Good social ride on Saturday with the Gannets. Quite a few out so split into 3 fairly evenly matched groups to keep the pace similar, yet also keeping a few hundred yards between the groups. Quite a bit further a ride than I'd planned and not enough food with me to compensate meant I rode the last 2 hours without food and pretty much bonked on the way home. Oooops. The
later pull of the group back in the headwinds after the couple of
earlier hill efforts was quite enough, without the silly '
go catch the front group when one of them had dropped back to us' suggestion from someone as I was riding well. Doh!
The
annoying stop/start traffic slog back through town, smelling fast food with a hunger knock didn't help, but you know what it's like on the 'home leg' - you just don't consider stopping.
I crawled on the roads out of town towards home and was written off for a good 3-4 hours afterwards. What a waste of an afternoon!
I just replaced my tyres with Impac Streetpac 26x1.75, the inflation recommendation on the tyre wall states 35-60psi, what should I inflate them to?
As
@Saytan says, go from roughly the 60-70% of the max and bias up/down depending on your weight, what you're riding, general conditions and what you want from them...
I'm guessing from the tyres you've chosen and the size, it's a hybrid tyre and you're doing inner city commuting. so if the road surfaces are generally good and you're only riding tarmac then go for more PSI (less rolling resistance, faster), but if you're riding some curbs/canal paths/rougher stuff then go for a bit less... etc
Had my longest ride at 72 miles, this morning, up round the Chilterns, really nice. Unfortunately I had 3 flats during the ride! I realised how badly worn the tyre walls of my GP5000's are (perhaps from so many flats!). They've done 2,500 miles, so I guess I pushed them too far. I've ordered some 'Continental Gator Hardshell Road Bike Tyre' which sound a little tougher. I was looking for Conti 4 Season initially, but they were out of stock in the 28's in most places.
They're quite scrubbed, especially for that fairly low mileage. You're either running them a little low, not topping up frequently enough. It could be from flatting, but wouldn't imagine you're riding far with them flat.
Continentals do seem to cut up though, especially in the wider tyres. My 28mm GP 4000sii are pretty scrappy looking like that but they've been though quite a few different things over a few years. I don't remember the 25mm's being as bad for it.
Gatorskins. You'll find them bombproof, but also hard as hell, especially coming from a GP4/5000. They're also known around these parts as 'skaterskins' due to the way they behave on wet surfaces. So just be aware and be careful. GP 4 Seasons are more similar to the GP5000 in feel, very supple and soft, but then again they cut up quite easily/well. Maybe not scrub as much as those have, but with the slightly different coloured sidewalls they don't look as 'bad'.
If you don't get on well with the Gators and sick of spending a bunch, then move away from Continental. I've got on really well with Specialized Roubaix Pro, the 32mm's I've run the last winters are one of the cheapest tubeless tyres there are,
the 25/28mm tubed ones are even cheaper. A few here used the Lifeline 'Prime Armour' ones from Wiggle and liked them.
At £15 each they sound like a steal, even in 28mm!
Gator hardshells feel like riding on old hosepipe
My damn Hutchingson Fusions feel like that at times. Quite hard casing. Annoying as they where expensive. They're quite grippy but I locked the rear up twice on a social ride this weekend on mostly perfect road surfaces so I'm not really building the confidence I'd like on them. Especially as I'm running fairly low pressures (45/50psi). Hate to say it after all the good press about them, I wouldn't recommend... Just hope they're durable. Mounting was a pain but now they've sealed they're very tight.
LBS (Cambridge Bicycle Ambulance - thank you!) were very impressed and explained it was a VERY snug fit ("yeah, that will probably never need to come out... We probably couldn't get it out, either!")
Gotta love their honesty, just hope you can change the bearings easily on it without removal when you need to!
