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January 15, 2024•12 min readTire Pressure Science: What's Your Optimal PSI?
Dive deep into the physics of tire pressure and discover how small PSI changes can dramatically affect your ride quality and performance.
When it comes to mountain bike performance, few factors are as immediately impactful—and as frequently misunderstood—as tire pressure. The difference between 25 and 30 PSI might seem negligible, but the physics tells a different story.
The Physics of Contact Patch
At its core, tire pressure optimization is about managing deformation. When your tire contacts the ground, it deforms to create a contact patch. This deformation serves multiple purposes: shock absorption through pneumatic damping, traction generation via surface conformity, and rolling efficiency through controlled hysteresis.
