Who’s the music by?

Nice vid, looks like you put a lot of work into it.

Do you think it would be extremely dangerous to have my lock-on grips a couple of centimetres off the ends of my carbon bars, just for a little extra width?????

Very nice indeed, reminds me of those old Cannondales – in a good way.

32:17 here.

Thanks for your comments.

Scamper – don’t tempt me.

He just rushed past.

They are allegedly 2.35, but look narrower.

So, I took the Inbred out for a spin today to test out the new Swapthings. First impressions, on the way to the trails, were oh dear; they are really slow. There was a deafening buzz, like a swarm of bees, I consoled myself with the fact that, obviously, they are not road tyres.

Onto Calday Hill, mud and wet sandstone abounded. Bizarrely, Ian Rush jogged past me donning a Liverpool trackie and perma-tan, I quickly tried to eject that image from my mind. Back to the tyre test, on the first few ups the grip of the rear was obvious compared to the Ardent I had on previously; no spinning out when stomping down on the pedals out of the saddle. Next test were some boggy sections created by our equine friends, I had fallen off here the other day when the HR just squirmed around and went from under me. I ploughed on through and was really surprised at how the narrower tyres cut through the slop, with not lateral movement. Looking down there was no clogging, any mud had been left behind.

Next my trip took me onto Thurstaston Hill, home of the self righteous dog walker. The terrain varies between smooth sandstone and sticky mud. The Swampthings performed admirably again, I was particularly impressed with the grip when cornering, the side knobs really dig in and there is a gradual roll over to the side, unlike with the Highroller which would give a heartstopping moment just before it eventually regained traction (in the dry that is, in the wet there is no comparison IMO).

So, to conclude my ramblings, good mud tyres, extremely grippy, look good, crap on the anything approaching roads. I would recommend.

Cheers

Pics Below

Liverpool skylinein the distance.

Mud

When I lived in Edinburgh my local was The Bicycle Works, who were superb, however I did venture down to The Bike Chain a couple of times and found them very knowledgable/friendly.

Dougbasque, what a great video – that water looks so nice, did you use some colour enhancement program or something?

I’ll be interested to see how draggy they are, especially the coming form the Ardent, which rolled really well.

By the way, in case you’re interested, the kitchen scales informed me that they weigh 780g each.

Will do Darren, its pretty wet and wild up here in the North West so I should give them a good test tomorrow.

Maybe you’ve overtightened the top cap screw – it doesn’t need to be too tight (just enough to stop any movement for and aft and side to side, if you mow what I mean)

jedi – yes it does to be honest, I’ll give it another go at the weekend.

tragic – they’re 710, feel about right.

Not smooth I agree, don’t fall off, don’t fall off was the only thing going through my head.

Also in winter commuting mode, ’07 model.

Firestarter – what tyres are you running there? Much clearance?

It went for 91 Euros, I sort of wish I’d bid.

710 and 70mm here, did have a 60mm stem previously and was noticeably more difficult on slow, techie climby bits.

West Kirby on le Wirral

Dats real niyse

120 Rebas here, it looks surprisingly slack when not sagged.

Not that light, but my askiums are still going strong after 3 years of pot-hole/salt infested commuting into Edinburgh. The bearings are still smooth and the rear has only needed truing once.

maybe it is, I just hadn’t heard of On-one doing a ti cross frame – further investigation shows that, in fact, they did – my mistake, shouldn’t be so cynical.

hoojum – cheers, i’m about your size so i think i’d go for a large too, just need to find a suitcase full of money.

hoojum – nice singular, do you mind if I ask the frame size?

The stable.

Could well have been some slippy stuff on the road. And to be honest I think I had about 110psi in the rear, I’ll take it down a bit and see how that feels.

Just been looking at some maxxis detonators, they look decent enough – a bit of tread on the outsides with a slick centre line. Has anyone used these?

Zedsdead – If you need help with an address in the uk and shipping to India I’d be happy to oblige. Maybe get some karma

I’m running 700c x 25mm. I’ve read specialized armadillos are ok, any experiences?

A blast around Cunningham Park, Queens using my newly healed fibula.

Here’s mine. Swapped the Highrollers for Ardents, definitely faster rolling but a completely different feel.

Still not sure why

I had the same problem, I put a bit of grease between the spacers/top bit of the headset and the creaking went away.

Exactly the same thing happened to me – I put it down to crap alloy salsa chainring (30 quid)

cheeky bump

thomthumb – mmmm…. not sure they've passed their cycling proficiency test, have they?

ken_sheilds – I see your point, if only my singlespeed setup had more gears.