The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS
Coach Adam Pulford delivers actionable training advice and answers your questions in short weekly episodes for time-crunched cyclists looking to improve their cycling performance. The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast (formerly The TrainRight Podcast) is brought to you by the team at CTS - the leading endurance coaching company since 2000. Coach Adam pulls from over a decade of coaching experience and the collective knowledge of over 50+ CTS Coaches to help you cut throught the noise of training information and implement proven training strategies that’ll take your performance to the next level.
The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS
Finding the Perfect Tire Width and Pressure For Your Cycling Adventures
OVERVIEW
Wheels and Tires and Tire Pressure. These are the subjects of endless debates among road, gravel, and mountain bike racers. Wheel and tire technologies continue to change. Internal rim widths allow for wider tires, as do modern frames. In Episode 247 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Coach Adam Pulford and Velosmith's Tony Bustamante discuss how cyclists can narrow in on the wheel + tire + pressure combination that works best in specific situation, like SBT GRVL vs. Big Sugar.
TOPICS COVERED
- Why are tires so important to cycling performance?
- Why you should be testing multiple tire choices
- Sourcing course-specific info on tire selection
- How tire pressure affects wheel system performance
- Tinkering with tire pressure to find your preferred setup
- Sweet spots for rire size and handling characteristics
ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST
LINKS/RESOURCES
- SRAM/ZIPP tire pressure guide
- Schwalbe tire width guide
- WTB Tire/Rim fit chart
GUEST
Tony Bustamante of Velosmith Bicycle Studio. A second-generation bike shop owner, Tony Began working for his father in 1986 and over time worked in shops from L.A. to D.C. In the late 90s - early 00s. He worked at Seven Cycles in production/manufacturing and design before starting Velosmith in 2011 with a focus on building custom bicycles and delivering an exceptional level of mechanical service and hospitality. One last bit about Tony: he was an athlete Adam Pulford worked with for a handful of years and Adam has utilized Tony's skills and guidance on equipment choices, bike fit, and more.
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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From the team at CTS. This is the Time Crunch Cyclist podcast, our show dedicated to answering your training questions and providing actionable advice to help you improve your performance, even if you're strapped for time. I'm your host, coach Adam Pulford, and I'm one of the over 50 professional coaches who make up the team at CTS. In each episode, I draw on our team's collective knowledge, other coaches and experts in the field to provide you with the practical ways to get the most out of your training and ultimately become the best cyclist that you can be. Now on to our show.
Speaker 1:Now onto our show. Welcome back, time Crunch fans. I'm your host, coach Adam Pulford. I'm here once again with Tony Bustamante of VeloSmith Bike Studio to expand on our previous episode, where we focused on the best practices for athletes coming into race day or your big event. In this show, we're going to focus a lot on the tires and wheels, and really it's like tires, wheels, pressure oh my Tony, when you and I were talking before, we were talking about how there really isn't any perfect choice out there, especially in the way of tire, wheel, but there are. What Trade-offs correct.
Speaker 2:We have seen a pretty steady march toward a bigger tire, regardless of what category it is road, gravel, mountain everything is now moving in a in the direction of bigger and the data is is basically giving people the confidence that a bigger tire is not slower, that a lower pressure is not slower, and I think there's a lot of there's a lot of relearning, because for so many years, if you're talking about the road category, 100 PSI or 110 PSI was the setup, but in that timing we were also talking about tires that were much, much smaller.
Speaker 2:It was five, six years ago that we were still selling a lot of 28 millimeter tires as a fat road tire, and now 28 millimeter tires for us in the studio is simply service work. So if you have a bike that can't fit larger, that's where our 28 millimeter tire sales are going, and most common now and we've seen this year over year is they're jumping by two millimeters at a minimum. This is looking at our annual sales. So last year, 32 was our average tire size and right now we're on track for 35 to be, and this is again averaging out road and gravel, which is our two areas that we focus on.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's wild to hear it just in that timestamp, but it's also not shocking based on what my athletes are riding, what you read on Vela News and all this kind of stuff, and so I think that plays into some relevancy which we'll talk about and how to even make a great bike or wheel choice down the road. But to the end of how fast this technology is really moving. You talked about width and pressure, but there's also tread or no tread, there's the sealant, just so much to talk about. And how this applies is the tires and wheels were part of the bike category in our previous conversation, but we wanted to reserve some extra time because there's just so much so like. Why are tires so important to the rider, to the feel of the rider, to the performance and what is like the kind of the number one thing that stands out to you when it comes to like event day preparation?
