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.

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.