Title says it all. If I pump latex to 100 PSI at 5am, what will it be at 6pm? Anyone used latex for commute bike? Thank you in advance.
When I pump my latex up to 110 for a trainer ride, it is usually around 80 PSI 24 hours later. The tricky part is that pressure loss is non-linear, based on pressure. For example, in the next 24 hours after that, it may only drop to 60 PSI.
My total guess is that you would be around 75 PSI 13 yours later, from a baseline of 100 PSI. But, you can just test it tonight and see what you have in the morning. That is what I would do, if I were you.
Try putting some sealant in there, might help reduce pressure loss.
I lose a little less than 1 PSI / hour.
Thanks. If I could test it, I wouldn’t have posted this. I’m asking for others’ input BEFORE I invest the $ and time to install latex. I don’t have any wheels with latex tubes.
Thanks. If I could test it, I wouldn’t have posted this. I’m asking for others’ input BEFORE I invest the $ and time to install latex. I don’t have any wheels with latex tubes.
You won’t lose too much air throughout the day to make the commute home.
As another person mentioned, you can add sealant and you’ll lose even less air. With some stans sealant in my tubes, i only check pressure about once per week.
I’m riding tubs to work and back at the moment. Latex tubes.
Pump them to 120 each morning. They are fine to ride home on. 80psi the next morning. Pump and repeat…
If you reckon 100psi is optimum. I’d inflate to 105 or a little more in the morning and you’ll still have 95psi or so in the evening. I’d be fine with that. If you use sealant (I don’t but probably would if I was commuting) then it’s even less of an issue from what I’ve heard. I definitely don’t think pressure loss is a fundamental problem with commuting on latex tubes.
How do you determine how much pressure has been lost?
As others have said, pump 5-10 PSI over your normal riding pressure and you will be fine.
Time and money? Latex tubes are only a couple bucks more than a quality butyl tube and install time is pretty much the same, maybe a few extra seconds to make sure it isn’t squeezing out around the bead.
https://www.probikekit.com/...a-51mm/11121072.html
Alternatively buy a cheap pump to keep at work to top things off at the end of the day.
Try putting some sealant in there, might help reduce pressure loss.
Yep,. Mine is ~ 10-15 psi/24 hours with sealant in.
How do you determine how much pressure has been lost?
Spend money on this.
Or just use your floor pump. If by experimentation you can estimate how much psi loss is from pressurizing the hose to your floor pump gauge, then you can make an educated guess at how much actual pressure you lost due to normal leakage.
I’m still wondering why you’d want to bother w/ putting in latex tubes on a commuter, what’s the advantage there? If you need to swap a wheel/set out in a pinch that already has latex, OK, but if you’re just setting it up now why not use butyl and only inflate once a week?
Fewer punctures. Or so I read. Getting flats while commuting SUCKS.
Fewer punctures. Or so I read. Getting flats while commuting SUCKS.
Latex doesn’t prevent punctures any better than butyl. You may see better flat prevention against pinch flats though. So it just depends what types of flats you typically get. In either case, $12 flats SUCK too.
All the punctures I get commuting are of the puncture variety (glass, wire, random metal bits, the new “improved” glass based chip seal-- grrrrrr). Latex isn’t going to help with that – a thicker, puncture resistant tire is what you need.
For commuting, I want reliability and low maintenance above all else. If I get to choose between 55 min +/-10, or 58 min. +/-3, I’ll take the latter all day. I also realized that all the time I spend fiddling with my bike counts against my travel time. A minute spent pumping up tires morning and night, is a minute farther down the road I am on my high volume, puncture resistant touring tires that only need attention about once a week.
Fewer punctures. Or so I read. Getting flats while commuting SUCKS.
If your goal is less punctures, latex tubes aren’t the answer. A more robust tire is the answer. The GP4000sii is pretty fast and decently durable. The bontrager AW3 hardcase (not hardcase lite) is very robust, but pretty slow.
Or, if you have a bike with good tire clearance (like a cx bike), you can get some panaracer gravelking sk 32 tires and run them tubeless with stans sealant at about 45psi. You’ll have a smooth, comfortable ride and you can ride over sand, glass, rocks, etc without a flat.
All the punctures I get commuting are of the puncture variety (glass, wire, random metal bits, the new “improved” glass based chip seal-- grrrrrr). Latex isn’t going to help with that – a thicker, puncture resistant tire is what you need.
For commuting, I want reliability and low maintenance above all else. If I get to choose between 55 min +/-10, or 58 min. +/-3, I’ll take the latter all day. I also realized that all the time I spend fiddling with my bike counts against my travel time. A minute spent pumping up tires morning and night, is a minute farther down the road I am on my high volume, puncture resistant touring tires that only need attention about once a week.
+1. Maybe if my commute were 3X as long, I’d start to worry a little more about trading away speed/efficiency, but for a short commute (especially if bad weather is also at all common) I’d take durability 10X out of 10 even if it’s heavy and slower. I’ve got better-purposed tires now w/ more robust internal belting, but before when my tire selection was more limited I even put the Tuffy tire liners in to further protect the tubes from external punctures.
+2. I run Schwalbe Marathon tires on my commuter bike. Closest thing to bulletproof I’ve found. According to Strava my front tire has done 7500 puncture free miles, on roads that are littered with crap. Rears don’t last as long, I typically get 3-4000 miles out of them. I replace at the first puncture.
I’d also recommend looking into disc brakes, single or fixed speed, hub gears, belt drive, etc. When it comes to my commuter bike I just want to pick it up and go, minimal maintenance, minimal things to go wrong. A nice byproduct of that is that when you do go out on your weekend bike with a nice set of tires, or feels like you’re flying!
All the punctures I get commuting are of the puncture variety (glass, wire, random metal bits, the new “improved” glass based chip seal-- grrrrrr). Latex isn’t going to help with that – a thicker, puncture resistant tire is what you need.
For commuting, I want reliability and low maintenance above all else. If I get to choose between 55 min +/-10, or 58 min. +/-3, I’ll take the latter all day. I also realized that all the time I spend fiddling with my bike counts against my travel time. A minute spent pumping up tires morning and night, is a minute farther down the road I am on my high volume, puncture resistant touring tires that only need attention about once a week.
+1. Maybe if my commute were 3X as long, I’d start to worry a little more about trading away speed/efficiency, but for a short commute (especially if bad weather is also at all common) I’d take durability 10X out of 10 even if it’s heavy and slower. I’ve got better-purposed tires now w/ more robust internal belting, but before when my tire selection was more limited I even put the Tuffy tire liners in to further protect the tubes from external punctures.
The tire gods invented Gatorskins for some awesome use cases. Andy Potts racing in Kona on Gatoskins is not the use case the tire gods were thinking of. The rest of us commuting on 28mm Gatorskins at 65 psi with the thickest butyl tubes you can think of is the golden use case. Pump your tires up once every 10 days, never flat, makes every uphill longer and every downhill shorter, thus maximizing training value!!! And additional bonus if you have to hit a group ride on your way home, you’re working extra hard to hang onto the bunch for even more training effect!