Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Greentyre review # 2

Update: If you googled "greentyre review" to get here, then please redirect yourself to the updated version of this post here.


Cycling adventures and another reason to dislike Starbucks:

Last weekend I (David) took a ride out to Woodbury to visit Tamarack Village again. Years ago I had developed a theory that Mall roadways (Such as Rosedale or Maplewood) would make great racecourses for cyclists. Perhaps because of the Nascar style layout of these malls, I never had much desire to test the theory on my own. But with Tamarack resembling a European Formula 1 course, I thought I might find it more entertaining as a solo adventure. As it turns out, after a few spins on the roundabout, the novelty wore off. I still suspect however, that the element of competition would add significantly to the experience.

Fortunately I came to Tamarack prepared for disappointment. I had brought the laptop so as to do some real-time blogging about the trip. I was more than certain that in a development this new and shiny, and in a suburb where I am older than 99.9% of the buildings, there had to be wireless access just waiting to be tapped (I'm new to this technology, and unlike roundabouts, the novelty hasn't worn off yet). So I pulled up to one of the Starbucks, made a connection, and typed in the old blogspot. The only page I was ever able to access though was a Starbucks website that demanded money for their services. I can't imagine that they'll have much success with that.

Since I'm on the subjects of disappointments and cycling, it only seems proper to make a second review of Greentyres. I had put the tires on my bike last night so that I could test them again on my commute to work. I wanted to see if the needless worry and tool-packing associate with pneumatic tires could outweigh all the downsides of Greentyres. If the tires worked out this time around, I'd use them all weekend for my trips to the 7th annual Nordic Roots Festival. In my first review, I suggested that they were “ideal for a light weight commuter bike that has lots of suspension”. However, now that I've gotten used to normal tires on the bike that they were initially tested on, things have changed. Not only do the tires perform far worse than I remember, but they also don't last. As I was mounting them, I noticed that one of the few, if not the only skids I had made in the short time I used them, had left a bald spot so deep that there was no trace of tread left. On my ride into work I could feel the bump of the bald spot on every revolution. So yeah, I no longer recommend them for suspension commuter bikes. Instead, I'd say that these tires are well suited for those content to ride department store brand bikes, but who don't have the time/tools/expertise to maintain their tires. As soon as I get home from work this morning, the pneumatics are going back on. If I take a lens or two out of my camera bag, I should have plenty of room to store tubes and tools in case I get a flat on the way to see Garmarna.

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