The year has passed and, as predicted, nothing has changed on my bike since last year. However, I decided at the beginning of the year to put 25c tires instead of almost exclusively used 23c (Michelin SC on my rims are actually 22-23 cm) over the years, because it seems to me to be a bit of a limiting factor on not very good roads.
There aren’t too many of them on my usual routes, but enough to try to do something about it.
So, the Vredestein Fortezza Duralites looked interesting enough to give them a chance, and after +600 km (yes, that much - this year weather has that bad, as never been in last 10 years, if not more, for sure) I can say that I am completely satisfied with them. Approx. 1-1.5 mm wider than the previous Michelin and that felt immediately. Overall this is not a huge difference, but the bike feels less “nervous” on bad parts of the asphalt. And that's exactly why they came.
But, Vredestein brought 7 grams more to the spreadsheet, so just for the sake of not going in "wrong" direction, I ordered RISK skewers.
I know. I'm not a fan of that name either, but having their top cap and bolt already, and being satisfied with how product look and behave … I took them for just £13.98.
This is my very last attempt with very light skewers (under 60 grams). Last attempt with Carbon-Ti skewers ("heavy version" - 37g.) lasted just one ride, and the Tune DC130 lasted about 500km before they started to creak.
So, 19 grams less than my usual Spada skewers, and all in all that's 12 grams less than last years and in total - 5935 grams.
But … on second ride familiar sound appear. And that meant - game over. For rear skewer.
I kept the front one, which is less critical and doesn’t cause creaking, but the whole time I had a feeling that somewhere something wasn’t holding up properly.
I thought bidon cage slightly come to loose, but it isn't. And that was feel when I hit not that perfect parts of the asphalt, with cracks on it. I replace front skewer, and sound is gone. Obviously, even front skewer hasn't enough force to the clamping properly. So, he is gone too.
All in all, I'm more than satisfied to just keep bike under 6 kg. I reached the point where 1 gram down would cost at least $6-7, which is a lot. And I have very few places where that could be applied at all. Especially, keeping in mind the "limitations" I wrote in my first post of this topic.
And, to be honest, WW bug let me go a bit. Sub 5,5 kg is out of the reach and to spend several hundred euros/dolars to drop aprox. 100 grams, has no sense at all. For me, at least.
And one shot from yesterday ride.
