I love my bike.

Last night, around about 10pm I was cyclying home from work. The rain had stopped just 5 minutes
beforehand and I had a nice tailwind. I was clocking 25mph at some stages going home. If I pushed
myself I could have gone a bit faster but I was in a good mood and just settled into a relaxed pace.
About 10 minutes in to the ride I hit a puddle deep enough to cover the rims and even the valve
capping. In this puddle also was a smirnoff ice bottle and I hit it at 25 mph. The bottle
disintergrated under the tyre, I lost no control of the bike as this crops up a lot in trail riding
(not bottles but you know what I mean). Glass is thrown up by tyres and the back wheel hits what
remains of the bottle. The crud catcher prevents the debris being thrown in my face. I keep on
riding expecting a flat tyre to occur. Nothing, nadah, zilch, zero. I get home to inspect any damage
and there is no glass embedded within the tyres or anything. All I have is standard cheap innertubes
and Continental Vertical Tyres. I love my bike.

Thanks for listening to me prattle on.

Gadget

 

You were doing 25 - and still had time to notice it was Sminoff Ice ?

Was there any left in the bottle ?

Seriously this raises a non cycling question. Why is this type of beer still sold in glass bottles -
when plastic dominates soft drinks bottles - many of which used to be glass ?

Pete.


"Gadget" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> Last night, around about 10pm I was cyclying home from work. The rain had stopped just 5 minutes
> beforehand and I had a nice tailwind. I was
clocking
> 25mph at some stages going home. If I pushed myself I could have gone a
bit
> faster but I was in a good mood and just settled into a relaxed pace.
About
> 10 minutes in to the ride I hit a puddle deep enough to cover the rims and even the valve capping.
> In this puddle also was a smirnoff ice bottle and
I
> hit it at 25 mph. The bottle disintergrated under the tyre, I lost no control of the bike as this
> crops up a lot in trail riding (not bottles
but
> you know what I mean). Glass is thrown up by tyres and the back wheel hits what remains of the
> bottle. The crud catcher prevents the debris being thrown in my face. I keep on riding expecting a
> flat tyre to occur.
Nothing,
> nadah, zilch, zero. I get home to inspect any damage and there is no glass embedded within the
> tyres or anything. All I have is standard cheap innertubes and Continental Vertical Tyres. I love
> my bike.
>
> Thanks for listening to me prattle on.
>
> Gadget

 

"Peter Rollason" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> You were doing 25 - and still had time to notice it was Sminoff Ice ?

I didn't mean spefically Smirnoff Ice, I should have rephrased that to Smirnoff Ice type bottle.

Gadget

 

Gadget wrote: <snip>
> All I have is standard cheap innertubes and Continental Vertical Tyres. I love my bike.

I was doing some tyre shopping and the guy at my local shop was saying that Continental's are made
from extremely hard rubber. Maybe I'll get some next time if the punctures continue...

--
StainlessSteelRat Frank: I've walked a white line my entire life, I'm not about to screw that up.
Nada: White line's in the middle of the road, that's the worst place to walk.

 

"StainlessSteelRat" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Gadget wrote: <snip>
> > All I have is standard cheap innertubes and Continental Vertical Tyres. I love my bike.
>
> I was doing some tyre shopping and the guy at my local shop was saying
that
> Continental's are made from extremely hard rubber. Maybe I'll get some
next
> time if the punctures continue...
>
> --
> StainlessSteelRat

I'm not impressed with the stuff that was getting through the Contis I used for my e2e (Sport
1000s)....sorry, what I mean is that I've never had as many punctures as I got in the contis, mile
for mile. I was starting to feel like standard road surface is the wrong place to be using a
roadbike, and I'm NOT referring to the poor standard of road maintenance. Dave.

 

On Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:40:35 +0100, "StainlessSteelRat" <[email protected]> wrote:

>I was doing some tyre shopping and the guy at my local shop was saying that Continental's are made
>from extremely hard rubber.

Conti TT2000's seem to be made from the same half rubber - half concrete mix that Michelin used to
make car tyres out of. Lasts forever, but doesn't grip worth a damn if it's wet.

I hate alcopop bottles. They're glass with a shrunk-on plastic wrapper. Even when they're crushed,
they still have the structural rigidity to stand up and gouge at you 8-(

 

Andy Dingley <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:40:35 +0100, "StainlessSteelRat" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I was doing some tyre shopping and the guy at my local shop was saying that Continental's are
> >made from extremely hard rubber.
>
> Conti TT2000's seem to be made from the same half rubber - half concrete mix that Michelin used to
> make car tyres out of. Lasts forever, but doesn't grip worth a damn if it's wet.
>

And they're utter b*stards to get on the rims when you *have* had a puncture if you're a feeble
girlie like me. Used to have them on my Dawes Horizon (before I went over to the Dark Side) and once
spent more than half an hour trying to get the -ing rear tyre back on after a puncture. Luckily a
kind person stopped and helped me, or I've been there all night....

--
Carol Hague "The bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion."
- Angela Carter, "The Lady of the House of Love"

 

Crank brothers speed lever is the answer I've found to pesky tyre changes and puncture repairs.

Gadget

 

On Fri, 2 May 2003 04:51:34 +0100, "Gadget" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Crank brothers speed lever is the answer I've found to pesky tyre changes and puncture repairs.

Tried it, found it functionally sub-optimal and reverted to my ancient composite levers, which work
just fine.

Guy
===
** WARNING ** This posting may contain traces of irony. http://www.chapmancentral.com (BT ADSL and
dynamic DNS permitting)
NOTE: BT Openworld have now blocked port 25 (without notice), so old mail addresses may no longer
work. Apologies.

 

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> On Fri, 2 May 2003 04:51:34 +0100, "Gadget" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Crank brothers speed lever is the answer I've found to pesky tyre changes and puncture repairs.
>
> Tried it, found it functionally sub-optimal and reverted to my ancient composite levers, which
> work just fine.

I used one of these for a year or so. It was extremely good at getting tyres on and off the rim, but
in putting them on I found I had to take extreme care not to pinch the tube. This seemed to happen
more easily than with ordinary levers. There was also plenty of potential for skinning knuckles if
it slipped. Eventually the part of the lever used to put the tyre back onto the rim simply snapped
off. I didn't feel a pressing need to buy another one.

--
Dave...