Some people wrestle alligators but before today’s bike ride I wrestled a Continental Gatorskin tire.This delayed the start until 11:39 AM. With the late start I rode the “Atascocita – Walden – E. Lake Houston Parkway” route on my Lynskey R300 bike with new ICAN Cycling Alpha-50 Disc wheels.

The wrestling involved getting the Gatorskin tire onto the front wheel. I tried for about an hour last night before giving up. Resuming the bout this morning I tried heating the tire up with a hair dryer hoping to add some stretch but that didn’t work. Next I increased the amount of soapy water from last night. I made a little progress but mostly chased the resistant part of the tire bead around the rim. I thought a zip-tie might stop that but the tire bead slip past it. Applying prayer turned the corner. I got the idea to turn the tire lever point upside down and that stopped the bead from moving. I applied more soapy water to the problem section and slowly moved the tire lever to the left lifting the bead over rim lip. Finally a small part of the tire was still not over the rim lip but more soapy water and pushing fingers popped it into the rim. Now I aired the tire up with a few pops as the tire seated on the rim. The rear disc aligned easily with the rotor but the front one rubbed the caliper. After moving the caliper a few times I removed the wheel, took the disc off, applied some grease, re-seat the disc and tightened the locking nut. The rotor centered better in the caliper and the rubbing was gone. Finally, the Lynskey and the new wheels were ready to ride. I got to use my recently purchase Park Tools repair stand. It helped a lot.

About 3 miles into the ride I realized I left my CamelBak at home so I circled back to pick it up. The weather was hotter and more humid than yesterday and I knew I needed water for the ride. Weather summary: start 87 (73% humidity, 77 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind S 12 mph; finish 87 (72% humidity, 77 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind S 12 mph. Not much change by the time I finished at 2:01 PM. The return for my CamelBak lengthened the ride about 2 miles.

First impressions of the Alpha-50 Disc wheels. They felt faster and lighter than the Vision 30 wheels. Riding west over Lake Houston the wind buffeted the wheels causing them to want to move more than the shallower Vision 30 wheels. The Alpha-50 wind handling is similar to the wheels on my Canyon Endurace. They remind me a little of the wheels on my Stradalli Red Pro bike in the wind. I will weigh the bike before the next ride to see if it changed.