August 2nd – Today, on the way home, I was stricken by the P*nct*r* fairy. I get relatively few (touches wood carefully) such incidents – maybe 3 in every 3,000 miles or so – because I use a very tough brand of tyre by Schwalbe – Marathon Plus. On the workhorse bike, it’s 26×1.75 Marathon Plus Tour, and on the others, it 700×28 Marathon Plus. They contain kevlar bands to prevent thorns and spikes cutting through the tire and other defensive measures. They’re quite heavy, and probably don’t roll as well as the strips of liquorice the racing boys use, but if you’re below Cavendish level, you’ll never notice the difference.
Correct inflation will prevent punctures, no matter what the brand of tyre. Always check your pressures.
This bike has hub gears and taking the back wheel out is a pain in the arse, and I swore heartily at it in the centre of town. Cursing my bad luck, I found not a puncture, but the heat had lifted an old patch, deflating the tyre. That’ll teach me to be a tightarse.
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