Speaker 2:on that, I think tires have always been an essential piece of the event or race day equipment. Essential piece of the event or race day equipment Tire is where you're going to have a huge amount of input, so gearing on the bike may be really narrow in terms of what's going to be sufficient for an event, but with tire with pressure, with sealant preferences, with rim profile, rim shape, rim width, these things are enormous and it's actually pretty exciting right now because there is so much stuff coming to market and I think there are some examples of tire preferences based on events. So, looking at steamboat gravel as one end of the continuum, looking at big sugar at the other end of the continuum, and really looking at surface conditions and champagne gravel versus something chunky and uh and sharper, and so, um, figuring out what the right setup is, uh, is the can be a winning decision and it can be a losing decision as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, that example of steamboat versus big sugar is probably the best example on the gravel side of things of of how drastic or night and day difference you know that can be. But I'll say this like coming from the mountain bike side of things, where, uh, I'll say this I don't have a problem swapping tires If you do a pre-ride or if you get some information that it's like, well, uh, this is super chonky and you need something with more tread, I'll swap tires all day, and here's why. So I used to be a team director for professional mountain bike teams and part of the strategy was to get there. You know, wednesday or Thursday, recon, recon, race, race, go home and away we go. Now we have professional riders and we have professional mechanics, so there's that to keep in mind. But our riders would go out, maybe take, um, uh, take a few laps, come back and be like, oh man, I need to, you know, dumb down the pressure a little bit or let's just swap it out. So we'll swap wheels because we already have some.
Speaker 1:Maybe we put on tires that morning and threw it on there because we know that that would be through and sealant all the things, but that is, it's again we're. We were professionals people. However, it is common practice in the way that mountain bike wheels and mountain bike tires were set up in our setup. These days you can do that on the downhill side of things, on the cross country side of things. It's pretty common practice. You know, maybe blow a tire out or something like that, throw it on, go and race again. So there is that element from the mountain bike side of things. I know that you don't have the same luxury of of uh maybe pre-riding big sugar as an amateur athlete and then swapping out tires the night of, unless you travel with your own mechanic. But in that way, how how would you uh advise listeners here, tony, to get information about what tires to run and what PSI to run on race day?
Speaker 2:I think in many ways that's a job for the Internet. There's just a tremendous amount of dialogue out there about events, about tire choices, about conditions, and you know I've been riding and racing my bike for a long, long time. We used to just call uh the shops that were local to where the event was and ask what the tire of choice was. Um, especially in the mountain bike category. Um, I think you're trying to balance uh tread and you know you don't want too much tread that it becomes a penalty on any fast sections that are smoothed down and you don't want a tread that is going to provide um too little in terms of protection against uh sharp stuff on the course. So there's some really good insight that you can get um from people who have, who have come before you for this event. But again, uh, again, the local shops are going to give you. They have a lot of information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, I mean Leadville being a great example. Call up Cycles of Life up in Leadville and say what's the most common tire you see with success, you know, of course, right, that's one example. But yeah, scouring the edges of the internet, chat, gpt, all good Talk with your race partners, listen to podcasts and that sort of thing, we're not going to give a ton of that specific information because, again, it's it's so specific to not only the course but the weather itself. Whether it comes in could change that quite a bit. Which leads us a little bit to tire pressure, because that that'll depend on if it's muddy, if it's dry, if it you know the the width of all this kind of stuff. So can you talk about how tire pressure is part of that equation when it comes to dialing in the best experience for the rider, for the race, for the conditions on race day?
