Holy shit, this town likes to puncture my tires. Maybe the season is to blame– after all, the rains must propel a near-constant stream of debris into the bike lanes. Could I just now encountering the shards of every bottle broken on my commute since last spring when the rains stopped? Is every meth-depleted syringe hiding in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to kill my tubes? (Good thing I’ve got fenders to deflect any airborne sharps.)

It’s odd, since I’ve been riding the same tires on the same route since April, and until October I’d gone entirely flat-free. I praised our lush little utopia and its lack of menacing, thorny things that want to kill you. A huge improvement from Tucson, I thought, my former residence where a four-mile on-road errand would oft pepper my unprotected wheel with no fewer than six thorns. I ran Conti Gatorskins for awhile, which helped but still managed to flat on occasion. Specialized Armadillos, though great, were hard to track down locally. For mountain biking, I settled for heavy-ass Slime tubes rather than convert to tubeless.

But now I’ve hit three flats in three weeks of commuting. That makes six flats total since October– and way past time to shop around for something durable. The Specialized 23c “All Condition” tires I’d been running on the Cross Check are out; in its place are 28mm Panaracer T-Serv Messengers. These look awesome! Thankfully they’re not as slim as is rumored. “28mm” fits more like 26mm than the purported 24mm, which is exactly what I was looking for. Much meatier than the 23s but not quite monster truck sized (though I did score a set of 700×40 Ritchey knobbies from the curb not too long ago and can’t wait to throw those on for a Forest Park run…). I also took the time to swap my Windsor / Alex “touring” wheelset for a barely-used Salsa / XT set I bought off craigslist a few weeks back. Bring on the shitty weather.