Tire pressure with passenger By rosiemoto (Read 628 times)

[rosiemoto]

You know how the tire sidewalls say something like max load 32front/33rear and something max lbs... well my question is can I go ABOVE that max psi since I frequently ride passengers between 170-200 lbs? There is a big difference in weight balance, acceleration, and handling when passengers are on compared to riding solo. With passenger it feels quite rear heavy since they're sat right above the rear tire. It also will bottom out very easy going over gutters if I don't go up them sideways. So can I fill up the rear tire more, or can you never go above that max psi thing on the tire no matter what?

My bike specs on the sticker say 28.5 psi front, 32 psi rear, and the bike is around 220 lbs.
My tirewalls say max 32 front, 33 rear.
Riding solo I seem to enjoy 30-31 front and 33 rear.

I was thinking can I go up to like 36 rear or something?

[Alleyoop]

The max tire pressure printed on the tire is WHEN COLD. Once the tire gets hot or it gets hot during the day the tire pressure can rise around 5 psi. So you can fill them up in the morning to the max and riding around in hot temps the psi will be about 5 psi higher.

[rosiemoto]

But I mean, can you fill them up cold past the max psi shown on the tire to compensate for passenger? It sounds like no, but some people say their manuals say something like 32 without passenger, 36 with passenger... so made me wonder if that was past the max specs of the tire.

[Alleyoop]

Yes of course you can fill them up past what it says as the max, the tires will wear out faster and if you hit a good bump it may pop with all that extra weight on it. You can also get a rear tire that is load rated higher but those tires cost more.

[rosiemoto]

Makes sense, thanks! Basically: no.