PRO CYCLIST ALISON TETRICK HAS A MANTRA: LOWER TIRE PRESSURE, LOWER LIFE PRESSURE.
It's a joke. Sort of. But not really. When she was racing the World Tour in the late aughts, 23mm tires pumped to a wagon-wheel rigid 120 psi were standard fare. And it was terrifying.
Rock-hard tires may sail over glass-smooth fresh asphalt, but put them on most well-worn roads and they bounce like Super Balls over every imperfection and chatter through corners rather than conform to the road, ramping up your mental and physical fatigue.
In 2017, Tetrick switched to gravel racing, later saying, "I needed to lower the pressure in my life, and the tire pressure in my wheels." She was talking about switching to a racing discipline that was a bit more fun-forward than the pure road scene at the time. But she also found that lower tire pressure literally lowered her stress levels on the bike...once she got used to it.
"In my mind, higher tire pressure meant fast. So, my mechanic would want to put 35 psi in my tires for gravel, and I couldn't fathom it. I'd be like, 'How about 40?'"
"Lower tire pressure is more comfortable and it's more confidence-inducing for me, especially on rough descents," Tetrick says, noting that she now also runs wider tires and lower pressure on the road bike. "I run 30 to 32mm tires with 60 psi. I don't pump up my tires until they get below 50," says Tetrick, who used to consider 90 psi low. "More tire patch on the road is also faster on bumpy roads."
So, should we all unscrew our collective Presta valves, tap our air pressure down to 60, and ride happily ever after? Nope. While it's true that running the right tire pressure may just be the single best performance improvement you can make on your bike, the proper psi depends on a host of factors, including tire and rim widths, terrain, ambient temperature, weather, and rider weight.
This story is from the Issue 06, 2022 edition of Bicycling US.
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This story is from the Issue 06, 2022 edition of Bicycling US.
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