I love riding to work. Yeah, sometimes its hard to get started but all in all when I'm on the road I can feel the fat burning, my heart pumping, my lungs expanding and my muscles driving - its an intensely physical thing and I get of the bike sore but invigorated. Somedays though you have to pay your dues, today was that day.
It poured with rain the whole day, the wind swirled and gusted, the roads were slippery and in some cases sudden storms put the road under over 30cms (a foot in old person speak) under water. In fact, in one place it was under about a meter (call it three and a bit feet) deep.
But I made it and actually the day turned into a pretty searching test of my latest purchase - some new tyres.
The Wilier came with Vredstein Fiammante Duo Comps. A basic/entry level tyre but actually, like the Continental Ultra Sports that came with my Avanti (and reviewed here) , I actually really liked them. In fact the had an enormous amount in common with the Ultra Sports. The Fiammante's were fast, responsive, gave the bike an 'alive' feeling but were also fragile and short lived. I reakon I got, maybe 2000k out of them. Also, more than the Ultra Sports, the Fiammantes were relatively useless in the wet. I never, really, felt confident on them. So, when I got my second puncture in a week on the Fiammantes and saw the really squared off contact patch they were carrying I decided enough and ordered something new.
I've got Specialised Armadillo's on the Avanti now but to be frank I havent fallen in love with those tyres. They arent bad, but they arent good either. Yeah, they are tough but they feel like that toughness was achieved by just adding more and more layers of stuff until they were both a) unbreakable and b) great heavy sponges that suck the life out of the road. So I wasnt going there again. The obvious choice for the commuting I do are the Continental Gatorskins, or if I'm feeling a little more sporty the 4 Seasons. Both these tyres are insanely popular, always test well and are the tyres of choice of many (perhaps all) of my mates. However, my undying snobbishness always gets in the way of me doing the simple and sensible and I figured I could strike out from the pack again. So I looked at both the Vredstein Fortezza Quattro and the Michelin Carbon Krylion (both Conti 4 Seasons equivalents). Both were tested well and had good reps. I chose the Michelins purely because I also wanted to test out a new supplier with a nice small, simple order before maybe committing to something bigger .
Anyway, while I will admit to being pretty tentative and cautious the new Michelins did great. Despite being brand spanking new, still with a layer of protective silicon coating them these tyres were both wonderfully light and alive when I pushed it this morning while also being stable and grippy this afternoon in storms, standing water and slick train tracks and bridge expansion joints. So, early days and more testing to come but so far the Michelins look really good.
PS. I bought the Michelins and a new seat through Bellatisport, a Swiss company that does a lot of Wilier and other exotic bikes at very reasonable prices. Again, so far, so good. My order was handled very smoothly and the delivery was perfect. On the basis of this (yeah I know, one transaction) I'd recommend them and I will be using them again.
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