Just dropped my Subway back to Halfords, back tyre flat, by the sound of it a faulty valve, am I sick and tired of punctures, they have continuously taken a whole lot of the enjoyment out of my cycling. The tyres I’ve used i.e., the Continental Safety System, are supposed to be guaranteed against puncture for a year, or a replacement plus inner tube provided free. Now since I took delivery of the Subway, I’ve used SportContact, Contact and now CityContact, had at least a dozen punctures in the Sport version, 15+ in the Contact version, and now one, within a week, in the City version ???? The punctures mainly hit the back wheel, but the front was involved too often also, yet though all these versions carry the same guarantee, only the Contact version attracted free replacements, and then only once?

What is going on? When a supposedly respectable company like Continental Tyres, can fail to back up it’s advertised guarantee?

Consequently, I’ve written to the company’s head office, in Germany, asking that very question, we’ll see what they have to say.

Meanwhile, as this blog reveals, over the past year, cycling on the Subway 8, I have been left stranded far too often, and unable to cycle for weeks overall, enough to make a lesser dedicated cyclist give up the ghost, and return to using the car to commute. Considering the added disincentive of this dreadful summer weather we’ve been subjected to these last few weeks, it’s amazing I still want to be out there on my bike. That’s where ” I’m nuts “, comes into the equation, I suppose, because you’d have to be nuts, wouldn’t you, to still crave the cycling experience against all this adversity stacked against me, and causing such frustration to me.

What’s it they say ? The only way is up ?

All I want is a few months of puncture free cycling, not much to ask, when you consider Mark Beaumont cycled 18,000 miles around the world, only had 10 punctures. What’s that ? An average of 1,800 miles per puncture. I can only dream, or is it simply that the roads, cyclepaths and towpaths of Neath Port Talbot are, in fact tougher than any of the streets, roads etc., that the rest of the world has to offer ?

Could be that I live in the toughest cycling country in the world, well if you go by Continental Tyre standards anyway. It will be very interesting to read their reply.

By the way, I’m sat here with no bike, and guess what— it’s raining!!!