It’s spring. Almost/maybe/soon (it definitely was for a bit, but then dipped back into winter). Anyway, it warmed up enough that I had to take off my winter tyres; it really got too warm for those tyres and I think the rear might be a bit knackered now; the studs are all pushed over.
I was a bit naive previously when I was wondering about tyres and chain rings. I knew the marathon racers would be out of my price range, but honestly thought I could stretch to £20 for a pair of the cross tyres - which would be great when the farm tracks get covered in mud. But, no, the skinny 23mm tyres have had to go back on. On the plus side: at least I had them! It’s been fab to have such lightness back and so far: no broken spokes! I still think I could do with dropping the gear ratio down at some point in the future (which will probably be when there’s about three teeth left on the chain ring) though just to help with the winds, although just having different tyres on has made a huge difference (I’d completely forgotten how much easier climbing hills was without winter tyres on).
It seems like I had those winter tyres on for ages, but looking back it’s not been so long: Only four months and somewhere around 2600 miles (there were only a couple of days I worked from home rather than face the snow). Those Schwalbe Marathon Winters have performed brilliantly. They really are a fantastic tyre and can go from no snow to lots of snow and perform ‘OK’ in each situation. All in all, I only lost three studs on the front tyre and four on the back, which for the distance and mix of conditions (-20 deg C to +10 degC) is pretty damn good.