Weight weenies - Part 1

On Saturday morning ride (9 Dec 2006) at Bukit Kiara, my rider-friend Jimmy had flat tyre twice. One before we reached the Kampung after the Penchala Baru trail, and the other at the road side in between the Hartamas terrace houses just before the school before we enter Plan C trail.

The first flat, he used his tube. I was a good samaritan to offer my tube for the second flat. Then, both of us suddenly reliased that we have no more spare tube. Luckily both of us survived till the end.

On the way home, I stopped at Boon Foo's shop to get some spare. I took out a number of branded tubes to choose from. Then I saw a weighing machine. Blink, blink.....

"Why not weigh them?" I was saying to myself.

These are the results:

Cheng Shin tube : 178 gms
Kenda Standard tube : 156 gms
Continental Light tube : 152 gms
Michelin Light tube : 149 gms
Kenda Superlight tube : 136 gms
Geax Light tube : 122 gms

Kenda Standard Tube: 156 gms

Continental Light Tube: 152 gms

Geax Light Tube: 122 gms

Then, I remember something. I was using Kenda Standard tubes before; then due to price difference, I change to Cheng Shin tube. But lately I'm using Geax tube because it is not so expensive compare to the Kenda and their packaging suit my backpack.

The thing was the difference feeling of wheel when I change from Kenda to Cheng Shin, and from Cheng Shin to Geax. The Geax tube makes my steering feel a lot lighter thus easy to control, and most importantly make my bike feel lighter especially during the Twin Peaks trail climb. This is just feeling...! I didn't weigh the bike at that times.

Lets do the maths, 178 - 122 = 56 gms each tyre. That is 112 gms (or equivalent to a quarter of a pound) for both tyres. 112 gms doesn't seem too much, but at the right place it does deliver. Woww.....

The Geax tube also last for quite a while now. Let's see... 4 bashes at nearly 100km, 1 PCC ride at about 50km, about 400km of Bukit Kiara trails. That's not bad.

Weeniessss.....