learning to ride with lower pressure in tire

[ruslanfr]

Hi Guys

I'm slowly learning on my 2nd hand Ks-14c 500W, now able to do tight turns, move back with a 360, slow down and do the basic things. Last week I saw close to home some younger guy than me in his 20s, on his king song and I was a bit jealous of how natural this was for him  (compared to me)

I try to avoid busy places or trafic, there;s nothing like stress to loose confidence and then loose control.

I notice any sudden move with my arm will make me unbalanced.

I tried inflating my wheel with different pressure, initially quite low between 1 and 2 bars which made it more stable to learn at low speed despite the weid noise of the tire rubbing on the shell and found myself more confortable today around 2.5 bars instead of the 3 to 3.5 recommanded which I found good for high speed but difficult to control at low speed and keep balanced.

I wonder if the skilled guys prefer to inflate at the recommanded high pressure ?

On my side I found out that it was easing learning to deflate the tire a bit and not changing parameters too much so as not to face all difficulties at once.

Thank's a lot, cheers to all from France.

[esaj]

Don't know if I can count myself as "skilled" (didn't learn to ride backwards last year, for example ), but I've preferred to keep my tire at high pressure (something like 3.5-4 bars, which probably is more than the tire-markings suggest as max ). High pressure does have the downside of making it harder to balance (but that's not a problem once you get used to it) and as there's not much (if any) "give" in the tire, it doesn't absorb much if any of the shocks, which does make it more uncomfortable in off-road and bumpy roads.

[Planetpapi]

Good you are becoming an expert. Yes, simple tire pressure change makes the same wheel feel different. I prefer to ride just  a hair deflated, than recommended. Everyone's mileage may vary. But you just stick to what is comfortable to YOU. I think once you master like that 20 year old kid, you will have more command on what ever tire pressure you inflate. I once inflated my 9bot to recommended (50PSI?) pressure but found it hard to get on to it. I deflated a bit and felt comfortable immediately. I don't ride off road that often so I can't comment on that situation with different pressures.

[Jurgen]

Under high load (speed, weight, fast manoeuvering) a tire needs a higher resistance to compression = stiffer side walls and/or higher pressure.

Higher tire pressures also boost the range and will make the wheel more reactive (less friction) and improves control (less flex).

The lower the side walls of a tire is, the stiffer it has to be and/or the higher pressure you have to put in it (or both) to get the same resistance to compression. This reduces the impact absorption and as such making them less comfortable to drive (same with bike or car tires).

IPS positions the Lhotz as the off-road model, so a wider, higher, more flexible tire (together with the different threading) does make sense. This way it has more grip (friction) for off-road use but less control (more flex) on a hard flat surface.The larger tire of the Lhotz actually makes the wheel diameter about 1inch bigger than my IPS T680+.

I’m a big guy (100kg), and I tend to push it to the limit, so I run my T680+ with 4bar, and the Lhotz with 4,2bar. I don’t worry about that, tires dont burst just like that. At 4bar (60psi), the T680+ with it’s smaller tire is rock hard, at 4,2 the Lhotz still has some flex (although, subjectively, some seems to come from the pedals).

You have to realise, that if the tire doesn’t take the beating (flexes), it’s all the rest that will:  the pedals,bearing, your joint cartilage (especially the knees) will wear out quicker. Therefor, if you do a lot of (high) jumps with your wheel these higher pressure  are probably to be applied with caution.

A girl of 55kg mainly doing acrobatics is something different that a big guy > 100kg going at 30KmH of a flat surface.

I believe it’s best to adapt pressure to your weight and riding style, not just copy pressure tire numbers from other people.

To answer your question : yes it's easier for a beginner to ride with lower tire pressure

[ruslanfr]

Thank's a lot Guys for all your feedbacks.