Hed Ardennes LT+ - 90psi max??

[Nooch]

Just planning on moving my ardennes lt+ over from cx duty to road duty, and was looking at the specs and noticed a 90psi limit -- any thoughts on this? Seems bizarre for any road wheel to be capped out 10-30psi under the previous "normal" tire pressure, no?

[kppolich]

They are wide, all HED plus wheels have a lower recommended limit. Plenty of volume there at 80psi, no need to approach the 90psi limit

[ckorbey]

Funny, I just picked up a new set of cross wheels yesterday and am about to do the same with my Ardennes. Thanks for the heads up.

[yinzerniner]

They are wide, all HED plus wheels have a lower recommended limit. Plenty of volume there at 80psi, no need to approach the 90psi limit

I'd second that. 60 psi for anyone below 175 is more than enough, higher adjust it 3-5psi per every 10lbs above that.

Good article by HED themselves explaining the PSI max (it's not for safety)
https://www.hedcycling.com/blog/road-tire-pressure-for-plus-and-black-wheels/

[Mark McM]

They are wide, all HED plus wheels have a lower recommended limit. Plenty of volume there at 80psi, no need to approach the 90psi limit

Exactly. The force on clincher sidewalls due to tire pressure increases proportional to the diameter (width) of the tire. Since wide rims increase inflated tire width, wide rims will experience greater sidewall forces than narrow rims with the same tires at the same pressure. So while wide rims can't take as much tire pressure, it is also true as kppolich says that tires on wide rims don't need as much pressure.

(This is also the reason that pressure limits for MTB rims are typically much lower than for road rims - MTB tires are typically much wider road tires, and generate proportionally more force on the rim sidewalls.)

[dddd]

FWIW, the Belgium rims I have built with appeared to have a very narrow and thin braking track area, so might be prone to a more rapid loss of sidewall strength as normal wear accrues. Speculative on my part, but that was one of my very first impressions upon receiving them for the first time.
What I later noticed was how solid that these rims feel during tensioning.
There was a lot of feedback at the wrench since the rim was so inflexible, and I was impressed by that. It reminded me of building up motorcycle wheels.