A couple of things I dont understand
 

I get the impression that many ride their bikes several times before they check their tire pressure. I check and top off my tires before every ride. That way the tires are at the proper pressure, and if a tire seems really low, I can check it for pin hole leaks at home before I ride.

The other thing is on videos etc I see people that seem to ride with no tools or tire equipment at all. What happens when they get a flat? Personally I carry a mini bike shop in my trunk pack.

Discussion?

In some things….
 

Ignorance is bliss.

I check my tires before every ride and I carry the same little mini bike shop in my kit....there's nothing worse than being stuck in the middle of BFE without the tools to fix your ride.

Most people learn what tradeoffs they're comfortable with through experience. If someone has being doing things a certain way for a long time, it must work for them, so you just have to accept that their experiences and sensibilities are different than yours and move on.

I pump up the tires before *most* rides, but not all.

Depends on the ride, the bike, the time since.I last rode it, etc.

Lots of experience indicates that if I rode the bike yesterday and the tire still feels hard against my thumb, then it's within 5 psi of where I set it last. That difference doesn't always matter to me.

I lose enough PSI that if I ride my bike twice a week, I have to put air in twice a week. Not a lot, of course, but some.

If I ride two days in a row, I usually don't bother.

I used to live in a city where all my riding was on the street... I'd get flats every couple months. Now I live where I have easy access to two excellent and smooth rail trails, and haven't had a single flat since I've been here. I attribute that to the lack of debris/cinders/broken glass/radial tire cords etc on the path vs. on the road. Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself!

I carry enough tools to overhaul the bicycle. I check the tire pressure for flats or low pressure by pinching the tires before every ride but only add air twice a month.

You do you, I'll do me.

With tires wider than 'performance road' tires (>28mm) then a squeeze with the thumb can tell you what you need to know. If you have 25mm or 23 mm or smaller tires and need to keep them pumped up to 90 or 100 psi, well 70psi feels a lot like 90psi to the thumb, so it is prudent to regularly connect your pump to be sure.

The drawback to regularly pumping your tires is that every time you pull the pump off the valve stem, you put a bit of stress on it and increase the risk of a failure at the valve.

I check/fill my tires before every ride. They always need air. Got sick of carrying tools and spares. If I have a mechanical I can always hitch a ride back or walk.

Because I rotate through the bikes I have based on what I feel like riding, I generally pump up the tires each time I ride. The exception would be if I ride the same bike a couple times within a week, and then I give the tires a squeeze to make sure they're okay.

WRT tools, I have a saddle bag with a spare tube, a multitool, tire levers, and stick-on patches that I transfer to whichever bike I'm going to ride, except for the one with sew-ups, which has a spare tire strapped to the saddle, and I carry the multitool from the saddle bag as well as a little bottle of tire sealant and a valve wrench. And no matter what bike, I always have a pump, either a frame pump for the metal bikes or a minipump in my pocket for the plastic ones.

I pump my tires before every ride because I like to maintain the desired pressure for ride quality. It's rarely more than a few pumps, so I'm sure I could get away with skipping it a few days, but I want peace of mind.

Some people carry tons of tools. Some carry only the most common ones. Some carry only a cell phone with a ride share app. Some don't mind walking. Your choice.

riding situations are so different. i only have one road bike, so it gets ridden very often (every other day at the least), in an urban area.

my tires don't lose enough pressure to inflate every time. every third ride or so i check it, typically add 5psi or so. if i did it every time, i assume i'd be adding <2psi every time, not worth the trouble.

i don't ride with tools and stuff for 99% of my rides because although i ride relatively long distances, i'm never that far from the urban core. frankly i'd rather just take an uber/lyft home with the bike and fix it on the stand, or take it to the shop if it's beyond me. 3,000 miles, no flats, but i'll reconsider that if/when i change to "nicer" tires.

Videos? Yeah, for sure, if you saw it on TV or on the Internet it must be true ......

