Tubeless tryes and unfeasible thighs

I converted the wheels on the Love/Hate to an Eclipse tubeless system at the weekend. This means you can use normal tyres on a normal rim, but without tubes, meaning a nice lightweight set up and in theory, no punctures. Sounds too good to be true? Have a look at JustRiding Along. It wasn’t a pain free experience and involved a lot of huffing on the track pump trying to get the tyres seated on the rim, mucho latex being spilled everywhere and some doubts as to whether it was going to work at all. I gave up, it was Friday evening and I decided to drink some beer and try and forget about it.

Saturday started early, the kids were up at 6am, and I was groggy (beer and after midnight bedtime). Mrs Shonky was away on a ‘fitness weekend’ (a bunch of women drinking too much wine and doing the odd aerobics class), so I had no chance of a lie in. Mulling over the tyre problem, I realised that the solution was to get a big blast of air into the tyres really fast – like using a CO2 cartridge. As soon as I got a spare few minutes, I tried this and it worked first time.

No chance to test the new tyres out this weekend though.

Saturday night I had arranged a babysitter so I could go to see the World Cup Track Racing at the Manchester Velodrome. I’ve ridden there once, but this was the first time I’d been as a spectator. I didn’t know what to expect, and was prepared for it to be a bit dull. It was superb. The racing was exciting, we had seats near the finish line, the British riders won lots of races and the atmosphere was great. The sprinters are huge brutes, you don’t realise until you see them close up. They have the most unfeasible looking thighs, like something off a cartoon. Definitely a good evening out. I’ll take Mrs Shonky next time, she’ll appreciate the muscles and lycra.