Knardly. Knard. It's got balls. Or something like that.
On Thursday evening I took the bikes for a dog. Rather, took the dogs for a bike. I noticed that something felt just a touch off. As if my rear wheel had a wobble. As if I'd broken a spoke again.
I checked out the wheel and realized that my old Endomorph tire had a nice cut in the sidewall. The tire has a lot of miles on it. Hard miles. It is bald and slick and really I was only using it as a summer time tire because of its slick nature and because I wasn't quite sure how I want to approach summer tires this year. Good for pavement, crap on anything else.
I'd thought I might look at something like a Vee Rubber Speedster as a summer tire. Something that rolls fast as so much of my riding is commuting, it seems. But the Speedster is not a trail tire. And I have only a single set of wheels for my bike. So, if I want to ride trails, I'd have to swap rubber. Speaking from experience, that results in not riding much trail. If it's too much work to get out there, I won't go. Seems a generally accepted maxim.
Well, after finding the cut in the sidewall it somewhat forced my hand. I needed a new tire and if I wanted one now, I'd have to go with what the bike shop had on hand.
Thus, my new Knard.
I rode it quite a bit yesterday on all kinds of terrain and am impressed so far. It was passable on mud, solid on sand, and fast on pavement.
My only concern, and one that will probably be born out, is that it simply won't last on pavement. I'd really like to get more than a summer out of the tire.
Maybe if I lose even more weight my rear tires will last longer - I'm on my third summer with Larry up front and he looks damned near new.
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