Speaker 2:Wheels are a system, so looking at tire volume, looking at rim internal width, is an important piece, and then looking at the type of rim that you have, whether it's hooked or hookless, and we always recommend that you use one of the different calculators that are online. We do a lot with Envy, we do some with Zip, and, in both scenarios, if you're riding Envy wheels, we direct you to the Envy pressure calculator. If you're riding Zip, we point you to the Zip, and, in both scenarios, if you're riding NV wheels, we direct you to the NV pressure calculator. If you're running Zip, point you to the Zip. Silca also has one.
Speaker 2:Vittoria just launched one recently, and so I think starting there is really essential, and some of them are going to be more detailed than others. Some are going to look at total rider bike combined weight, others look at a much simpler just tire volume, rim width. But I think, either way, and to go back to the last segment, this is about backing up your preparation time and zeroing in on tire that is going to be a good choice for the event and then tinkering with the pressure. In today's day and age, where you have such a low pressure, a PSI or two has a big impact or a big effect on the way the tire feels. So spending some time riding some similar conditions to event day and zeroing in not just on tire pressure as a recommended, but then tire pressure as your preference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, in that first episode I introduced you as a forever tinkerer of all things bikes and I think your tinkering side of things is is, uh, very what, very much so entertained with tire pressure these days, as is mine, um, because it's the two PSI or more can make a huge difference. I would say my first I recently got a bike, like last year, and it was moving up to 32s and 35s and rethinking the pressure right.
Speaker 1:Cause I was using so I was using some zip um three, 53s right and 32s in it, you know the suggested pressure was down into the 44 upfront, 46 in the back with my system weight and I was like and I think even I had one ride where it didn't think about it, put, put, put it back up to, like you know, 55 or 60, whatever I was running the 28th on went out and rode and I was just like just terrible in the corners on the descents, where normally I'm pretty decent, and I'm like what is going on? Check my tire pressure. I'm like, oh yeah, Blood off 15,. Went out the next day and just ripped it Felt awesome. So in that way, like old habits die hard, Think differently, Think outside the box and check the calculators because they're not wrong. These manufacturers are producing in different ways and you have to change those habits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think a tire is it. Tire is one of those areas where you really can tinker in an endless form. Tire is one of those areas where you really can tinker in an endless form. I'll often start with what the pressure calculator recommends and then I won't touch it.
Speaker 2:If a sealant system is well established and set up, your pressure loss overnight is pretty small, pretty small, and I'll sometimes start the week with recommended pressure and then just allow it to naturally lose air over the course of the week, and in that timeframe I might stumble into a pressure that feels just so much better than than anything else I had written, and so it's a happy accident. But it ends up, it ends up working pretty well. And then, uh, I have a gauge that is accurate. Uh, it's mostly calibrated to be below uh 50 PSI, and so then, uh, when I find that spot that feels really good, I'll take a measurement and get the number, and then, uh, keep that as my new, my new normal, keep that as my new, my new normal. Years of cyclocross has, uh, made me be, um, very focused on tire pressure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think when you're an off-road athlete like like cyclocross or mountain bike you get super weird about tire pressure. And I was going to say one pro tip is have uh like a hand, um, uh, hand pressure device. Schwalbe makes one, silica makes one, I mean everybody's making them now but you can travel with it, right. So whether you travel internationally or you go to the race or you're just at the local track and you just want to check pressure real quick, it's accurate and consistent. So no matter if you've got a borrow pump or CO2 it up or whatever, you can always bleed down to your known pressure.
Speaker 2:So that's it, with your known gauge, with your known gauge.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's the point, right, yep so yeah, and I think for anyone here, like Tony said, the ideal pressure on race day has a lot of factors that go on to it. Okay, the course, the conditions, the weather, your tire wheel system, right, all that. But you suss it out over time, you tinker over time. Hopefully this episode is getting to everybody before some of the midsummer so you can tinker away going down. But, I think, explore within the boundaries of manufacturers' recommendations on this so you don't have a whoopsies. But in that way you find what's going to work well for you in those conditions. And I'd also say like it goes both ways, meaning you over-pressure, you go, you have a bad experience, you trickle down, like Tony was talking about. You have a good experience, like, oh, then measure it, see what worked with that Right.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile I had a conversation with one of one of my athletes. He was like man, should I go 32s or 35s or I'm like buy a set of? He could so bias by a set of thirties, by a set of 32s, by a set of 35s, ride them for a couple of weeks, find what works for you. And this was also based on his bike that we, you know Google what's the max tire pressure?
