Like a bear ...

... I'm putting on weight for the winter ...

... because I had a puncture cycling home from work last week, and I'm sick of them. So, although the foldable Continental Gatorskins my trusty flat-bar was shod with looked like they had a bit of life left in them (Strava tells me they'd done over 2,800 miles, mind), off they came, and on (with a hell of a struggle, a broken tyre lever and a broken Tyre Glider) went a pair of wired Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

Bottom line, I have a heavier but sturdier pair of tyres on now, roughly 50g heavier per wheel. They are grippy though, and feel sturdy. Plus they have the "Smartguard" reflective band on the tyre wall which, on my winter commuter, can only be a good thing.

The eagle-eyed amongst you (you? No-one reads this...) will have spotted the green dustcaps in the picture above. For yes, such was my ire at last week's puncture, I also fitted some Slime road inner tubes, These are much heavier than the Schwalbe Extra Light they replaced, adding about 110g per wheel. On the plus side, they felt quite comfy on this morning's commute which was a relief, as I had worried they'd be less pliant.

So after all those years of shaving every possible gram off the trusty flat-bar, I have just willingly added about 320g - more than seven KitKats! Impact? Well, I felt slower this morning, and it felt like harder work too. However, Strava suggests it has had no great impact on my average speed or top speed, so maybe it was just one of those mornings when it feels like hard work. Not getting any younger, slimmer or fitter, after all...

P.S. I tweeted (or Xed, or whatever) Tyre Glider about the breakage and they sent me a replacement, FOC, in the post. Good customer service, I would say.

Project bike green run

You'll remember from last time that I've bought a project bike for £200 rather than spending upwards of £2k on something new and fancy. My goal is, through judicious upgrades, to turn it into something to rival at least the Boardman SLR 8.9 105, the cheapest bike (at £1,150) on my original "What should I buy?" post. I'm calling this the Bargain Bike Challenge. Anyway, here's the bike as bought - the only thing I've done to it thus far is raise the saddle:

I say only but even that was a bit of a job - the composite D-Fuse seatpost is not round in cross-section but, as the name suggests, D-shaped, which means you can't really twist it to get it out if it proves stiff ... which it certainly did. I was just about to break out some form of lube, in the hope that I could channel some down into the seatpost, when it finally budged. Anyway, let's not digress. So this is the bike, a 2016 Giant Defy 2, in mostly original condition, as far as I can tell. The only thing that might not be original are these brakes which, correct me if I'm wrong, don't look like the original Tektro set that were on the spec sheet. Indeed, these are unbranded, and are shod with solid blocks rather than cartridge brake shoes. Having been out for a green run over the weekend, I can report that these are not very good at all, and will be getting replaced at the earliest opportunity.

The other thing to notice from the picture above is the state of the tyre. Now the project bike has come to me shod with Continental Gatorskins (great) but the back one, as you can see, is very worn. Indeed, it is worn flat, in a manner that suggests it has either been run woefully under-inflated or, more likely, has spent a fair time on a turbo trainer. Either way, new tyres will also be high on my list of things to do early doors.

What else? Well, I can tell you from my green run pootle around the village (in figure of eight loops, to even out the effect of head- and tailwinds, of course) is that the gearing is okay, and well indexed. Yes, it's only 2x10 Shimano Tiagra, 50/34 at the front and 11-32 at the back. But look, there's a long cage there, which provides some scope should I want to make incremental changes in the future. I think my ultimate aim, budgetary constraints permitting, is 2x11 105 or Ultegra, with 11-34 at the back, but that's a bigger job, for further down the line. Maybe I could experiment with 52/36 at the front too, although I fear this may be beyond the financial limits of the project. Just as well, then, that for now, at least, I'm happy to report that the Tiagra set-up here works well, and certainly well enough to see off a lot more miles. Plenty of life in that cassette yet, I hope.

Another thing you can see quite well in this photo is the stock Giant SR-2 wheelset. Again, I can happily report that both front and rear run pretty true, so there's no urgent imperative to swap them out. They are quite heavy though, and you can feel that when you try to spin up to speed quickly (like cresting a hill, for example). So in time I will look to replace them if I can find something equally robust but significantly lighter without blowing the budget. That just might be the biggest challenge of all. Either way, it's something I'd probably only do when I was ready to change the cassette too ... and that's a little way off yet.

The other obvious take-home from taking the project bike out for a green run is that I'm not going to be immediately comfortable on it, even though the saddle has been raised to something like the right height. Sure, it is basically a comfy machine, with a supportive saddle, a well-padded (if slightly ragged) handlebar, good damping from the seatpost and fork, and more. But I think I might need to shift the saddle back a little, and there are changes needed in the cockpit, for me - the stem is only 100mm, and I think I might benefit from 110. Plus the pitch is perhaps too low - I might start by flipping it over and seeing if that feels any better.

