A Tire Pressure App
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Allan in Portland
Jul 12, 2012, 4:45:40 PM7/12/12
to RBW Owners Bunch
A little shameless self-promotion. Hope people don't mind...
I suspect a number of the active posters to the list know this
already, but for newer folks and lurkers, a few years ago Bicycle
Quarterly published some research conducted by Frank Berto (he was the
Bicycling mag tech editor, way back when they had tech) that showed
about a 15% sidewall drop was the optimum trade-off between tires that
were pumped too hard and would lose energy to road imperfections and
tires that were too soft and would feel sluggish and be prone to pinch
flats.
Philip Williamson took the graph from the article and put it into a
google spreadsheet which he maintained over the years. In a blog post
he mentioned it would be cool to put it in an App. A friend and I had
just started a company doing Apps, so we thought it would be a cool
first project we could knock-out and get our feet wet ahead of
schedule than what we could do with our original product plans (K-8 ed
apps if anyone's curious).
We got it posted to the Amazon Marketplace on Monday and I thought
some folks on this list might find it interesting and/or useful.
Philip's post with some more background on tire inflation:
http://www.biketinker.com/2010/bike-resources/optimal-tire-pressure-for-bicycles/
Amazon market URL: http://www.amazon.com/Edison-Gauss-Publishing-Pressure-Calculator/dp/B008J0YAHM
Google Play URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edisongauss.bertotirepressure
Finally, I feel I must mention a few words about the price. With so
many free and 99 cent apps, what the heck are we charging $2.50? Well,
I expect the market for this is going to be rather small. The usual
approach of giving it away and making it up on ad volume won't work.
Plus, I hate the ads in so many of the free apps. Not having ad's junk-
up the screen is worth a couple bucks to me right there. Also, we put
about as much time into testing this as we did into developing it.
It's not the typical buggy, crash-prone free App that a lot of guys
crank out as fast as they can and throw up on Google the first time
they get something that compiles. Philip did some great work on the
graphics and IMHO it's an absolute pleasure to look at and use. Is all
that worth one less pint of a nice micro-brew the next time I'm
enjoying a post-ride pub stop? I think so. :-) Hope others agree.
Riv content -- Philip and I use it to inflate the tires on our
Quickbeam & Hilsen respectively. :-)
Thanks and regards,
-Allan
I suspect a number of the active posters to the list know this
already, but for newer folks and lurkers, a few years ago Bicycle
Quarterly published some research conducted by Frank Berto (he was the
Bicycling mag tech editor, way back when they had tech) that showed
about a 15% sidewall drop was the optimum trade-off between tires that
were pumped too hard and would lose energy to road imperfections and
tires that were too soft and would feel sluggish and be prone to pinch
flats.
Philip Williamson took the graph from the article and put it into a
google spreadsheet which he maintained over the years. In a blog post
he mentioned it would be cool to put it in an App. A friend and I had
just started a company doing Apps, so we thought it would be a cool
first project we could knock-out and get our feet wet ahead of
schedule than what we could do with our original product plans (K-8 ed
apps if anyone's curious).
We got it posted to the Amazon Marketplace on Monday and I thought
some folks on this list might find it interesting and/or useful.
Philip's post with some more background on tire inflation:
http://www.biketinker.com/2010/bike-resources/optimal-tire-pressure-for-bicycles/
Amazon market URL: http://www.amazon.com/Edison-Gauss-Publishing-Pressure-Calculator/dp/B008J0YAHM
Google Play URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edisongauss.bertotirepressure
Finally, I feel I must mention a few words about the price. With so
many free and 99 cent apps, what the heck are we charging $2.50? Well,
I expect the market for this is going to be rather small. The usual
approach of giving it away and making it up on ad volume won't work.
Plus, I hate the ads in so many of the free apps. Not having ad's junk-
up the screen is worth a couple bucks to me right there. Also, we put
about as much time into testing this as we did into developing it.
It's not the typical buggy, crash-prone free App that a lot of guys
crank out as fast as they can and throw up on Google the first time
they get something that compiles. Philip did some great work on the
graphics and IMHO it's an absolute pleasure to look at and use. Is all
that worth one less pint of a nice micro-brew the next time I'm
enjoying a post-ride pub stop? I think so. :-) Hope others agree.
Riv content -- Philip and I use it to inflate the tires on our
Quickbeam & Hilsen respectively. :-)
Thanks and regards,
-Allan
Bill Gibson
Jul 12, 2012, 4:50:06 PM7/12/12
to rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com
I used to be religious about inflating to the pressure on the sidewall, but now, thanks to the sources you cite and long experience, I know there is more to the story. That said, I'll buy the app, and enjoy obsessing all over again!
--
Bill Gibson
Tempe, Arizona, USA
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Bill Gibson
Tempe, Arizona, USA
Peter Pesce
Jul 12, 2012, 5:04:13 PM7/12/12
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I'll happily pay $2.50 if/when the iOS version comes along.
(Please no Apple flaming. Allan already mentioned that he might do an iOS version on another list)
-Pete in CT
(Please no Apple flaming. Allan already mentioned that he might do an iOS version on another list)
-Pete in CT
islaysteve
Jul 12, 2012, 6:40:21 PM7/12/12
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I'll take a look, and I, too will need to wait for the iOS version. Sounds cool, thanks.
Bruce Herbitter
Jul 12, 2012, 8:31:06 PM7/12/12
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Got it. Any instructions anywhere for it? I don;t ride Turing's Raleigh and would like toi put my own bikes in.
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Allan in Portland
Jul 12, 2012, 9:19:15 PM7/12/12
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Yeah, I've been meaning to get to work on some instructions. I've been telling myself it's self-explanatory with two exceptions (OK, now 3, I reckon).
1) After changing any of the load values, recalculate the pressure by tapping the silhouette graphic
2) The custom/obsessive bike type ignores the bike & rider weight, and instead computes the pressure only from the front & rear load values
3) Add bikes to your stable by pushing the "+" button next to the "Select Bicycle" drop-down. Feel free to delete Turing's. It gets magically restored if there are no other bikes to display.
Regards,
-Allan
Philip Williamson
Jul 12, 2012, 10:48:20 PM7/12/12
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Peter Morgano
Jul 12, 2012, 11:35:30 PM7/12/12
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Just picked it up. Nice to not be able slave to Apple like the children who make their phones are. Sorry, can't help myself.
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Bill Gibson
Jul 12, 2012, 11:49:08 PM7/12/12
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Oh, good. I was getting very high tire pressures. Double what I would choose. Thanks! No, I did not use my special compressor to explode my Jack Browns.
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René Sterental
Jul 13, 2012, 12:47:44 AM7/13/12
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I'll get it when it's available for iOS as well. Been using the spreadsheet very successfully since it was first posted although that earned me a good laugh and some puns from Rich and Jay at RBW when I took my wheels for Rich to recheck them a year after he built them.
René
Bruce Herbitter
Jul 13, 2012, 5:06:28 AM7/13/12
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Okay. Figured some of it out on my own, and went to the garage last night and let out enough air to get to the suggested values. We'll see how they ride. I like the images of each bike type, btw.
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Allan in Portland
Jul 13, 2012, 2:10:59 PM7/13/12
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The artwork was all Philip's doing. I am still pleasantly surprised and thoroughly impressed by what he came up with. He's posted full-size pics at his blog --
Inside baseball alert. Technically there's no difference in calculation between Classic Road and Modern Racer. Originally I called it American Road, in keeping with the Dutch City & French Randonneur convention. Before seeing Philip's artwork it never occurred to me to make a distinction, but after seeing the others I had to have one of "my own." :-)
Regards,
-Allan
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