+1

I thought I could butter em up and ride through puddles like Moses parting the red sea!


Of course, cornering might be a problem, unless there's a puddle in the turn

Dear god. Please. All these nubes and rubes.

Go pull out your catalogues and check it out. Rapha makes a special tire balm. It's just for this purpose. Assos had the idea, but it took Rapha, who feels that each of us should be dressed in at least 70 different pieces of paraphernalia on any ride, to make sure that our bikes get the same treatment. Be sure and don't use the messenger (urban) version. You want the race version. It's just getting repackaged as Sky tire balm, so watch for it under that name. Only 44 euros per jar.

While you're at it, since you're having this problem, get Rapha's new dye perfusion kit to test your rim ferrules and your spoke nipples for imminent breakage. They make a good scanning electron microscope to see the microcracks, but it'll be an accessory function on the next Campy chain tool if you can wait it out.

And by the way, you thought that Schwalbe wouldn't figure out a way to make money off their tires? They like to imitate the Frenchies who still sell you tires with the little hairs molded onto the centerline. Those are for their now-defunct speedometer, which scanned the passage of the hairs from right behind the fork crown to give a direct measure of bike speed. Great idea, and it made sure you didn't violate French tire lifetime regulations by overusing your Michelins. Another American isolationist wanted to shave those hairs off his tires -- score one for those who should be riding their bikes more.

Nuf said. Jeez.

^^