I replaced my folding 23mm tyres with wire-bead 25mm tyres (nice rugged ones, thick and with tough sidewalls), and the latter look good!
There's a mountain about 57km (35.5mi) by road from here that I've ridden up 7 times now, but always on the touring bike, because it's better suited to the route, having 28mm tyres. The easiest route to this mountain involves using a 40km shared path called the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail - very scenic and relaxing (being off-road), but it's gravel, so I might have had problems using the road bike on it, with the previous 23mm tyres, particularly since these previous tyres have very thin sidewalls. There are road-only routes, but then it's far less relaxing, as the motorists can be... well... somewhat trying at times.
Now I'm looking forward to riding up this mountain (Mount Donna Buang) using the 8kg road bike instead of the 15kg touring bike
. It's a significant ascent, being 1100m climbing over 17km (
errrm... that would be 3665ft over 10.5mi), so I'm looking forward to seeing how much quicker I can ascend it on the road bike.
Of course, the new tyres weigh a fair bit more than the old, but having had a road bike only since November, I probably wouldn't even notice the difference, and it should extend the touring range of the new bike.
I've a spare set of mudguards in the shed that are in better condition than the ones on my pearson so I thought I'd fit them, the front went on a treat, only took a quarter of an hour, the back though - I couldn't get the old back one off, theres an allen screw that screws into the bridge behind the BB that is a bastard size, I've not got an allen key anywhere that fits it, its somewhere between a 4mm and a 5mm, I suspect an english size but not one I've got, I had visitors so had to stop but I'll have a go later after having a think about it.
)
