Tire pressures for ROCKY terrain.

Good news....now you can just adjust a little depending on the trail (less or more sharp rocks)

 

Tubeless, Stan's, drop the pressure to ~30's and take it for a spin. Smile!

 

you can ussually run the front about 5psi lower then the rear.

 

I did not read any posts yet, but here is my rundown. Rocky ocnditions, I run the same air pressure I always run. There is a certain amount of sliding you just have to come to terms with. There is no magic tire, or air pressure combo that makes your tires magically stick. You just have to get used to the fact, your tires are going to slide, its a fact of going fast.

As for air pressure, I weigh 252 without gear, I run 2.5 Chunders, I run 30Psi front and rear and do not pinch flat. Regular tubes, powdered before install. Check my air before EVERY ride.





I wil now read some posts

 

Ok read some posts, some crack me up, others make sense.

DH tubes are no longer the answer, they are heavy, increase rolling resistance, and increase stopping length.

If your riding DH, then you should be running DH tires, that will eliminate most of your pinchflats right there. Proper setup will go along way as well, IE powder your tubes.

One thing I didnt see anyone mention, which suprises me, is form. If your losing traction in turns, stopping sucks ETC, you should alsobe taking a good long look at your form, and technique. Most people are truly amazed when they see themelves on video, or have someone watch them ride and have them respond.........That can have huge differences in cornering, and flatting.


just my 2cents

 

Tubless......25psi front with a Michelin 32 2.8 and 35psi with a Maxxis Minion rear.....

 

If you're in my Sports Class category, I run 45psi front and 42 psi rear. follow that setup.

 

2.5 kenda nevegal stick-e w/tubes on revo36
rider weight: 123lbs on a giant reign 3

30psi front and rear

i use this pressure for all my rides. works really well on aliso rock-it, el moro rattlesnake, santiago oaks (all rocky terrain)

2 cents

 

I weigh 240 without gear and only run tubeless in the front. Minions front and rear, 30 front, 35 rear. I will never run tubeless in the rear again, I've burped the rear tire on two occasions and one of those two it completely blew out. I don't want to deal with it anymore. If you like to jump/do drops, than stay away from tubeless rear. Just my experience/opinion.

 

I find almost the exact opposite. I prefer to at least have tubeless in the rear to avoid pinch flats. yes, I run most of my DH tires at 35psi, but I never pinch, rarely roll a bead, etc.

I am a good bit lighter than you however (190ish), and don't need to build things to my weight.

I will say, though, that tubeless is GREAT for awhile, but if/when it does fail, it will do so catastrophically. not necessarily leading you to a crash, but not something that stans will seal up, or that you can fix without a new tube.

 

I vaguely remember your first experience at Bootleg last spring. How many pinch flats did you get that weekend?

Proper tubeless setups (UST tires and UST rims) do not fail catastrophically any more so than a normal tube/tire combo.

 

When I first built up my Blur LT I was hesitant to go tubeless, but Kevin at the Bike Co assured me I had nothing to worry about. (my concerns were rolling the bead/burping) I should have known better, but I figure worse case I can just throw a tube in it. Both times I had problems were at Aliso, (not that Aliso was the problem) the first time I was jumping off of the concrete bench at the top of TOTW and I burped the tire. I lost about 5 to 10 PSI and it was a slight off camber landing. The second time I was climbing up Coyote Run and jumped off of that little rock out cropping on the top of one of the small uphills, I jumped a foot in the air and about 2 to 3 foot down the other side. I landed off camber again, but this time rolled the bead and the tire came off the rim, sending me on my a$$ with the bike passing me up. I just threw a tube in it and was on my way.

I think a lot of lighter riders can get away with tubeless front and rear, you may not think 50 lbs is much, but it adds up. I don't pinch flat often, I change tubes when I change tires, whether they need it or not.

 

I have torn into two tubless set-ups. If I had DH tubes they would have been fine, they lasted about 5 minutes and flatted. The extra 1/2 LB or maybe 3/4 is nothing really. U dont need a 33LBS DH bike unless you are pedalling a lot of miles on it or weigh 100LBS. I still run DH tubes and will until I find something else I can run at 23LBS and dent my rim the whole way down and never flat. (I did run DH tubes no new bike yet)

 

that would be 3 lee :lol:. You also weren't there for my latest bit of hijinx out in bootleg. that was a well setup tubeless tire deciding that neither bead liked it's fellow rim wall. it's a long walk off the top #-o (the walk was my fault, I didn't have a tube, but still took about 15 seconds for it to blow up)

what works works. I just like having the tubeless in back because I do pinch flat often if I ride aggressively. I like the peace of mind of being able to bomb the FAST (and I say fast because it isn't always smooth) line through a rock garden etc.

sucks that you had so much trouble with it, but if you never pinch and you're happy with your pressures, s'all good.

