Riding on soft tyres

corblimey

Went out for a spin this morning, and only noticed after about half a hour that the tyres were not rock hard. They weren't flat by any stretch of the imagination, but there was definite give when I pinched them. As far as I could gather it made the spin much harder than it needed to be, I was in the high gears for a lot of the ride and I assume there was more danger of picking up a puncture, but apart from that, could I have done any damage to the wheel or even the bike by continuing my ride? I had planned on doing a couple of hours, but instead, I simply cycled home and pumped those bad boys up and did another short spin.

The tax man

With tyres not at the correct pressure you'll run a higher risk of getting pinch flats and increase your rolling resistance. The only damage that could happen would be if you were to hit a pothole and the rim of the wheel took a knock.

Simple rule, check tyre pressures before you hit the road.

DirkVoodoo

I fixed the bike of my brother's friend a while back. He is 85Kg and was riding around on a flat tyre and the other one way under pressure. This was on a Trek 1.2 or 1.5 with the stock bontrager wheels.

I was amazed the wheels didn't need truing.

Having said that, if you don't have a track/floor pump go buy one, you can get a BBB one for about 25 euro.

Single Malt

Too low tyre pressure will damage sidewalls with time