Another year has passed ....

Another year has passed, a new one has arrived. Last year I managed to ride a measly 1,705 miles with my XP. Although I was convinced that I spent a fair amount of time on my XP, the stats show otherwise. Strange .... I did not ride any bike at all during the first three months of 2009, which explains that my total bike riding distance is also a little over 2,000 miles less than the previous year, but still ... Need to ride more, that's for sure.
So, what's new ? Actually, not much. The last few weeks we've had snow, we even had a white christmas for the first time in 23 years ! While the snow sure makes nice sceneries, it's pure misery for those who ride their bikes. Since the snow/ice on most bike lanes is not properly removed, it's pretty risky to ride your bike. There's no cleaning at all on the towing path near the canal, making it only available for mountain bikes with fat tires (which I do not own). So for the last weeks, I was condemmed to use my regular bike to commute (yuck!). Just waiting for the snow and ice to melt, but it's supposed to stay for at least another week ....

On my last ride I noticed that the Marathon Supreme tires on the XP are showing little cracks on the sidewalls and contact surface. I've ridden them both for almost 6,250 miles, so it might be time to replace them. Schwalbe has a new model in their Marathon line that looks interesting, the Dureme, but according to their stats, it's a bit slower than the Supreme. So far, I'm very happy with the Supremes; I did not have one flat tire since I put them on the XP in 2007, their grip is pretty good even on wet surfaces and they seem to last quiet a while. Maybe I"ll stick to them as long as the cracks are not getting worse ....

Little cracks like these are appearing everywhere ...