I know bike tires will lose pressure in colder seasons because the air temp causes the pressure to drop, but is the inverse true? Does bike tire pressure go up in summer due to heat?
If so, do I need to deflate the tires a bit in summer? Do bike tires ever explode because of a temperature change?
You are overthinking it my man. Yes, the pressure does go up, but overinflated tires need to be way way way over inflated to explode. Unless you are a pro cyclist or store your bike in the trunk of your Kar in the Sahara desert… no, they don’t pressurize enough to matter.
/not an expert
It’s not a bad idea to deflate them if you go through sudden temperature changes but it’s important to remember that tires are porous and will slowly leak air over time so it’s less of an issue in that direction… you also don’t hear about it as much because people tend to bike more in warm weather so it’s more likely for you to go long stretches of time without biking when it’s getting colder.
So there are quite a few reasons why the deflation problem gets talked about more.
In short, keep the pressure constant, because 8bar will be 8bar in winter and in summer. It’s kind of a 1kg of steel vs 1kg of feather type of deal. It’s still 1kg.
But if you want the details, yes pressure will increase with temperature, they are directly related. Charles’s law state “The absolute pressure exerted by a given mass of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to the volume it occupies if the temperature and amount of gas remain unchanged within a closed system.” Since in bike tires volume is constant, it’s given that pressure is the one to change.
And yes, tires do explode. I had mine explode when bike was left on the sun but it had underlying issue. Under normal circumstances they are usually engineered to withstand normally expected temperatures. Also tires get hotter when they are ridden and they also experience sudden raise in pressure when running over pot holes and similar.
