It all started when I was running out the door with child in tow; I was going to drop him off for his shift at the Apple factory (little fingers are crucial for Apple Watch assembly, and the $.35/hr he brings home really helps us balance our budget), and then I was going to drop THE CAR THAT THE BANK OWNS UNTIL I FINISH PAYING THEM BACK with the mechanic for some new rubber as well as other necessary service. (I broke about 50 tire levers trying to mount the damn tires before finally giving up.) And we all know what you do when you need to drop your car off at the garage for awhile:
You bring a bike with you and go for a ride.
Unfortunately, when I went to grab the Milwaukee I found the rear tire was flat. My son's foreman gets very upset when he's late for work and has been known to dock him several weeks pay as punishment for tardiness, which meant I didn't have time to repair the flat and the only spare wheel I had ready to mount was sporting a chunky 35mm "gravel"-type tire I decided to try out on a whim some time ago. So I threw it on:
Of course the tire didn't clear the strap-on fenders I've been sporting out of laziness. (It doesn't even clear the brake pads; I have to deflate it a bit to get the wheel in there.) So I quickly removed the tire and threw on the even cheesier filth prophylactic pictured above. And because I'd already spent enough time doing all that, I didn't even bother swapping the front wheel, which had a comparatively diminutive 28mm tire on it:
The upshot of all this is that I'm now palping a mismatched pair of wheels, a mismatched pair of "fenders" (if you can even call them that), and a shocking 7mm width differential between my front and rear tires--all this in addition to handlebar tape that is in tatters and a front derailleur I recently had to bend back into shape in order to attain halfway decent front shifting. Moreover, I don't see myself rectifying any of this in the near future, because after dropping the car off I did go for a ride, and you know what? It was fine.
Actually, in a way it was more than fine. Frankly I've never been too crazy about those trendy gravel tires as they don't ride particularly nicely, and they mostly just seem like an excuse to charge a lot of money for the sort low thread-count semi-knobby tire that 20 years ago you'd have found on a hybrid. But with the narrower tire on the front the bike feels a little zippier, while at the same time I've still got the knobs and the width in the rear for a little bit of extra traction. I'm sure I'm risking my life in all manner of ways by combing a gravel tire with a non-gravel tire, and I don't even want to begin contemplating the #whatpressureyourunning implications.
As for the ride I took, I cut a leisurely swath through the Bronx and upper Manhattan before returning home, making some lunch, and plopping myself down in front of the computer which is where you find me right now. And finally, with regard to the car, feel free to make me an offer--it's been serviced recently and it has four new tires.
from Bike Snob NYC https://ift.tt/2PDYF4D
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