Your preferred pressure for 60 mm tires for all-round riding?

[Patrick Moore]

I have been religiously pumping my gossamer 70C X 60 Big Ones to 20 psi for combined pavement and dirt, thinking that ~20 was necessary to minimize wallow on paved corners, but on an extended dirt ride today on usually sandy soil that had been extensively compacted by moisture and then chopped up by horses and Conservancy District trucks, 20 felt like wood rims on railroad ties, so I dropped both tires to ~16. That did mitigate the chop (tho' little really makes horse hoof divots and washboard comfortable except suspension) and observing carefully during cornering on pavement at speed I didn't notice as much wallow as I had feared. Me 170 clothed and shod for cool weather, bike and kit and bags and contents adding another 45 lb or so.

So I'm curious: Those of you who use 60 mm tires: what pressure or pressures, and on what surfaces? And how much do you and kit weigh?

Funny: I'd been riding the lightweight fixie gofast with Naches Passes at 39 mm (skinny rims) and 30-35 psi on the same roads and found that they were at least slightly smoother on the chop than the BOs at 20. The NPs are far less gossamer light per unit vol than the Big Ones.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Luke Hendrickson]

I’m about 195 lbs., my bike is about 40 lbs., and I run nearly 60mm (57mm). 30 psi is what I’ve settled on for all terrains,  but I’m sure 25 psi would fly. I mostly don’t wish to push my luck given my weight. 

[Kainalu V. -Brooklyn NY]

205 and 25 here…

-Kai

[Brian Turner]

I’m 180, running 27.5 x 2.5” (63.5mm) on my Gus. For paved riding only, I will air up to 30-32 psi. For trails or gravel, it’s usually somewhere closer to 20 psi.

On Mar 30, 2023, at 11:05 AM, Kainalu V. -Brooklyn NY <kaivi...@gmail.com> wrote:

205 and 25 here…

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[Patrick Moore]

Interesting, so 20 and especially 16 is on the very low side for 60s, and very supple-wall 60s at that.

And my teeth and arms were jarred last night out and back to church on said horse-hooves-pitted moisture-compacted even with the tires at 16. There are some days when one wishes to have the sand back. But 16 is noticeably better than 20 and I'll try it at the lower pressure for a while more.

Really, the only setup I've ridden that smoothed out washboard was an early CODA suspension seatpost paired with a Softride stem -- BSNYC recently made fun of these, but I liked mine better than my 1995 top o' line Manitou elastomer fork. The CODA/Softride combination felt like floating above the roughness. I'm sure modern suspension does even better.

I recall a few years ago riding with my brother on some old steep gravel logging roads in the Jemez mountains, not in a nature reserve, heavily washboarded. I was riding my Fargo with 700C x 60 Big Apples at 22 psi or so. Coming back downhill I'm sure we hit 40 mph despite the washboard, which was so severe that, very literally, my vision blurred, I had a hard time drawing breath, and I had a hard time holding on to the hoods.

[Patrick Moore]

...NOW in a nature reserve ...

On Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 11:18 AM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

... some old steep gravel logging roads in the Jemez mountains, not in a nature reserve

[Jamie W]

For what it's worth I usually pump my 55mm Fleecer ridges to 18psi front and maybe 22 rear. Probably bump that to 22 and 26 for very loaded touring. 

On a daily basis I carry more than most, a chess set and several books? Why not. I probably come in around 175-180 with clothes. My bike probably hovers at a minimum 50 lbs. On a Clem btw. 

Drop as low as 15 front 20 rear on unloaded MTB. Add more or ride smoother if constantly bottoming out rims I suppose. 

[Hoch in ut]

As low as possible without pinch flatting. Usually that means 20-21psi (2.2-2.4” tires))  for me at 160lbs. Lots of rocks and sharp edges where I ride.