This week my bike suffered its first ever mishap. I was coming back from work last Tuesday and all was fine with the universe, until I hit one of Montreal's trademark potholes. God my city sucks for this! I slowed down and checked everything as I was riding, and all seemed cool, so more fear than hurt I thought... wrong. The next morning I'm all ready to head to work, and I notice my bike feels weird as I pick it up. Well of course it felt weird, my rear tire was flat. Boooo !!! Well, this was the trigger I needed to do what I should've done a very long time ago, which is to go from the stock Bontrager Jones ACX 2.125" knobbies of Uber Fatness, +20% to Dirt Raping, Rolling Resistance and Drag Coefficient, to this:
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| Kenda Kwest 1.5" slicks !!! |
I was expecting this smaller and stiffer tire to be a bitch to put on the rims but apparently all my years of BMX have turned me into a tire-changing professional as I took about 15 minutes to get both wheels done. Yay me! I must thank the GT bike company and their near-impossible-to-install BMX tires. Those tires were very good and very tough, but they were tough in every way possible. But back to the Kenda's I got today, as soon as I was done I put on my cycling shoes and headed out. It's a good riding night tonight if a bit hot and humid, and hot and humid near the St.Lawrence means bugs by the crap-ton. But the feeling of these tires... damn! They turned my Trek from an earth-churning tractor to an asphalt-ripping dragster! Why I waited over 3 years to do this is beyond me. I could say it's because I've ridden far more this year than I've have in the couple years before, but as most of my riding is in the city and/or on hard packed trails I had no reason not to change the knobbies for slicks. Just FYI, knobbies are good in very soft terrain or mud. Point Final. But now I feel I've redeemed myself and finally saw the light. The next long ride will be far easier for sure!
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| Extra shot of my baby :) |
Ride slick
o7
