Sunday 13 January 2013

I mean Business at the IG London Nocturne!

As the IG London Nocturne is an indoor race, with a tight and fast circuit I knew that I wanted to finally get and eventually fit something I have coveted since buying a Brompton. Kojak slick tyres.




I have seen Kojaks on lots of Brompton bikes and admired them from afar. They are certainly lightweight.

Kojak                230g               Max psi 115
Marathon          420g               Max psi 110
Marathon Plus   480g              Max psi 95

This of course means that both Kojak tyres are almost the same weight as one of the Marathons. It doesn't stop there. The 115 psi will provide and even sportier feel to proceedings. The slim profile offers less rolling resistance to the extent that gearing is lowered sum 2.5%



They do have a RaceGuard protection strip along the middle of the tyre but one does have to be careful about the surface your ride on. Roads are generally okay but anything rougher and they wouldn't be particularly suited.

Kojak's are tyres I have always wanted to try out but i have not been brave enough, until now. I cannot wait to fit them but the bike that I fit them to is still under debate.

Regular readers will know that I have two Brompton bikes. My beloved Orange Brompton, an M6L and a Raw Lacquer S2L. For the Nocturne in 2012 I opted for the S2L as I felt it was a nipper and sorter ride. Kojak tyres would look stunning on my S2L and take the weight overall down to roughly 10.4kg as apposed to my M6L would be about 1kg more.

I will have to deliberate long and hard about this but if you out there have any suggestions or opinions about which Brompton I should use, please feel free to comment!




2 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I am considering buying a B my self (M6L) for my commute to work (17km on a bus, then 12km on cycle paths). could you give me your opinion on a couple of option:

    titanium: it seem a bit pricy to me, how much exactly is it lighter?

    lights: the SON hub dynamo looks nice, but again quite pricy, also I don't like the fact that it is contantly on, using my precious kinetic power...

    I have tried a bompton with the kojak tyres and it rides really well, but my problem is that I have around 500m of dirt track (quite clean though, mostly earth on flat terrain, sometimes muddy). Do you think it's a definit NO.

    All the best
    Nemo in Toulouse, France

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  2. Hello. Thanks for your comment. It is great you are thinking of getting a Brompton. If you look back at my past blog entries, I wrote quite a long piece about all the different types of Brompton you can choose from (but I cannot remember when I wrote it so you might have to search through my blog archive).

    A ti Brompton typically saves almost 1kg which does make a difference but as you say at an increased price. They are great though and if I buy another it will probably be a ti.

    As for tyres for the commute you state, Marathons are the way to go. They are quite simply excellent! I don't think that Kojak tyres would be as good on the commute you describe.

    Lots of people really like the SON lighting system but I didn't want to have the increased weight and opted for a Brompton front and rear battery light set - which I like a lot. (Again have a look at my blog archive for a detailed review).

    You really cannot go wrong with a Brompton, they are excellent bikes!

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