Marathons...

It's tough being a tyre in London. All those potholes, all that smashed glass and, to top it all, shards of flint from gravel paths. What with the rain, it's perhaps no surprise that I've had two punctures in two weeks, both to the rear wheel.

So, en route to work, with a flattening tyre, popped into Evans. The choice wasn't the greatest: Brompton Yellow (my current tyres), Brompton Green (with kevlar) and Marathons. No old-skool Primos, the elusive (and discontinued) Marathon Slicks, no Stelvios. It's taken almost 1500 miles for my Brompton tyres to feel grippy, so I can't wait that long. Don't give much credence to kevlar fibre belts in stopping punctures (seeing as most of them are from shards of glass), but the Marathon seemed thicker. So, after a half and hour of wresting, changing brake blocks while I was at it, it's on the back wheel. (N.B., the trick to get them on is to make sure the wire rims are as far into the central groove as possible, and pull them over/on, rather than push).

Immediate reaction is that the rolling resistance is barely any worse, but the bikes seems much less skittish. Discovered that the new model (above) has a supposedly even better 'snakeskin' tread, but I ended up with the 06 variant (15 quid) More reports later...

Meanwhile, the Altura jacket is showing its flimsyness: the cord around the neck is fraying, some of the stitching is coming undone, and the material is very badly cut behind the zip. It's also got a bit sticky - but as I've been wearing long-sleeved cotton under it, can hardly be blamed.