There was a "Ladies Night" at a LBS last night. There was a woman from Giant there who apparently drives around the country giving assorted presentations from Giant - she is also a mountain biker. Anyway, her purpose last night was to give us a little clinic on road-side repairs - though it turned out to just be on how to change a tire. I had hoped that we might touch on what to do if we have a chain break, but that is beside the point.

There was a pretty lengthy discussion on tire pressure and how best to determine what is best for you. She recommended an experiment - lower your tire pressure to the lowest rated for your tire, ride around the block and see what you think of that. Raise the tire pressure 5 pounds and repeat the ride around the block. Rinse and repeat until you decide which pressure in your range gives you the best ride. Then, using THAT pressure, take it for a gentle moderate length ride - whatever that means to you and see how it goes.

It seemed a nice way to determine what works best for you - she explained that the upper pressure rating is just their way of telling you "if you add more air it will be over-inflated and that can be dangerous" - you don't have to run at that pressure to be safe from a flat.

Anyway, it was an interesting discussion and I am glad that I went.