More seriously, if you saw a video of racing, those guys don't carry tools, they carry trains of cars carrying tools, wheels, mechanics, and spare bikes. If you saw a "How to" or "Look a this ride" video, the rider had a film crew, with cars, spares, etc .... otherwise a flat could have ruined the shoot.

Pretty much every time I get a bike off the rack I bounce it a little to see what rattles, and press the tubes with a thumb or finger. If I have ridden it the day before, that it all, as a rule. If it has been on the rack for some time I do a safety routine---squeeze the brakes, bounce front, rear, and whole bike, shake the bars, shake the cranks, maybe wobble the wheels, and squeeze the tires. I don't tend to lose enough air overnight to have to add any every day ... not sure I could tell 93 psi from 95 psi.

Since I don't have a support staff, I carry tubes, tools, food, pump, anything which might help me get home in about 95% of situations. I have had to walk home a few times, but surprisingly few .... and since I don't have a go-to "Call of shame" recipient I definitely would rather fix it roadside.

I pump my tires up 2.5 pounds high on Sunday, then by the next Sunday they are 2.5 low. Close enough.

I carry tire tools and a spare tube plus a bike multi-tool. That is all I have ever needed.

I'm with you, except I check tire pressures every other ride instead of every ride. I carry a full array of tools in my backpack, even though my last actual puncture was back in the 1990s lol

Lets clarify. Are you really saying that if you get a flat tire 25mi from home, you would rather call someone and make them get you, instead of just carrying a tube plus levers and inflation?

I'll pump my tires up every ride to the PSI I want for that rides surface. However if I just rode the bike yesterday, then I might just give the tires a squeeze.

I'm wondering why I carry a tube and tire changing stuff with me. It's been over 1½ years since I've needed them. Wondering about why I carry other stuff too.

A little silicone grease on the valve stem once every blue moon will get some lube up in the air chuck to keep it from causing so much wear and tear on the valve stem boot. Or... just get a new air chuck.

My slightly heavier bell tubes loose air slower than my lighter continental tubes. Both butyl. Seems reasonable.

I run latex tubes and tubeless, so I must pump most rides. As tubeless I am resetting the pressure for the day's duty of gravel or cyclocross. And latex loses air a lot faster.

Butyl? Butyl without a problem should be within a pound or two for a long time. Like you could set it at 85psi and be at 82psi a couple weeks later.

Some folks can judge that just squeezing it with their thumb.

i like to be self sufficient but i certainly don't lose sleep over what others do (or don't do).

There's been a dozen times just this year, I yelled at people their tires are half flat. Just plain clueless, IMO.
I let a girl use my pump one day. She barely knew how to use it on her Linus bike. I told her she had to count a hundred strokes.
She didn't know what the pressure should be either.
Except for commuters, very few carry a pump. Maybe there's lots with a CO2 in their pocket, like race bike guys.

I sort of agree. If I leave my bike for a week or two the one with the conti tube will be down in the low 80's. And it seems to stay there except for when in very long disuse.

However 85 psi isn't right for all of us. I'm sometimes 125 on the rear. rarely less than 110 on the rear. Depends on the roads.

I lose about 1/2 psi per day on the conti till it hits the low 80's and maybe 1/2 psi every other day on the bells.

I pump mine before every ride. Both of my road bikes run tubulars with latex tubes, so there’s no other option with them. My gravelish bike gets pumped because I’m already in the habit of doing it.

I don’t generally ride with tools because I like to live dangerously.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...72932656c2.jpg



Apparently, they deal with it.

Some people are able to ride with a light heart, some ride burdened with worry, anxiety and an ever increasing load of tools and spare parts.

Some of my happiest bicycling memories date from the 70's when my neighbor and I rode together every Saturday morning carrying neither tools nor even a spare inner tube. I'm typing this from home so we obviously always found a way to get back. In the interest of full disclosure, these days I ride prepared today to handle a puncture.