Tyre Pressure for Nepali Roads: Highway vs. Jeep Track

The tyre pressure that feels right on smooth highway tarmac is close to wrong the moment you turn onto a loose jeep track. Higher pressure suits the Prithvi Highway — it reduces rolling resistance and heat build-up over a long paved stretch — but that same pressure on loose stone or river-crossing terrain past Beni reduces the tyre's ability to conform to the surface, and grip drops noticeably.

Dropping pressure slightly for unpaved sections lets the tyre flex and grip loose material instead of skipping across the top of it. The right adjustment depends on your specific bike and tyre — there's no single number that's correct for every setup — but the direction is consistent: lower for loose or broken surfaces, higher for sustained smooth tarmac.

The trade-off is pinch-flat risk. Too low a pressure on a rocky jeep track raises the chance of the tyre pinching against the rim on a hard hit, so this isn't a case of "lower is always safer" — it's a genuine balance that depends on load, terrain, and how hard you're riding.

Carry a pump and a gauge you trust, and get in the habit of checking and adjusting at the actual transition point — the moment the highway ends and the jeep track begins — rather than guessing you'll be fine either way. On mixed routes like the Annapurna Circuit, you may end up adjusting more than once in a single day.