Commutes and Riverloops... a tale of 600km on Tannus Tyres

It's been a good few months since the Tannus Musai first ride so I thought I should write up another update.

Let's start with the summary... In short, they do everything (well at least the first two) it said on the box. No Flat, No Tube, No Stress.

Of course it's a little bit more complicated than though. Initially I did start to get worried about riding on the tyres. There were lots of concern from other riders about how they would handle/grip the road (especially in the wet). There was also a lot of concern that the tyre would roll off the rim, something that was a little amplified for me because I had them mounted on a Velocity Chukker which is a 24mm wide rim. The biggest pain with this was that the Frankenbike is basically built to be my wet weather roady and commuter and if the tyres were no good in the wet they weren't much use.

Fortunately, despite all my (and my fellow riders) concerns the tyres have been nothing but sure footed. As the title says I've done 628km on the tyres now through all manner of conditions and they've never missed a beat. I've done a few River Loops (THE local ride in Brisbane early in the morning) in very wet conditions and it's held it's own even on the corners. I have tried to punish the tyres too... Especially on group rides... if someone calls out glass I almost purposefully just ride straight through it. There is a section on my commute that I can shortcut though a gravel track, with those tyres I take it every time.

The grip (both in the dry and in the wet) has a trade off... Rolling resistance. They are definitely the slowest tyres in my group. Sitting at the top of a descent and just rolling down the hill everyone pulls away from me. Having said that though I have still been able to maintain a 29km/h loop on them without any hassles (just a little bit more huff and puff) and in the tyres defence the bike isn't the lightest by any means weighing in a stellar 16.4kg. The resistance has (ironically) got better as the tyre has worn in.. probably about the 200-300km mark.

As a training tyre they are great forcing that little bit of extra effort making my other bike feel just that little bit faster every time I ride it. As a commuting tyre they are perfect. Once I'd got over the stress of "the bike will just fall over in the wet" or "the tyre will fall off the rim" it's just a joy to ride because I know I can just pick it up and go.
There is never any need to check the tyres for glass or check the pressure. They are always exactly the same every time I pick up the bike to ride. I don't have a bag on it and never carry any spares and never have to worry about not making it. For a primarily commuting bike that is something that is hard to put a price on.

They haven't been without fault though. They do have quite a few cuts in them and some of them quite deep that would have easily flatted even my beloved Gatorskins. Doesn't appear to have any effect on the performance though.

The other issue is I have managed to flat spot the rear (twice). The flat spots are quite pronounced (hard to capture in a photo but you can see it looking from the side. This is only really an issue because I now get a little *thud* every time it rolls past the flat spot. The first one had almost worn down when I did the second one so I'm hopeful after a few hundred km it will wear away.

These tyres are never meant to be a race or go fast tyre road ride. They are a tyre to get you from A to B without every having to worry about if you've packed enough tubes or canisters or got your pump without having to sacrifice normal tyre/tube feel. And for that they are perfect.

Tannus Musai first ride

I know I said I'd wait until the 500km mark for a review but I thought I'd write a first impression post. So here goes.

The look: apart from the lack of a valve stem (and the fact I'd got crazy colours) you would be hard pressed to tell that the tyres were any different. There is the obvious lack of valve stem but I have enough trouble finding the valve when I need to pump up tyres.

The ride: I was a but worried for the first few km. Not because of how they felt but of a weird noise they made, sort of like my rim had a kink and was rubbing on the brakes every wheel revolution. Fortunately after about 20km the noise was gone, obviously a nob or something similar from the moulding when the tyre was made.
For a solid tyre they feel remarkably similar to a normal tube tyre. They actually are a little nicer over rough surfaces tending to smooth them over a little more. Bigger bumps though you do feel a little more, probably because they can't compress as much as a tube filled with air could. The ride is by no means unpleasant and I think if you hopped on the bike you wouldn't really notice until someone told you.
They gripped very well, maybe even as well as the gatorskin tyres that were on previously. I threw the bike into some corners relatively hard and it never felt near their limit. They actually make an almost suction cup sound as your roll making it at least sound grippy.

