What pressure are you running on your gravel bike? (I know, I’m sure this has been asked a thousand times)
Is Unbound category 3 gravel?
I’ve swapped to some TerraSpeed 45s as a part of getting ready for Unbound. I hadn’t looked at the Silca calculator until today. When I did I had to think about what category of gravel Unbound is. I googled and got an AI response saying that it “is considered a Category 3 gravel race based on the Flint Hills terrain where it's held.” Ok, fine, plug category 3 into the calculator. It’s telling me to run 29/27.5! I’ve been running ~40 on my rides around here (mostly road/path). I’m honestly a little shocked at the thought of going sub 30 on my gravel bike.
Photo of my race setup for your viewing pleasure.
by flipsidem
10 Comments
31/31
It’ll depend entirely on rider/bike/accessory weight. I’m not an especially light person and I run 34/34 on 44c tires. Unless you’re significantly heavier (180 lbs) than me I imagine running >40 is on the higher end.
40 seems way high. I’m a casual rider and I’m down at 30-25psi.
Get Gravaa KAPS!
https://www.bikeradar.com/news/wout-van-aert-gravaa
I run 24/26 to maybe 26/28 psi on Terra Speed 45’s, from road to cat 2/3 gravel. 40 psi is downright fucking ridiculous…….
40psi off-road on 45mm tires seems high. I run 40psi on my 38mm when on the road. For gravel I drop that to 30-35. In a bigger dude too. I’d probably go even lower if I was 50lbs lighter
Im also running close to 40, ~35 on the front. I assume those are tubeless setups, which allow for far lower pressure.
done 9 dk’s. all on tube tires. biggest i can run on my bike is a 35mm rear, 40mm front. cross bike. pumped them up to 65 psi, bounced the whole way around for 200 miles and Never had one flat in 9 dk’s obviously not the ideal way to do it, but there are very few fast downhill turns so having the capability to “corner” with low air pressure does not apply at DK. good luck.
40 PSI on 45?! That is so crazy high! I was running 28 PSI with a tube on my 45 Terra Speeds no probs. Obv it depends on how much you weight, but I am 83kg and no probs. Tubeless you can prob go even lower
I’v never done unbound but I was just talking to someone yesterday that runs 25 psi on 45c tires for unbound (he was top 50 last year)