Tubeless tires for heavier riders

Triathlon Forum
1

I am 6’6" tall. 200lbs, plus bike. That’s probably 220lbs.

I’m trying to find tubeless race tires for my Cervelo P5-6 with new Zipp 808s. One issue I have is the clearance of the brakes because I can’t fit a tire greater than 25c.

Tubeless tires seem to require lower PSI. For example, the Continental GP 5000 X TR tires have a PSI max 73. https://www.competitivecyclist.com/continental-grand-prix-5000-s-tr-tire-tubeless

Does that eliminate that (or all) tubeless tire for me? Or, do I just use these tires at 73 PSI?

2

That’s only the max pressure with a hookless rim I believe
.

3

It seems you’re right. Thanks.

I just took the tire from my wheel, and the 808s are hooked. So, it seems from the website (below link) from Continental, that I can go as high as 109. That should be sufficient.

https://www.continental-tires.com/bicycle/tires/race-tires/grand-prix-5000-s-tr

4

You can do 130 psi if you want.

5

Only people who should run 130 are maybe riders on narrow track tubulars. Certainly no place for that on the road.

6

Glad to hear it, happy riding. I’m also 200ish pounds, usually ride around 85 psi for 25mm tires (26mm measured) and less if they blow-up wider

7

How do you know what is the right PSI? Do you just experiment? I’m rather new to tubeless and I appreciate that–with tubeless–you can ride lower PSI; but, how much lower. Maybe, I’ll try 90 and just see how it feels. But, unless there is some Pro Tip metric/chart, then I’m afraid I’ll just be guessing.

8

How do you know what is the right PSI? Do you just experiment? I’m rather new to tubeless and I appreciate that–with tubeless–you can ride lower PSI; but, how much lower. Maybe, I’ll try 90 and just see how it feels. But, unless there is some Pro Tip metric/chart, then I’m afraid I’ll just be guessing.

Use the pressure calculator on the Silca website

9

My usual go-to starting point is silca’s tire pressure calculator. Then you can modify from there if you feel you need

https://silca.cc/pages/sppc-form?submissionGuid=e776f93f-1685-484f-abd3-478ead5e5ecc

It’s likely your tires are at least a few mm wider than 25mm when mounted, so worth it to actually measure IMO. 90psi is almost certainly going to be too high for you.