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Of Tires and Rims Strips"  »



Tires? Tires? Who cares about tires!
They should just do "their thing" and not bother me!
!!FAIL!!

Yikes! Another bit of Tire wire

So, having gotten back from a 40 mile ride, I examined my tires.  I do this after every couple of rides to make sure the tires are not too worn.  They are Specialized Armadillo Elites so I seldom have flat tires on the road, but they do wear and I often find pieces of metal wire, from "road alligators" (i.e. truck tire delaminations) stuck into the tire really trying to give me a flat.

So, there were some now!  They looked like:
Yes, 1/4" pieces stuck into the tread is not what I like to see!

I've learned to periodically look for these little devils hidden away in the surface of the tire.  They are only a "dot" in appearance, but, once pulled out, they often turn out to be a bit bigger.

On the other hand, it could be worse

While the Elites do seem to give me excellent protection, about once every 2000 miles, or so, I actually do get flats!  If you look closely in the picture, I've enhanced a very nice 1/2" piece of wire that made it far enough in to give me a flat.

On the other hand, it was interesting to check the tires, on a different day, and find a piece of wire that simply grabbed part of the tread!

Or, one that looked like:

And then, there is always the thrill of having your tire cut with a piece of glass hided in some innocent gravel!

So, when was the last time you checked your tires?

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