there are eastern philosophies that succinctly point out the western delusional habit of naming items and concepts, then implying that both or either contain inherent aspects of those applied names. for instance, take the word 'tree'; while we all recognise precisely to what the word refers, it is simply a convenient means of describing an item in a way that allows for national or international communication. but in an abstract sense, a tall growth of wood with branches and leaves owns no inherent 'tree-ness'.
perhaps i might make myself a tad clearer if i invoke the word 'lap', to mean the top of your thighs when in a seated position. there is a zen koan that asks the question, 'where does your lap go when you stand up?, surely a means of pointing out fallacies in our conventional means of nomenclature. the same can be said of a 'fist' when the hand is opened.
but before you figure you may have stumbled upon an open university dissertation on philosophical thought, let me disavow you of that notion. the subject arose when considering the term commuting, one which we, as cyclists, would tend to equate with the daily task of travelling from home to office. of course, this need not involve the bicycle at all; many commuters commute by bus, car or train. however, having hopefully re-established the post's velocipedinal credentials, for the purposes of this discussion/review, i think it best that we think of the word commute solely in relation to the bicycle.
in this respect, i have had the great good fortune to have a duopoly of items for review that both embrace the notion of commuting. recently reviewed, and therefore solely of peripheral association in this instance, is endura's marvellous luminite urban three-in-one jacket, which, for the purposes of clarity, i have worn while progressing with my longer-term review of pirelli's cycle-e wt winter tyres. and it's at this point where we have to consider what might be an appropriate definition of the word 'commute'.
there's no point in my pretending to have a commute to work, for the office is but five minutes distant on foot. however, on saturdays, at least one guiding factor of the day's ride is the necessity of visiting debbie's café for lunch and froth supping. for the purposes of review, i'm designating that ride as a commute. and considering this has continued throughout the festive holiday and into mid-january, i doubt there will be too many arguments over my pre-fixing this as a 'winter' commute, neatly coinciding with the description applied by pirelli.
as mentioned in my initial appreciation of the tyres, i have given them as hard a time as possible, for it would be pure supposition to imagine that at least a few winter commutes do not include wet grassland, gravel paths with a river or two of water running midst the stones, cattle-grids and single-track roads with moonlike surfaces. should you recognise any of the above as pertaining to your own commute, i can but highly recommend these 37mm tyres.
their solidity offers an impressively smooth ride across whatever surface exists beneath the tread. and, according to pirelli's website, these tyres are 'specifically designed to perform like no other in winter conditions that are commonly found around the city: cold tarmac, thin snow layers, iced water splashes and frost.' so, over the course of a weekend, admittedly nowhere near a city, or anything remotely like it, i rode through slush, through ice covered puddles, frosty surfaces and hail, without once experiencing what paul simon once described as 'slip, sliding away'. though the website text might conceivably be viewed as marketing speak, the reality gives credence to its veracity.
though i'm not in the habit of recording my daily kilometreage, a rough, back of the envelope calculation, would suggest that i have completed well over 800km on these tyres; the tread still looks like new. of course, tyres have to be fitted to a pair of wheels before any investigations can be commenced, and in this case, those are a pair of wheelsmith aero alloys which have performed every bit as well as the pirellis. and as i also mentioned in my initial overview, it's a real shame that the sidewall labelling doesn't feature pirelli's iconic logo, a fact also pointed out by one of my cycling companions. (pirelli marketing, take note)
the word 'bombproof' is one frequently overused, and i'm about to overuse it again, for considering the lack of respect i have frequently shown for these tyres, they appear to be capable of surviving pretty much anything you'd care to throw in their direction. admittedly, their weight (almost 800g each) doesn't make for speedy riding, but i'd imagine most commuters would be willing to trade a little top-line velocity for top-line reliability. as a tv police sergeant was once frequently heard to announce at the start of each episode, 'it's a jungle out there'.
highly recommended for winter commuting and quite probably winter touring too.
monday 18 january 2021
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