CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Lying in Bonaly so I took the MTB for extra grip over the 28mm slicks on the SS commuter. As expected, it was fine on main roads, but slushy on side streets around Colinton / Craiglockhart.
Having ridden in without guards and with fat tyres, I was wetter and slower than I need to have been. Better safe than sorry though. Grumble grumble.
"cycle service made quick work of installing my marathon winter"
Tools or technique (or both)?
But Monsieur l'Ambassadeur....with this horizontal wet snow you are really spoiling us!
Cold and wet but otherwise not too delayed on the way to work on 25mm slicks.
Slushy snow not lying anywhere until roundabouts the back of Corstorphine but the surface still felt secure under-wheel.
(Not 'converted to monochrome'.)
Seconds later view completed obscured by snow/cloud.
At last I have the Schwalbe Winters, having requested them to be delivered to Planet X. Expecting a neat, circular package I was handed a large cardboard suitcase, reminiscent of when I last bought a TV.
I had planned to pick them up tomorrow, on a day off, but sitting at work watching the snow/sleet progress from steady to heavy to thick to 'rapidly coagulating on the ground' (to the extreme dismay of a motorcyclist colleague) I figured having the option of fitting them at work might be useful. So now they're sitting beneath my desk, looking sleek, purposeful and just a little bit hardcore. It's the studs. Colleagues seem curious why I have metal spikes IN my bike tyres, presumably because metal and bike tyres aren't the best of chums normally.
I have the 700 x 30mm flavour. How hard are they to fit? Noting people have had to resort to bike shops doesn't fill me with confidence as I have three (plastic) tyre levers. I did buy more inner tubes at PX...just in case...
I have the 700 x 30mm flavour.
I found them less difficult to fit than other Schwalbe tyres, but still more difficult than non-Schwalbe tyres, on a Mavic A319 rim.
@mandopicker - mine are the 20" variant. and i'm a wuss *
* although when i articulated this to Cycleservice, Hannah kindly said 'if you're out cycling a tandem in the snow, you're not that much of a wuss' :)
Put it this way, I got my full Marathon Winters on (MTB) without even needing tyre levers, so probably not as bad as some other Marathons we've heard tales of!
Several inches of snow now at Aviemore and still snowing heavily. The walk today was even more tiring than yesterday's.
Can't remember who said it here (Thank you!) but the inflate-deflate-inflate trick worked a treat for me (35mm on a Hybrid Mavic Rims). I have given up on plastic tyre levers and metal ones were great.
[Does Elvis/Tommy Cooper voice] Thank you very much paddyirish. You will have remembered the inhale exhale inhale too no doubt
I just managed to get non-Marathon Winters on without levers, but the 35mm Armadilloes on wide rims looked quite close to the limit of my free-in-puncture-kit plastic levers.
Just been along canal to Wester Hailes.
Slushy in places, think it will freeze soon.
Don't think I'd do it with 'road' tyres.
Just fitted two Schwalbe Winters in the office locker room. Only used the levers once. Felt easy...too easy...
Ordered a couple of 18" Winters from http://www.bike-components.de.
£45 for two inc. delivery seemed not bad. Hopefully they'll actually turn up...
Just fitted two Continental Grand Prix TT 23mm slicks in the basement and rammed them to 120psi.
Canal - brace yourself. Here I come.
anyone got an update on the meadows paths? didn't appear to have been gritted last time i looked.
Top of the Innocent, Pollock-to-Holyrood and the shared path at Meadowbank are all re-icing (17:00). Slope from Hawkhill to Restalrig Railway totally iced; slope up to Restalrig Road partially.
MMW very icy. Also SMW, leamington walk. Avoid at all costs unless you have studded tyres. Sides of roads also bad - eg Colinton rd and environs.
First time I've wished I had studded tyre on rear as well. Could feel it slipping going down MMW, then just spun when I tried to get going after stopping to cross roads etc. weirdest feeling.
Took the MTB with Marathon Winters on the front wheel. Completely unnecessary going to work in the morning. Absolutely vital for getting home (Leith to Corstorphine) this evening. Spikes FTW.
Marvellous fun on broomhouse path tonight. All pedestrians walking along grass! Stopped at stenhouse to go on road and almost fell over (if only marathon winters did shoes).
Forgot just how amazing these tyres are.......and I suspect tomorrow early might be worse.
That was very unpleasant. Not sure how much was ice & how much was between my ears. Bus for me tomorrow :-(
Made a big mistake and started cutting through back streets of Corstorphine on 25mm slicks! Beat a very slow and careful retreat to the main road in the bus lane, which was OK as far as Princes Street. George Street was a slushy, slidy kmess, not made any better by kamikaze dark-clad pedestrians and berk in pickup using it to drive the "wrong way" (i.e. against flow of one-way traffic) to Hanover Street. Nearly lost it a couple of times, but the culprits were dark, wet and badly sunken drain covers.
The George Street lane is doubly treacherous on the multiple locations you are obliged to turn across metal drain covers.
Lidl 's got cut rate versions. We lost too many of the expensive ones.
I made the Leith to Corstorphine run on my everyday Marathons. Not something I'd repeat.
First run on the Schwalbe Winters was absolutely fantastic. The frosty, ice garnished expanse of Porty Prom held no trepidation this evening.
Worth every single penny. Even Mrs Mandopicker is pleased I have them. I may be allowed to ride all year round now with only mild words of caution.
Mandopicker1 I've just fitted the Schwalbes for tomorrow's commute,I've inflated to 50 psi,is this what you'd recommend. Thanks
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