More Wet Riding - Gear in Review - Closing in on 1000 Miles

Wednesday's ride, rain and a few breaks, but mostly wet, definitely grey. Good thing I love biking, otherwise I probably would have joined the majority and found an alternative mode of commuting - lol.

Short Gear in Review - Continental Sport Contact Tires
I am convinced the Continental Sport Contact tires (26 x 1.6) have the lowest rolling resistence of the tires I have run on the SUB. These are like the 4th set since last fall that have been on the bike. My quest was to find something durable (aka flat resistent) and have a low rolling resistence.

The first set, way back when, was a pair of Forte' Gotham MTB tires, 26 x 1.75. While definitely better the original 2" knobby tires, they are still on the heavy side, which makes pedalling feel heavy. Now, I rode these when I still had the original 175mm crank arms, so some of my comparisons may be off.

The next set of tires I tried was a set of Kenda Kwest (26 x 1.50"). Overall, I liked these tires, fairly easy pedalling and they were holding up pretty well. Pretty well until the rear decided to become flat prone, even when the bike was just sitting in the garage or bike room at work. Maybe they do not do well when loaded with rear panniers? Anyway, these were only on a couple months or probably somewhere around 300 miles.

Being tired of flat fixing and not really finding any punctures, I decided to try another tire brand. At my local REI I wanted to purchase a set of Continental tires, but they were out of stock on the model I wanted and decided to try a pair of Serfas Drifters (26 x 1.50").

I thought these were doing pretty well, until I had put a lot of miles on the road bike and gotten much more fit. Returning to the SUB the bike just seemed to be slow and actually a bit harder to pedal no matter what gear I was in. For a few commutes I shrugged it off as psychological because I really would rather ride the road bike (gotta love denial).

Well, after doing some freewheel coasting behind Evan, I thought the bike could do better. I did a bit of research on Continentals including available sizes and reviews. Checking inventory with REI, I headed down and picked up a pair of Sport Contacts. Well, I would not have believed a tire could be significantly slower than another, but I am now convinced and reaffirmed why I love Continental bike tires.

Freewheeling wise (coasting) it has sold me. The SUB is easier, smoother pedaling and it can maintain speed while coasting. The Sport Contacts are about $10.00 more per tire than the Serfas and $15.00-$20.00 more than the Kendas, which means in this case you do get what you pay for. For daily commuting, the Continentals are the way to go. If I wasn't daily commuting the tires would likely be a much less issue for me.

I will note that all of the tires advertise some level of puncture resistence as a commuter tire group. So far, only the Kendas have not lived up to my expected level of puncture resistence. However, that may be due to low life duration and that may be due to being overly loaded when running with my panniers.

Today, Thursday, was basically rain; grey, wet rain with some wind thrown in for the afternoon ride home. While not horrible, I am certainly tired of so much rain. Evan agreed as we rode in the morning. I must say that having a riding companion is nice, having a conversation makes the distance go by even faster.

The worse part of all of this rain commuting is the amount of work to keep up maintenance on the bikes. Chains and brakes get so grungy so fast. Plus the grit and dirt seems to cake up on the drivetrain, the lube acting more like a magnet than a repellant.

To lighten our spirits we had a mini rain water fight at a stop light. This is basically shaking our arms so the rain flies off the rain jacket sleeves toward the other. Hey, might as well make the most of it, you know. The bike riding is the part of day I most look forward to. Riding as commuting is just a great part of my day.

I have been logging my riding in a little list where I record some notes, weather and distance. To date, I have logged 905 miles just commuting. Looks like I should hit 1000 by the end of April. Funny, as a vehicle commuter I paid absolutely no attention to how many miles I accumulated. What a nice feeling, because it even sounds like a lot for riding just 4 months. Evan and I were talking, because he probably has more miles than anyone else at this school as far as bike commuting. I have only driven him one day because he was ill, he is pretty pleased with that accomplishment. I'm pretty proud, too, for his commitment and that he enjoys biking.