This comes to the only real downside of the tyre. Rolling resistance. Something they seem to have a fair bit of. Comparing the effort on the ride today was a lot more than a similar one a few weeks ago. I took the power meter with me and the power and hr was a lot higher for the same loop at a slightly slower speed. While it could be just having a bad day rolling down the slightest down hill my riding partner consistently pulled away at some speed with both of us freewheeling. I have the soft version which is supposed to mimic 95psi so it would interesting to see if the hard version lessened the rolling resistance.

The extra rolling resistance is a small price to pay for the guarantee of no flats. My riding partner even had a flat on the ride this morning. I rode in the shoulders covered with glass just because I could and there is never any worry about a puncture or a cut which is quite nice. I didn't take a pump or co2 or even tyre levers today which was quite liberating.

They will never be a race tyre but as a training tyre you never have to worry about they are perfect. A bit heavier and a bit slower on the roll but that's not a bad thing for training. I'm almost considering replacing the Gatorskins on my Sunday club bike with the Tannus Musai when they wear out. As a commuter tyre they are perfect. Speed isn't a concern but never having to worry about checking tyre pressure or if you'll get stranded is ideal.

So on first impression the tyres are everything you could ask for at the small sacrifice of some extra rolling resistance. Only time will tell if they keep going this way.

Daddy Daycare Day One.... Done

This year I'm moving to a part time work role so I can spend more time with the kids while they were little. While I've taken them for plenty of days (or weekends etc) on my own today was the first official day of Daddy Day Care and I was a little nervous.

Being a Friday there were decidedly less coffee shop or pub visits to what I was used to but we still had a great day. More importantly the kids seemed to have fun and I didn't end up thinking OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE.

There was A LOT of time on the railway today and a slightly stressful trip to the Planetarium with little miss one deciding to test her lung capacity in the hushed and domed theatre. The rest of the afternoon we just hung around the Botanic Gardens getting close to the wildlife.

In terms of days out today was as close to a dream as you could want, hardly any tantrums and everyone running around with a smile on their face. While every day isn't going to be like that it certainly is a lot more fun than being at work!

Time for something a little different - Tannus Musai Punture Proof tyre

So this is a little backward in coming forward. Last year I had a lot of flats riding. In the latest Ride On Magazine they reviewed some puncture proof tyres by Tannus and gave them a very favourable rating. The big difference in these tyres are they are solid rather than having a tube and being filled with air. For road bikes (the Musai model) they two versions, a hard and soft compound which are supposed to mimic 133psi and 101psi respectively. Because these are for my commuter I've chosen the soft compound hoping that the ride on a solid tyre will be comparable. The tyres sound heavy(ish) at 380g but it's actually 12g lighter than my Gatorskin/tube setup I had on the rear and 100g lighter than the Maxxis Re-Fuse on the front.

After a bit of looking around I found a stockest in Brisbane at Avanti Plus (who also fitted them, which is quite a chore apparently). 

So far the bike hasn't actually ridden anywhere (other than around my garage, which felt remarkably like riding a bike). The big test when I take it out in anger or on some heavy commutes. According to the guys at the shop they take about 200km to wear in so I'll write a review on them at around the 500km I guess.

Last ride for 2012

Almost like cycling through Italy., a photo by CamDS on Flickr.

On New Years Eve, I set out with a long time friend +Andrew Herrmann to do a bit of an expedition out to Mount Cotton looking at his new commute (ironically to roads we used to travel a lot as kids)

It was a great way to close out a huge year of cycling with a lot of first (thanks to the wonders of Strava.com I know what they all are)

Here's a few of the highlights for the year:

Big Rides
Midi Smiddy
Arthur's Seat
Cootha Challenge
Brisbane to Gold Coast
Ride for Home
Cyc'd Tour de Noosa

Cycling firsts
Most Kilometers in a Year (9158km)
1000km in a month (June, November, December)
Biggest Climb Ever (553m)
Longest Ride Ever (217km Tour de Noosa)

Other (not very) interesting Stats...
Flats - 25
Best Tyre (no flats) 2x Continental GP4000s (1347km)
Worst Tyre (quickest flat) Vittoria Rubino Pro III (flat in 5km) (to be fair a Continental GP4000s came a close second at 10km)
Most Mileage: Continental Gatorskin 2678km (Still going)
Number of hours spent out on bike neglecting my family: 409
Crashes: 3

A huge thanks has to go to +Vanessa Freke for not killing me for being out on the bike so much! And thanks to everyone I got to cycle with this year was lots of fun.