Of tyres and Cotswold mud!!

Went to the Cotswolds last weekend, primarily for an old college pal's stag-do. Had a really fun time behaving like lads half our age. I started the theme early with a bike ride on Friday before I met the others!! I've decided that whenever I go somewhere different, (and if at all possible) I shall take a bike and ride a hill or two I haven't done before. So rather than mess around with a route of my own devising I followed one of MBR magazine's - Cleeve Common. A medium graded 22 miler to the east of Cheltenham.

I bought a new pair of tyres the other day (after much of my usual procrastination!) I finally opted for a set of Specialized Eskar 2Bliss tyres. I was following one of a number of recommedations I got of an internet forum. It was either these or Nevegals. I frequently switch between off-road tyres and an old set of worn tyres for commuting, but I don't want to go to the additional expense of a set of seperate rims. So that means tubeless tyres aren't really practical for me. Specialized say use their tyre with or without a tube. So, I figured that wouldn't be a problem. However, one of the advantages of tubeless is they are designed to be optimal at lower pressures (you don't need to worry about pinch punctures with tubeless). With a tube in and with them pumped up hard as I normally do, these tyres don't feel as compliant as the Maxxis Ignitors.

Back to the Cotswolds and its mud. This stuff is sticky, like treacle!! It jammed my bike up like a third set of brakes as you can see. Oh and it turned a gentle hill into a slick track that was unrideable. I found the Eskars very twitchy on muddy side slopes, to the point of ruining a couple of nice singletrack sections. I need to try these tyres somewhere where I know the lay of the land, but I'm concerned they're a mistake (as far as the way in which I'm using them goes.)

As for MBR's route - I found it annoyingly seemed to ignore perfectly good off-road sections in favour of tarmac. One other problem is MBR described a route through the nature reserve in a way which looks like they're confusing the start and the finish. They also failed to suggest any hints as to how to get the best from Cleeve Hill, which looks like it could have some good singletrack on it. If I was doing it again, here's the route I'd take:

Cleeve Common medium difficulty Pilau's way

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com