This Space for Rent

This is why I can’t have nice things

DIY blackwall tire

This Vittoria Randonneur tire started out as all white, but then I put it onto my trek and rode it for somewhere between 6000 and 8000 miles. By the time it passed 3000 miles, the sidewalls were almost impenetrably black from caked on aluminum dust (from the braking surfaces of the Salsa Delgado Cross rims, which are now nicely concave in a sort of “you want to replace me soon!” way) and that condition only got worse and worse until the tread finally wore through to the anti-puncture strip, which was my cue for ripping the tire off and replacing it with a Pacela that was sitting around on a spare (dynamo) wheel.

The people who buy these white tires (and tan, and brick-red, and cream sidewalled) must either not ride very much or are much more anal about bike cleaning than I am.

Comments


Or they use disc, rather than rim, brakes.

Graydon Wed Oct 26 02:10:29 2011

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