What is the best tire pressure for bicycle tires?

Bicycle tire pressure is an important part of bicycle maintenance, handling and safety. This article discusses some basic guidelines for tire inflation.

Ever had a massive blowout with your bicycle tire? One minute you’re cruising down the road next an almighty bang goes off and your tire deflates in milliseconds. Culprit? Over inflation. Really bad news if you are descending down a hill at 70km/h.

BTW. If this does happen to you when you are out riding in a fast and large moving bunch of cyclists - raise your arm up and keep riding straight ahead while you are coasting to a standstill. That way the cyclists can see where you are in the bunch. This helps in two ways. Firstly; it shows them where the large bang came from and that it was only a puncture and secondly; helps them to safely move around you as you are slowing down. As the bunch is going past you try to keep it steady and some momentum going until they pass. Then when it’s safe move over to the side of the road and stop.

Remember. Higher inflation does not necessary mean less rolling resistance. And.. just because your tire is rated up to 180 psi does not necessary mean that you should pump it up that hard!

While installing some Zipp Tangente tubular tires on some Zipp 404’s recently I took notice of their inflation instructions and I believe that they provide some great insight into correct bicycle tire inflation pressures.

Here are their guidelines (recommended for their Zipp Tangente tubular 700 x 23 mm tire)

Recommended bicycle tire pressure by rider weight:

And now the really important stuff…

Recommended bicycle tire pressure adjustments by rider context:

* The above tire inflation pressures are recommended for optimal rolling resistance and grip. These pressures are for room temperature tires and rims. Tire pressures may increase as much as 25 psi due to high rim temperatures caused by prolonged breaking or as much as 5 psi from high ambient or road surface temperatures.

Ok, so what does this mean? These numbers are given for a high performance tubular tire. I weight 67 kg so generally pump these types of tires up to around 110 psi. This is because most of the roads I race on are considered “rough”. Based on this chart above I could pump my 700 x 23 mm front tubular bicycle tire up to 109-111 psi and my rear one up to 111-114 psi.

For my training tires I’ll only pump them up to 100 psi. This provides me with a nice feel and good traction on the road. It also is well within the tolerances of the tire casing and inner tube. So…. Highly reduced chance of a massive blowout.  Typical training tires are clincher types like the Continental Gatorskin (pictured) and Vittoria's Zaffiro Pro and Rubino Pro. Consequentially, these are my personal choices for bicycle training tires.

Remember… these training tires are not the high performance bicycle tires like the tubular ones detailed above. Hence the lower tire pressure.

I have come across a few people that have quoted figures of 145 psi as their normal riding pressure for clincher training type bicycle tires. This I consider unnecessary and unsafe.

One important thing to remember is that some clincher rims have a maximum inflation figure around 125 psi! So regardless of your rated inner tube and tire combination, inflating your tire above 125 psi on these rims could compromise the integrity and cause a blowout too.