A weighty issue

At the moment I find myself obsessing a little about my weight.  There are three basic reasons for that:

1.  Its a number.  Weight is measureable against an easily understood standard, be it in pounds, kilograms or stone.  Its also pretty easy to measure.  How I feel, the spring in my step, the feeling of lightness when I run can been felt but not really measured.  Do I feel lighter than I did six months ago? Yes.  Do I feel lighter than last week? Well, I don’t know, actually I don’t think I do (in reality I am lighter but I’ve pushed up my running load so everything ‘feels’ heavy right now).  I could do the same with body fat, strength, VO2 max, power max etc – those are great numbers, probably better than weight to track – but they are hard to track too.  These output measures require all sort of special tests, equipment, skills etc.  Weight just requires a scales and the ability to stand still for a few seconds.

2.  It’s a number that really puts my transformation into perspective.  I started this trip at 128 kg, I’m now 106 kg, I’ve lost 22 kg.  I’ve lost almost 15% of my body weight.  Put it another way, I used to try and run, ride and swim with one of those big 20 kg plate weights strapped to my guts. But I’m not finished.  My goal is around (not sure what my final race weight is) 97 kg.  That means I’ve got another 9 kg to lose, that’s 9% of my current weight.  When I’m done I will have lost 31 kg (almost 70 pounds!) or nearly a quarter of my body weight.  That’s a barrage of numbers I know but it’s a barrage that makes me feel great, those numbers are like friends cheering me on, saying “look what you’ve done!”.

3.  I can control weight.  I can’t get taller, I can’t make my hands and feet bigger, my hips narrower, etc but I can make myself lighter and leaner.  In a sense this is the real point of monitoring my weight.  That weight is a nice easily measured and understood number is handy but not really a reason to measure it.  After all I’ve spent most of my professional life complaining about pointless measures put in place solely because they are easy to get.  But my ultimate purpose isn’t to be light; its actually to live longer and better.  My purpose is to compete, maybe even excel, at something again.  Weight, especially the useless fat I was carrying (and still am to be honest) gets in the way of those aims.  And I can remove it!  Its hard, I’m often hungry, often sore, always a little tired but I can do it – if I know what ‘it’ is.  Watching, managing and ultimately reducing my weight is a big part of ‘it’. 

Gear review. Tyres. Continental Ultra Race

Context.

I have been back on a road bike for approximately 4 months after 15 years away from the sport.  I have (seriously) ridden one bike in that time, my Avanti Giro 4.  I have ridden about 2500 km in that time.   I'm a big  guy, when I started I weighed 127kg and even now I'm 108 kg.  I ride around Newcastle NSW, an industrial city whose roads are rough and strewn with debris.

Tyres I've used.

Continental Ultra Race.  These are the subject of this review.

Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elite.  These are the principle basis of comparison (but wont get a detailed review themselves yet.)

Feeling.

The Continental Ultra Races felt great.  They provided fantastic feed back, I always felt confident that I knew exactly what was happening under me, I knew what the road was doing and how the bike was going to react so I felt in control.  Given that these were the first 'modern' tyres I've ridden on in 15 years I think that these tyres, so skinny and so hard made me comfortable is a testament to them.

The Continental Ultra Races are far superior to the Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elites here.

Performance.

Ok, not a great database here.  I havent ridden a lot of tyres and I dont have a store of carefully conducted performance tests to give you a clear idea of the quality of the Continental Ultra Races.  What I have is seat of the pants feel.

So, these tyres felt grippy.  Unless I was riding through sand or gravel across the road I never once slipped or slid in 2000 km or riding.   I didnt ride in the rain a lot but in the wet they still felt nice and stable.  When I braked hard I had plenty of retarding force and never had to worry that the brakes would overpower the tyres.  I'm sure the brakes can overpower the tyres but I never had to push it that far.

Despite the feel issue, I've got to admit however that the Continental Ultra Races arent actually superior to the Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elites here however. Both these tyres seem to be pretty sticky.

The Ultra Races also felt light. I havent got figures to back this up but the bike felt responsive and ready to pounce with the Continental's fitted.  The Specialized cant match the Continentals here, by comparison the Armadillo's feel heavy.

Durability.

Now this is where the Continental Ultra Races low price is explained.  These tyres were going great, I felt I had uncovered the impossible, the tyre that was fast, cheap and reliable (whereas usually you have to just pick two of these three possibilities).   But then I had five punctures in four days.  I had a hard look at the tyres and found that they were done.  The contact area was completely rounded off and in the thinned areas on the tyres there were lots of holes and cracks.  It really looks like the tyres do ok for a while but when they gos they really fall off the cliff.  

Conclusion.


The Continental Ultra Races arent mythically good.  They are light, responsive, grippy and give you a lovely connectedness with the road.  They are also pretty cheap - which is always nice.  But they arent that tough, I've found that they will wear quickly and when they wear a bit they will go down hill very very fast.  I acknowledge my conditions (heavy rider, crap roads) are pretty rigorous but ultimately I cant really recommend the Ultra Races because I'd always worry that one day they will let me down, leaving me out of spare tubes and CO2 canisters, and that's not a place I like to be.