And whilst we're on the subject of stems, why, oh why, do Giant bikes of this age appear to have a coffin shape around their stem logo? Hardly inspires confidence in the exposed road cyclist, does it? Ride fast and die!

Of course, the other painfully obvious finding from the green run is that I have to adjust and get comfortable (and confident) too - I haven't ridden a drop-bar on the road since 1992, and it really shows. I'm depressingly timid around corners and in descents, and that'll have to change; after all, there's no point building a rocket if I ride it tamely.

So, the post green run verdict? Well, it's not a bad little bike, as it stands. My first priority is to swap the brake calipers for something better, and then to clock up some confidence-building miles. Check back here again to see how that goes...

The Tyre Glider: is it really a game-changer?

If, like me, you watch cycling videos on YouTube, you might have seen reviews like this for the Tyre Glider, making great claims about how it is a game-changer and that you can say goodbye to tyre levers. I mean, that sounds great, doesn't it? Who wouldn't take a punt on that for a tenner?

Well, it's £13 actually, once you add the postage, but that's still a decent price if the claims are true. So, first impressions - it's an interesting looking thing, not immediately or intuitively obvious regarding how to use it for tyre off/on modes, but easy enough to understand once you watch their instructional video. And at only 23g, it's not going to weigh you down either. So, great in theory ... how about in practice?

As "luck" would have it, I've just had my first puncture of the year, so at last I had a chance to try out my new toy. For context, the punctured tyre was on a Prime Baroudeur SE wheel, shod with a 25mm Continental Gatorskin tyre. Now the Baroudeur is 26mm deep, which is not insignificant for a lightweight alloy clincher, and has a 19mm internal rim. As for the Gatorskin, well ... it's a Gatorskin. Not the most pliant or forgiving, I think it's fair to say. Basically, I was setting the Tyre Glider a fair challenge.

And it fell at the first hurdle. Whilst I could get the Glider seated under the Gatorskin, I just couldn't get it moving enough to remove the tyre. Sure, I could have applied a dab of washing-up liquid here and there, to help, but I'm not always going to be doing this in my kitchen, like today, am I? And maybe I could have pushed harder, or for longer, but I already pushed hard and long enough to make my hand sore (though this wouldn't have been a problem if I'd had cycling gloves on). Anyway, the simple fact is that I could get the Tyre Glider in place but couldn't use it to get the tyre off. Instead, I had to dig out a trusty conventional tyre lever to give me an extra point of leverage - only then could I get the Tyre Glider moving, at which point - hooray - the tyre came off nicely. But not a great start.

So, I was prepared to be underwhelmed when it came to putting the tyre back on - after all, I've always found that the harder job, especially with this wheel/tyre combo. But after getting the Tyre Glider seated on the wheel rim correctly (it took two tries, but wasn't difficult), blimey - I have never refitted a tyre so easily before. Ever. Even that last little bit, you know, the last eight inches that doesn't want to pop back on the rim: just hold the wheel between your legs, position it so that you're pushing down on the Glider (as opposed to sideways), and voilà! On it popped. And without recourse to tyre levers, sweating and swearing, or sore thumbs. Brilliant!

TLDR: a decent addition to your saddle-bag that is a game-changer when it comes to reseating your tyre, but you'd be unwise to discard your tyre levers just yet, in my view. ★★★★☆

BUY: Tyre Glider, currently £9.99 (+ £2.99 P&P) from Tyre Glider

Full disclosure: I bought this with my own money. If anyone wants to give me kit in exchange for an honest review, I'm open to that, but unless I explicitly say otherwise everything I review on here will be sourced and paid for by yours truly.

Swings and roundabouts

What you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts.
- Gertrude Lawrence, "A Star Danced"

I fitted a new seatpost and seatpost clamp last week. As well as looking frankly excellent, they gave me a weight saving of about 85g. Not much, you might say, but then the old seatpost was carbon, so I wasn't expecting too much ... although 85g is nearly two KitKats, so not too shabby.

However, last week I also replaced my quite worn and suddenly very puncture-prone Fusion 5 Kevlar Pro Tech tyres with a pair of folding Continental Gatorskins... and they added 70g.

Gah...

Week 75 metrics

31st May - 6th June

• Total distance: 101.79mi
• Total elevation: 2,462ft
• Longest ride: 45.43mi
• Time in saddle: 7h 05m

This was supposed to be 65 miles and 1,300ft more, but technical problems (three punctures and a broken tyre lever within 45 miles) put paid to yesterday's 104 mile sportive just shy of the half-way mark. Gutted. Strava's gear list functionality tells me the tyre that fell prone to all three punctures (a Fusion 5 Kevlar Pro Tech on the front wheel) has done 1,428.5 miles, so I'm hoping that's the problem. I'll be putting some Continental Gatorskins on this week, front and back; I had hoped to save them until nearer LEJOG but I can't be doing with three punctures every weekend....