Dark Side Tire Pressure

When I had my darkside tire mounted yesterday, the pressure they set at the shop was 35psi. After I re- installed the rear wheel I pumped it up to 45psi, because one guy told me that he liked running his at 46, and that some are running at even higher pressures.

My questions are these:

What's the rationale for running pressures so much higher than what would normally be run if this same tire was on a car?

Why not run at about 35psi, which would be about what the rear oem tire would be set at, and which would be about what this tire would be set at under its normal use?

What are the long term effects on the tire of running at such high psi's?

Thanks for your experience.

I would expect, that, if you run it at 35psi, the profile would be that of a car, e.g. flat across the tread face but if you pump it up to 45 etc it would tend to bulge more across the centre of the tread, giving a rounder profile like a bike tyre.
Car tyre problem wear listings show that overinflated tyres wear out in the middle of the tread as opposed to under inflated tyres wear out at the outer edges. Sounds like a reasonable strategy. Maybe the "Mythbusters " could do an episode on this.

The Mythbusters idea is the best that I have heard to put this MYTH to rest.

Kurt, your explanation makes sense to me. I wonder if this is in fact what people are attempting to do with the higher psi's?

Since I'm exactly one day old with the darkside tire, I guess I'll have to try some different psi's and see what I like better.

matthew wrote:

Kurt, your explanation makes sense to me. I wonder if this is in fact what people are attempting to do with the higher psi's?

I have 12,000 miles on this darkside tire alone (15,000 on darkside tires), I have not noticed any difference with age.

There may be another possible explanation, with the addition PSI the side radials may be "stiffer" with less flexing ... just a thought.

I can measure the tread depths across the tire with a digital caliper for accurate numbers after more miles to prove or disprove the center tread theory.