The Changing of the Tires

So one day I’m out riding my road bike when I notice something red on my tires.  Well when I finished my ride, I took a good look at my tires and what do I find, but the side wall of my Michelin Krylion Carbon Tire deteriorating and a red ply coming through.  And these Michelin tires were expensive, I wasn’t happy about how the wore out so quickly. 

If you know me, you know I am cheap, so the first thing I thought, was how long can I ride this bike before the tires will explode.  I talked to my wrench, that’s Chuck, and he said “well you really should get some new tires”. He also said that since Schwalbe is our sponsor I could get some really high end tires that will last a whole lot longer.  He also gave me all the technical data about why these Schwalbe Evolution tires were way better than the Michelins that were literally deteriorating in front of my eyes. 

So Chuck placed a tire order because he needed a Racing Ralph for his mountain bike anyway, so he ordered tires for me too.  I didn’t have to do any of the leg work, I’m sure glad I have Chuck as my teammate. 

Even after I got the tires I just couldn’t find time to change them and I continued to ride on the deteriorating Michelins. 

They were getting so bad that I finally said enough and decided to change them.  So one day during my lunch hour at work, I picked up Chuck and we drove to a park pavilion, since it was pouring down rain, and we changed the tires.  

Well if you really want to know I wasn’t much help, Chuck was almost finished with changing the back tire, while I was still trying to get the tire off the front wheel.  I finally got it off with the help of a co-worker who was hanging out with us.  That was just about the same time Chuck was putting air in the back tire.

I finally finished installing the front tire, again, with some help from Chuck and got the wheel back on the bike. See how we have the valve stem at the center of the Schwalbe logo.  Now if I get a flat I will always know where the tire was lined up to the tube when I’m checking for puncture particles.  My wrench, Chuck, taught me that. I guess you know what happened to those worthless Michelin tires.

So now it’s time to test these babies out, my next post will be a review and how the tires work at road tested by me.