JohnW wrote:GranvilleThomas wrote:I used Gatorskins as my main commuting tyres for a few years and while I found them very stiff and dead feeling and personally found them deadly on road metalwork and white lines when the roads were wet, (which is most of the time in the winter) there was never any question about their durability and puncture resistance, which is what I wanted them for.
They got me over Caerphilly mountain at midnight after work, in the rain and the sleet and the snow without fail and the only puncture I had was when I was on NCN route 4 on the way to work and rode over an upturned broken bottle or jar that I failed to see because the rain was so heavy and made a gash on the edge of the front tyre tread about 3/8th of an inch long and the inner tube was a right off.
I patched the inside with a couple of very large inner tube patches that I had given to me and carried on using the tyre for a long while afterwards without any problems and still have both tyres as spares with life left in them.
I never had any side wall problems with them, unlike the Panaracer Pasela TG tyres that I used before the Gatorskins. Two pairs of those 'failed' on the sidewalls (mis-shaped and bulging) in the same way, personally I think they were effected by ultra violet exposure, pity because they were a nice supple tyre.
I always ran the Gatorskins (26 x 1 1/8) at around 100psi and weighed about 11 stone and carried very little. it would be interesting to know what sort of pressures and weights the people with failures were using
That was all in the past tense Granville - have you stopped cycling?
Well, not entirely but my winter commuting, due to peripheral neuropathy has slowly ground to a halt unfortunately. Getting on and off the bike at all times is agony and the pain in my hands has me worried that at times I will be unable to operate the brakes effectively.
This is why I no longer use the Gatorskins and have fitted some old 1 1/4 Hutchinson Top Slick folding tyres,(forgot I had them) lovely and supple and don't shake the fillings out of my teeth when I manage to make it out - but not much good for winter commuting!
Also I no longer have the same job that requires me to risk life and limb to get home because there are no late trains due to engineering work or the guard simply wont let me on because the train is full.
Consequently I do not have to endure passengers in cars with wound down windows screaming at me as they pass very close as I am pedalling up the mountain, I assume trying to make me fall off.
Or the drunks in the town centre when going down the other side running after me, shouting abuse and asking me to stop for a fight!
By the way did you know that Geraint Thomas used to live not far from here and used to regularly ride this route? Maybe this is one of the reasons that he managed to win the Tour de France, cycling away from all the Nutters in the Welsh Valleys, possibly gave him that extra turn of speed?
I don't think I will ever give up cycling completely, (at least I hope not) having never owned a car, it's in my blood I think.
The ideal way to die (comes to us all in the end) for me, would be of natural causes whilst riding my bike, either in the Brecon Beacons or Snowdonia, but not from a blown out side-wall hopefully.