this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Bicycles
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Are you riding on pavement or trails? Mountainbike tires are generally a lot slower on tarmac, due to the tire pattern, and width, compared to a road tire. Also on tarmac you should increase the pressure in your tire quite a bit.
Don't listen to which speeds people tell you to aim for. Look for improvements in your own rides.
Road surface, hills, wind, tires, style of bike, your height, position on the bike, traffic and many more things have an impact on your speed. Compare yourself with yourself
I'm riding mostly on sidewalks.
I'll try raising the pressure in my tires - would that affect going up/down curbs and stairs at all? I have my tire pressure in the middle of what it says on the tires (they're pumped to around 50PSI, should I add more?).
Also, how do I adjust my front fork suspension to be ideal for roads but still allow me to go down stairs and curbs? Should it be stiffer or more absorbent?
Try playing around with the pressure. Find what you like. Suspension is a real speed killer, on even surfaces. With every pedal stroke you compress the suspension, and that power doesn't make it to the rear wheel. If you don't have a lock out, adjust to as little suspension you feel works for you.
There are a lot of rules of thumbs, but in the end it needs to work for you. Stiff suspension and hard tires will give you speed, soft suspension and soft tires give comfort
What will hard tires and a soft suspension give me? I just want to make sure I don't break something going up and down curbs and stairs and when I don't see the occasional pothole and ride right over it 😅
On my bike, the tire has the pressure range it can handle safely printed on the side. I tend to inflate mine close to maximum for city biking.
I'll go ahead and pump mine up some more then!