Annual Report & Tirey Goodness
This year-I measure them from mid-October-I rode 2,200 miles. Bearing in mind that my average is over 3,000 miles per year, that’s the second-lowest total I’ve had in the eight years I’ve been keeping records, and the lowest since 2001-2002. My total over eight years is now up to 24,500 miles. That’s 39,500 kilometers, 10,000 laps at Daytona International Speedway, or 23 million Smoots.
Actually, that would be about normal if we exclude the five months that I was out of town on a work assignment. Despite setting new all-time lows for every month from January through May, my riding has been pretty typical over the past four months. I even set a new record high of 658 miles in the month of July, during my last-ditch effort to get into shape for this year’s PMC.
The other bit worth mentioning is that I finally replaced my Specialized Armadillo tires with Michelin Lithions. The Armadillo is great at what it is: a bulletproof tire that is almost impossible to puncture. Its shortcoming is its weight, and slightly dead road feel.
The Lithions are much more supple, and a whole lot lighter, which makes an immense difference. You lose the extreme flat protection, but I don’t abuse my tires enough to warrant the extra weight. Amusingly, it looks like Specialized has just released a new Armadillo that claims to be significantly lighter.
So between these new tires and my move to Mavic Ksyrium wheels this spring, this has been the year of reducing rotating weight. It makes the bike feel much more responsive, and spin up much quicker. In short, the bike feels really good: fast, and easy to pedal.