With all this crap going on it’s easy to forget that it’s spring, and yesterday I stopped to appreciate this duck couple enjoying their own private pond:
I like to think they’ve got a nest somewhere, and that soon the mother will be leading a procession of ducklings. War, pestilence, famine..at least there’s always comfort to be found in the animal kingdom’s total indifference to our incessant predicaments.
Anyway, today I pivoted back to Lycra mode:
And what the hell, I might as well update you on the Donnelly LCV tires I took delivery of back in October since I switched wheels this morning:
I was sold on the ride of these tires as soon as I put them on, but my big question was how they’d hold up over the winter. Well, it’s been five months and as you can see from the state of the rear they’re fairing quite well:
Oh sure, you can see a little cut in there, but any “performance” road tire that spends any time on the roads in and around New York City is going to have those, and it’s pretty much the only one. Also, no sane person buys a $75 road tire in October and rides it all winter; this is the kind of tire you buy as your bike’s peak riding season steppin’-out shoe. Now, granted, we haven’t had much of a winter. Also, I haven’t been riding these day in and day out–not only do I ride multiple bikes, but I ride multiple wheelsets on this particular bike–but even so I’ve put plenty of miles on them so I’m confident in saying they’ve got good durability for such a fancy tire. And yes, they ride as nicely as any clincher road tire I’ve tried, with the exception of some Veloflex tires I had many years ago, which I remember being blown away by, but which I gave up on in a matter of weeks because I was getting flats like every nine seconds. (I don’t remember which Veloflex tires they were, but they were blue and really expensive, and the casings were more supple and soft to the touch than most of my underpants.)
So yeah, these are really nice tires.
Finally, amid all the hygiene theater that characterizes this pandemic (you know, people wearing masks over their mouths but not their nose–or while driving which I really don’t get), I’ve been waiting for it all to collide with our helmet fixation. Well, a reader informs me that it finally has:
Yes, always wear a helmet while taking walks or riding your bike. Just make sure you wear it on your face.