How’s your tire pressure?
On this morning’s commute I ended up at a lot of stoplights, so I had extra time to look around. Yes, I do stop at lights (except at some T intersections, where I am riding along the top of the T and not crossing a perpendicular road), and I do not proceed until the light is green and see that turning cars etc. have cleared the intersection.
As I waited, I noticed most bikes that were stopped with me had under-inflated tires. Once I had this in mind, I did an informal mobile survey and saw under-inflated bicycle tires on almost every bike. Proper inflation is important on bicycles. Under-inflated tires can: cause flats ; will make you work harder and give you less control. Over-inflation can cause flats as well and it greatly increase the roughness of your ride. There’s great information on tires and inflation here. Actually Sheldon Brown has built a web site that is the best repository of usable and understandable(mostly) bicycle advice available.
How much air pressure should your tires have? Have a look at this little chart from Michelin.
I commute on two bikes a STRiDA and a Devinci. My STRiDA has 18″ Schwalbe tires which are marked Min 50 Max 85, so to is the recommended pressure on the Devinci’s tires. I weigh 185, so I keep them at 85.
There are some differences and strategies for tire inflation when racing or mountain biking, but for commuting and touring you should check often and follow the advice above.
