There are tyre and then there are tyres!

Regular readers will know that I recently bought a pair of rather fine, Schwalbe Marathon Plus London Edition tyres. You will also know that last Saturday I went over to Mick's lovely home, where he gave a masterclass on tyre removal and fitting. Today I bought another pair!

I have had these tyres on my beloved Orange Brompton for coming up to a week and I have to say I am very impressed. When pumped up to their near maximum 95 psi I cannot really detect any noticeable difference when compared to the slightly slimmer profiled ordinary Marathon tyres - which I like a great deal!

My new tyres

These tyres are getting ever harder to find for the Brompton and I would hazard a guess that it will not be that long until they are gone. Schwalbe may of course decide to make some more or have them as a permanent special edition, although I very much doubt it.

The London Edition's on my Orange Brompton

I really like the look of these tyres and they remind me even more of the Kojak's insofar as they have Schwalbe in big letters and seem blacker than the standard Marathon tyres. This preoccupation with how they look is rather flippant but believe me they look VERY good on.

I managed to walk into a central London cycle shop and got a pretty good deal. I bought one and got the other half price. The manager of the shop in question chatted enthusiastically about Brompton bikes as he is part of the fold. He mentioned someone out there who writes a blog about his Orange Brompton and that he really enjoyed reading it. When I gave him one of my business cards, thus revealing that I was in fact the very same, he was rather happy. He called over a colleague to be introduced to Orange Brompton. It was all quite strange and I can't say I particularly enjoyed my five minutes of fame.

A couple Scwalbe inner tubes were placed into my bag, despite my protestations. I offered to mention the shop on my blog but he decline - perhaps due to the freebie? Anyway, many thanks.

If you have a Brompton and want a great winter tyre or if you just like the idea of having a good puncture resistant tyre all year round, you could do worse. The storage life of these tyres is officially five years, so I will be able to store them away for a while.  So, get them while you can, as I think they won't be around for too much longer!