 

Hoosierdaddy, what wheel are you running, and what tubeless setup are you using? Are you using an actual ust wheel, stans kit? What tires are you running?


Reason I ask is, I weight 252 without gear, I LOVE rock gardens, hi speed turns, all the things that would take a tire off of a tubeless setup. Now given I stopped running tubeless, I will list why in a moment, but when I was running, never did I burp a tire, nor did I roll one off a bead. I ran some stupid low pressures as well, mud race with 18 psi front and rear, nail up at AO without a pump, figured about 15 psi in the rear<stans saved it>

The tubeless setup I had was pretty simple, Singletrack wheels, with an FR Stans kit.

Stopped running tubeless for one reason only....... Rim strip went bad, and I was tired of setting it up to begin with. Tubes are faster to install, replace, repair. Only reason I run tubes now.....Tubeless rides, and performs WAY better.

 

My advice Intense DH tires. They are so damm thick plus they have something called pinch flat bumper. Not sure if it works but all I know I have never pinch flatter with them and I have run as low as 15 psi with no issues.

 

I converted to tubeless almosttwo years ago. I have an Intense 6.6 w/ Mavic crossmax SX wheels. I have been running the Specialized Eskar 2Bliss tires w/Stans.

When I first got my bike I was getting pinch flats. Since going to tubless I have not had an issue at all. Too, they roll faster and just feel better all around.

I am around 175 lbs and run 32 in the rear and 28 in the front. The only time I have burped a tire is when I was already low on air pressure...had a leaky valve stem and didn't know it.

I wonder if the people who have been burping tires and rolling beeds have been running a wheel not designed for tubeless tires. I know there are a lot of ghetto setups out there that people like, but couldn't that cause an issue? Isn't a tubeless wheel's rim edge different for a tubless tire than for a tube type?

 

I was running 823 UST rims with Minion UST tires. I prefer the 823s over the 819s because I like to run a little wider tire because of my size and I feel the wider rim fits better, even though Maxxis tires tend to run a little narrower that advertised. 2.5 front and 2.35 rear. 32 to 35 PSI rear and around 30 PSI in the front. I still run the Minion UST in front and have no problems with it, (no burping/rolling bead) except for losing a small amount of air between rides. I do use tire sealant. I run a Minion non UST in the rear now and just run a tube. I really don't have many flat problems, I replace tires often. When the tires show a little sign of wear, I replace them. The tubes get replaced with tires, even if they still hold air, I'll them give to a buddy who's on a budget. They are so cheap I don't even think twice about it.

I've tried lots of different tires, pre UST for me and had lots of problems slashing sidewalls. WTB Mutano Rapter were the easiest for sidewall failure. The Minions are way thicker in the sidewall and I'll be honest, in all the riding I've done, I've only had one tear with them. I like the traction the Minions provide and I'm totally happy with them.

Since I don't burp/roll the bead on the front tire, I can only think it's the extra weight/forces (side forces) being placed on the tire that cause it fail. I don't have these problems in the rear with a tube, other than an occasional (read semi-rare) flat.

 

Well, if you ever decide to try tubeless again, I would suggest getting a regular wire bead DH tire, and use the stans to seal it up. Should work excellent.

Either way I was just curious

 

The 2.5 Maxxis UST tires have fairly strong sidewalls (not stiff, but relatively tear resistant) and are decent for DH.

The 2.35 Maxxis UST tires are essentially trail bike tires. The actual carcass is not that burly, and therefor it's really a poor choice for a DH tire. Although if not too rocky, they can work OK. These tires are relatively easy to pinch flat (i.e., pinch the tire carcass, leaving a cut) - I've damaged two relatively new 2.35 Maxxis tires this way. (On a side note, I was using one of these tires on a Stans Flow rim, and the rim gave out before the tire - these rims are much weaker than DT 5.1 or the Mavic 823)

Although I rarely admit to running non UST tires tubeless, I do run the 2.5 Maxxis 3C DH tires (non UST) tubeless on Mavic 823 rims. I switch between these tires and the 2.5 UST versions depending on the need. I have never had a flat in the past 3 years since running these setups.

And about the 2.4 WTB Mutano Raptor Race...I've been running these for 6 years on my singlespeed XC bike. The traction isn't good, but they roll fast - the sidewalls tear like a wet paper towel. I use them only because they're fast (and often available very cheap).