I’m breaking in some miles on this new to me Pugsley, I have had a great experience finding a road tire pressure that works getting around between road and gravel. It was very quick and easy experience with a pressure gauge. I have struggled a little more with finding a good trail worthy pressure, I am finding a few things to be the case and maybe just the nature of the beast. When I hit a flowy trail it wants higher pressures maybe something like 9 rear and 8 front. It does tend to be rather uncomfortable for climbing though and feel like it doesn’t want to roll over step ups and feel more like running into a wall uphill. I find that I really need to drop pressure lower to maybe 6.5 front and 8 rear to have lots of bump compliance that’s not too bouncy but I find myself struggling to keep the steering responsive once I get too fast. It just self steers so much in any direction it feels like. I wouldn’t say it’s that bad, but definitely thought I had gotten used to it after a couple rides. It doesn’t like going super fast over chunky stuff, if I would learn to pace myself into those sections it might work out I smile a little more and not have so much jack hammer on my wrists.
Anyone have common advice that might be worth sharing? I ran some 2.8” tires down pretty low before getting this bike and thought a fat bike would be the ideal next step up in a winter bike. It could 100% be down to the tires and how grippy they are when it’s even lightly muddy. I really wanna get used to this a little more, it could easily be my only mountain bike if I get a little more familiar with it. But I still think I enjoy my hardtail for just bombing down hills.
I think I’d prefer pressure that’s ideal for the worst condition, and just set it at the parking lot and suffer through it if it’s too low. Curious if anyone has experience here, I am running the stock 3.8” nates and they seem to feel a little better when pumped up higher to at least 8/9 but get super bouncy.
by Top_Objective9877