Extreme cold tire pressure, heating of tire, ideas?

[KDeline]

I ride in the single digits and am curios if I ran the tire pressure lower, in theory, the tire would heat up faster and run warmer. When I ride in the cold the tire never heats up and I think I can feel a bit of a slide now and then on dry pavment.

 

So the question posed to the masses is this. What would be to low, will I damage the tire with to much flexing, or should I move to Florida? I like the latter but unfortunatly that can't happen for now. Any takers?

[David]

I was told by a tire manufacturer that 32 is the lowest you'd want to go. Any lower than that and the profile would change to the point where the contact patch would be abnormal and unsafe.

 

I wouldn't take that as gospel--just as one piece of feedback. In those kind of temps, too, I don't think there's a safe pressure that'll allow the tire to really heat up unless you are pushing it, and commuting isn't going to push it in any sense.

[Ken H.]

I kind of agree with David. In those kind of temperatures, the tire loosing heat to the cold pavement and air is going to negate any tire heat up caused by flexing. Increased flexing creating heat being the goal of lowering the pressure.

 

I too ride in the teens (°F) (until it snows anyway) and I think we just have to ride very aware of the decreased available traction.

 

I probably looked really silly this morning hanging waaaaay off the bike (to keep it more upright) on one particularly wet and a bit frozen ramp at 15 mph!

[Jim VonBaden]

I ride in the teens as well, and have no issues with traction. I do not ride 10/10ths, but at 5/10ths I have no traction issues at all.

 

Of course ice, snow, sand and salt all have to be factored in. But I have't seen a serious degradation of tire grip purely from the cold.

 

Then again, I don't ride like a maniac either.

 

Jim

[KDeline]

Do any of you notice that the bike rides differently? Maybe the shocks are very cold? I hit little divits in the road and the bike sways a bit.

[Ken H.]

Do any of you notice that the bike rides differently? Maybe the shocks are very cold? I hit little divits in the road and the bike sways a bit.

Well I think it definitely fells a bit loosy-goosy-er. But then I've aways thought the front end of our 12GS seems a bit squiggly. Haven't decided why it seems worse in the cold. Probably a combination of factors of cold shocks, cold tires, reduced pavement stickiness itself, maybe being a bit stiffer on the handlebars, if for no other reason than from wearing double heavy gloves and three layers of clothes!

 

As a matter of fact I scared the bejesuss out of myself yesterday morning going to work. Way too much pavement frost and black ice along my route. So I threw in the towel on below freezing riding last night, and pulled the wheels and tires off. (I'm trading wheels with another guy.)

 

Call me a wuss, but I'm going to use the cage for awhile.

[tobyzusa]

Do any of you notice that the bike rides differently? Maybe the shocks are very cold? I hit little divits in the road and the bike sways a bit.

 

I'm glad you asked this question, as I took the RT out yesterday and spent the first 30 minutes trying to assess what was different in the ride. The bike felt sluggish, but wasn't really running poorly, and loose, less sure footed. I guess that could have been a factor from the cold, although that wasn't the first thought that came to my mind.

[No_Twilight]

I ride in the single digits and am curios if I ran the tire pressure lower, in theory, the tire would heat up faster and run warmer. When I ride in the cold the tire never heats up and I think I can feel a bit of a slide now and then on dry pavment.

 

So the question posed to the masses is this. What would be to low, will I damage the tire with to much flexing, or should I move to Florida? I like the latter but unfortunatly that can't happen for now. Any takers?

 

 

I think lower tire pressure means less traction. I put a smartire on mine and I'm suprised how long it takes the tires to heat up in colder (50's) weather. My guess is your tires are not over 50-60 degrees at most. You have to go 80+ to get much heating. I think I would switch to a very soft, as close to race as street legal, tire for the winter and call it good. Ride carefully. --Jerry

[David]

I think lower tire pressure means less traction. I put a smartire on mine and I'm suprised how long it takes the tires to heat up in colder (50's) weather. My guess is your tires are not over 50-60 degrees at most. You have to go 80+ to get much heating. I think I would switch to a very soft, as close to race as street legal, tire for the winter and call it good. Ride carefully. --Jerry

 

Oooh. Not a good plan. A race-type tire would need to be even hotter to provide its intended traction and would provide far less traction than a street tire until it hit that temperature, which it never would.