.5 bar. The bike was pretty cold from staying in the garage all night (it was in the single digits outside). The ride to work was prefectly uneventfull. I was sitting in my office around 4:00 PM, and all of a sudden there was a loud explosion. It shocked the cr@p out of me. My ears were ringing. After some investigation I found that my front tire bead had let go. The tire was beyond use and the inner tube actually schreded. I guess between the over pressure and the extra 15 or so PSI gain from the temperature increase from around 20 F to 75F (very warm office) was enough to put the tire over the edge.
I now fill the tire EXACTLY to max pressure, and am a bit more careful to make sure I have some light in the garage to see what I am doing.
Happy riding,
André