Word Of Mouse

This page records those items of our equipment that conspicuously failed to live up to their initial promise...

See also the Hall of Fame.

Rear tyre, made by Deestone, Thailand

Our rear tyre, purchased in Pau, southern France, made it through about 200 miles into northern Spain when it failed catastrophically with a loud bang as we were cranking hard (and slowly) up a sharp hill from the transporter bridge at Bilbao (and fortunately not as we were descending a long slope at thirty miles an hour pursued by logging trucks). A large rip had appeared in one wall near the rim, and of course the inner tube went as well. In commemmoration of this event, steep hills are now known colloquially as "tyre-poppers".

Second rear tyre, made by Nokian, Finland

This "replacement" for the previous tyre should have been better, pressure rated at 70 psi. It made it for about 200 miles before becoming dangerously weak in the side wall. All in all, Finland: nil points.

Polythene water bottles

These polythene water bottles, purposely designed for bicycle and sports use, always made the water taste of plastic even after two month´s use, except for the one that we mixed isotonic sports drink in, which always thereafter made the water taste of synthetic oranges. The lids had an uncanny ability to leak in use and spill water all down your front. One of them went mouldy after containing grape juice: we decided to sterilize all the lids by boiling them, which made them shrink so much they no longer fitted the bottles. Hooray, we finally had the excuse we needed to replace them with cheap coated aluminium bottles by McKinley at 6 euros 50 each (also pictured), which have been superb.