Speaker 2:uh sorry, max tire size. We go for it, right. Uh, so tinker away, try it if you can. Yeah, and I think you know now, when we're looking at bikes that have this wide range of tire compatibility, um, they're, in that range of tires there's going to be an optimal handling and as you move away from that optimal handling either going smaller in the tire or going larger in the tire you impact the way that the bike steers and the way the bike handles. And so, um, I think yeah, I think that's we. We will often say, um, with many of the bikes that we sell, that if you're doing it right, you have a bin in your garage of of different tires, because you're going to start to unlock all of the potential of, especially, a gravel bike with larger volume, smaller volume, bigger knobs, smaller knobs. It really does impact and change the way the bike rides.
Speaker 1:Don't ask my wife about all the slightly used tires in our garage. They're just waiting for the right event. That's right, tony, I'm going to use that, thank you. Yeah, there you go. You know I'm going to say something and I don't think I'm wrong. I'm going to say the question of how come gravel? Okay, people think gravel has all this innovation and revolution. Now the road has to. And, oh my gosh, so excited.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say this the spirit of wheel and tire evolution, it's not the gravel, it's mountain bike. Because we had all the tires hanging up in the garage or down in the bin or whatever for all the different course conditions for a long time. And even back in the 90s, where there was just a shit ton of money flowing through the mountain bike scene there was just a shit ton of money flowing through the mountain bike scene. There was a bunch of just revolution happening, from going from rim to disc to wider is better for both the rim and the tire and then all of a sudden going tubeless and sealant, and now gravel and road are just catching up. So am I wrong to say that mountain bike is the spirit of all bikes? Am I wrong?
Speaker 2:to say that mountain bike is the spirit of all bikes. No, you know, I would say that with cycling, what's great about cycling is that there's a lot of it that's really not new, right? So you go back 100 years and some of the technologies that we're seeing that are labeled as new and great have been around for a long time. I think what's different now is I say this I was in the cycling world when mountain bikes were really coming into it to become something, and it was just an incredible time and there was so much new that was happening. There were so many areas that were developing rapidly, expanding exponentially. It was so exciting and I think, when we look at gravel and maybe, to a lesser extent, road, that's what's happening right now.
Speaker 2:There is just a huge amount of of evolution that's happening. I mean, this is a moment. You know, um, 20 years from now, we're going to talk about the birth of gravel and, uh, we're talking about right now. So it's a it's, it's an exciting time. I think right now, the other thing that's happening is we're we're. We look not just within the walls of the boardroom and say here's what people need. They're actually looking at how people are using the equipment where they're using it and then building equipment for the users, which is that's a departure. I mean, we've had many years where it's just here's what you're going to ride.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a huge market change. I think it's really important. Why do you think that's occurring now, though?
Speaker 2:Honestly, I think the internet, I think social media is providing a greater awareness for companies who want to listen, and that's pretty exciting. And so the move toward. Again to use Gravelin as an example, we saw when it first came to market, gearing was enormous and then we saw it swing the other direction and resemble more of a road gearing and then now we're seeing it land somewhere in between and, um, that's rider feedback that's helping arrive at these places. And the same is true with tires. We're seeing tires, uh, um, now moving literally into what is a mountain bike tire, and I don't think we're done yet. I think that's going to you know that the pendulum is going to continue to swing and we're going to zero in on other things. What's exciting now is that there are companies who are willing to invest in this stuff, so we can try it, and if it's great, it'll stick around, and if it's not, it'll go away.
Speaker 1:All right, Tony.
Speaker 1:So as we start to close this episode out in this series of our tech talk, to close this episode out in this series of our tech talk Um if some of our listeners are listening to this and they're like man, um, yeah, it's time to update my bike, or or, uh, I should give Tony a call. Like what if somebody calls you and says I'm looking for a new bike, what should I get? How would you handle a client like that, Either from afar or in person? I don't even know if you do from afar, but walk us through, like, what is the logic or what do you want to know from that person before they purchase a bike through you?
