My trusty Surly Disc Trucker had been out of commission for about a month due to a flat rear tire. Normally, a flat wouldn’t result in that much downtime, but I was out of patches, and didn’t have any spare tubes to fit. The two tubes I had that were the correct size had Schrader valves, and I’m thinking I must have bought them by mistake, since I don’t have any bikes with 700C wheels that use Schrader valves. (I forgot that those tubes fit Cathy’s bike!) On top of that, I needed new tires, as my trusty Continental Ride Tours were worn down and starting to dry rot. After initially ordering the wrong size tires by mistake, I finally got the bike road-worthy again for this morning’s commute. The new tires are Schwalbe Marathons. I’ve been really happy with the now 14-year-old Marathon Winter studded tires on my 26″ winter bike, so I have high hopes that these will be just as good. They’re a tiny bit beefier than the Contis, and I had to slightly adjust my front fender to keep it from rubbing (the issue was the studs that attach the fender to the strut). The tires seem to ride pretty well, and it’s possible they’ll be a little smoother on gravel than the Contis, due to the extra width. I’ll be mainly riding them on pavement, though. Now, I need to go online somewhere and order a whole bunch of patches, as I have a huge pile of leaky tubes waiting to be patched.