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Rule 1: never tempt fate

You know how I mentioned FOSTFLG’s back tyre having never shown any sign of stress? Well today it took one bulletthorn too many and now has a slow leak.

Oh, well. Since I bought a replacement, all it means is that now I have to replace it tomorrow. Still, ’tis spooky to have it start crapping out basically the instant I mention how flawlessly it’s been performing.

The new front tyre is as hard at 40PSI as the old one was at 50. I guess that this century has better tyre technology than last.

Some years ago when I was postie for Mount Barker, I discovered that not only did made-in-China Cheng Shin brand tyres cost half as much as “brand name” tyres, they gripped better, lasted roughly three times as long and were less susceptible to punctures. I have no idea how well they perform at 160k since I only ever got the postie bike up to 100k (downhill, downwind, on smooth bitumen and lying flat along the tank, although others have done better, some of them remarkably so). I haven’t seen any Cheng Shin cycle tyres yet but I’ll be keeping an eye out.

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