Friday, April 06, 2007

Listen to Your Tires


Self Portrait
Originally uploaded by Facility Bike Club.
I had a good learning experience this week. I threw an old tire on my Kona Coiler a few weeks ago. The tire is three years old and has lots of miles on it. It's been giving me a few warnings that the tread is all used up, even though visually it looks like there are a few more rides left in it.

I was coming down one of my favorite singletracks, and I couldn't believe the run I was having. It might have been a record. I came around a corner, and the front tire washed out, sending me over the bars. Since the tire and I are old friends, he let me down gently in a nice soft grassy area. I slammed my shoulder and twisted my leg, but there was no blunt force trauma or lacerations.

I thought of how much worse the crash could've been if I'd crashed somewhere rocky. I decided that going forward, I will listen to my tires and just spend the extra dough for some fresh tread!

1 comment:

Chris said...

I shall now refer to you as "RETREAD"