New Skins

Mark B

Zen MBB Master
I finally got my new tires put on the Silvio. I mounted 25c Continental Gatorskins on the bike and was beginning to wonder when I was going to get to test them out. Between working the bicycle club's Redland's Classic booth and chores at home, the prospect of a decent ride was looking pretty gloomy. My window of opportunity presented itself yesterday (Sunday) in the form of an invitation to ride with a friend of mine, who happens to be a former bike shop owner and in fact, sold me my first recumbent. He lives very close to the eastern most branch of the Santa Ana River Trail (SART). We picked up the path in Grand Terrace and rode it to the western most end in the Hidden Valley area in Norco. Most of the time you would think about a bike path being flat as a pancake, but this particular path has a few short but steep climbs. Nothing that required getting down off my 42 tooth middle ring, but enough to make me work!

I was impressed with the change in the ride the 25c tires afforded. I had noticed with the 23c tires that the road buzz would resonate up through the frame and into my back. Not enough to bother, mind you, but was noticable. With the 25c tires, this phenomenon was all but non-existent, which was cool. Traction was considerably better, too, but I am still able to slip a tire on uphill starts with less than ideally clean pavement below me. Overall, though, I was impressed with the quality of the ride.

We ended up with about 35 miles, I guess. Neither of us have a computer on our bikes, so no idea of average speed or anything. I know we were cooking all the way down and most of the way back!

Mark
 
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