Let’s Talk Tires

At dinner last night with our friends Ron & Miriam our conversation eventually drifted around to: Ron’s recent flat tires. He’s had two of them in just the last year. He blamed the gravel alley they live on. I said Nope, that’s not it. The problem is: crummy tires.

Observe my treads.

This is the very same tire I’ve had on this bike since I bought it -- not last summer, but summer before last. I’ll try to nab you a picture of the back one too, and stick it here later; and as long as I’m standing on my head I’ll try to decipher the brand names, which no doubt you’ll be dying to know after reading me rave on about the fabulosity of my tires.

I’ve had the best luck imaginable with tires and I ride over patches of broken glass pieces almost every single day. I plow right through them because I never see the glass till I’m right on top of it or in it. Too busy looking out for cars. I don’t think any of the crushed auto glass will puncture a tire, but I run over a lot of broken bottle glass and nothing ever happens. Sometimes I’m thinking, “Oh no, that was a bad one,” and I expect my tire to come slicing right off the wheel -- but nothing.

Back in March I posted about having to change my back tire, but that was because its outer walls were suddenly bulging out the sides – to the point where my brake shoes were rubbing the lumped area as it went around. That’s how a tire eventually wears out if you never puncture it, because the side walls are the weakest part. The back tire always wears out before the front one because it takes most of the weight. Even though I thought the bulging was amusingly freakish looking, I had the tire replaced because the guy at the bike shop said it was going to blow any minute. I imagined my bike lifting into the air with a great big POW as I was riding along, and even though I thought that could be terribly fun, my outer adult won the argument.

Life is just one big NO after another.