Speaker 2:And also VeloSmith Bike Studio it's a pretty unique, I know about it, but maybe take some time and explain what you do at VeloSmith what you do at VeloSmith, yeah Well, so, um, velosmith is is a reflection of all the years that I've had in the bike industry, and so what we do is we provide a very hands-on approach to uh, buying a bicycle, and so, um, the the fitting is an important part of it. Uh, the the equipment selection is an important part of it. The equipment selection is an important part of it, but I think the real reason that people come to see us is the conversations that we have, because it's important to learn about how people want to use these bikes. So there are a lot of off-the-shelf options that just say gravel and I'm going to do gravel. So this is a perfect choice. We like to uh tinker, we like to nerd out on that stuff and really dig in and figure out what is the right choice. So, um, we, we work with people uh, all around the world, which is an incredible thing to say.
Speaker 2:But, um, I think we, we always look at it as being the bike that we're going to build for you is a reflection of how you're going to use it 80% of the time. So how are you going to use this bike 80% of the time? We don't want to build a bike specifically for one event, that's an outlier. Unless you want to buy a bike for that one event, that's an outlier. But if you're looking for something that's just going to be a great bike to ride day in, day out, then we look at how you're going to use it. 80% of the time, we look at your history as a cyclist. We look at equipment that you're using now, and then we also look at the future and how someone is going to age into this and our goal with the products that we select and I should point out, we're not a typical bike shop. We are truly independent.
Speaker 2:The brands that we sell, the products that we sell, are brands that we've chosen. They're brands that we use on a daily basis. It is not a corporate directive or, uh, a sales rep who's telling us what we're going to stock, that the choices that we carry, the product choices we carry, are ours, and so, um, getting everybody aligned with, um, with with the right choices, um is, is, uh, communication, it's uh, it's a collaborative effort and ideally, um, it's a bike that will last a long time. It's a bike that's serviceable. It's a bike that's durable. It's a bike that's reliable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's that's a great. That's a great explanation of what you do, tony, and, like I said, I didn't know if you worked with clients from afar, but I think, in that way, for everybody listening here, hopefully that gets you thinking about your experience on your bike. If you've got an awesome bike and you just got it great, maybe this inspires you to go get a fit. If something's not feeling just right, hopefully it motivates you to go to the bike shop, talk to your mechanic and just have better conversations with them, get your bike in two to three weeks out before the main event. That's what Tony and I are really pressing hard to do.
Speaker 1:But if you're looking for a new bike and if you want a consultation, or if you want somebody like Tony that's going to, or if you're, you want somebody like Tony that's going to guide you through an individual way, for that, this is your man. So, like I said Tony, it's the way he thinks. That's what drew me to him for these two podcasts. So, tony, I really want to thank you again for your time out of the busy studio life and taking some time and talking to our guests here, because I think everyone's going to get a lot out of it and get inspired and think in different ways about all things. Bike tech.
Speaker 2:Thanks, adam, I really appreciate it. It's an honor to be uh be on the roster here.
Speaker 1:So this is awesome. And what I'll do, listeners, is I will link to um the VeloSmith bike studio website, as well as check them out on Instagram. Like I said, if, if you don't do anything other than just go look at the beautiful builds there, do that. It's, it's worthwhile, um, but if that, like I said, if that turns into reaching out, um, just tell, uh, just tell Tony that coach AP sent you and you heard us on the podcast. It'd be super fun to see where that goes. And if anybody has a training partner or a friend that needs to hear this podcast because they always turn up to the big race with clapped out equipment, go ahead and share this episode with them.
Speaker 1:Finally, if you have any questions about equipment or anything that we talked about today, head over to trainwrightcom backslash podcast and you can submit a question there. And if you say, get Tony back on the podcast to talk more about tech, talk stuff, happy to do it. This is the first time in a while where I really like nerded out on, like bike tech, so we'll see where it goes. Tony, again, thank you for joining us on the Time Crunch Cyclist. Thank you, adam. Free weekly publication. Each week you'll get in-depth training content that goes beyond what we cover here on the podcast that'll help you take your training to the next level. That's all for now. Until next time, train hard, train smart, train right.
