Turns out, when you replace one tire on an AWD vehicle, you really should replace them all. It doesn’t do much good to have three well-worn tires and a brand new one. Fortunately, our tires had enough miles on them that I didn’t feel too bad about letting the other three go. But I can see where it could get expensive if this was a regular occurrence. I mean, the quote to replace the Pirelli tires that came with the car was up there around $350 apiece. I was a bit disappointed too that I couldn’t get what I needed quickly enough in Hanguk (which I’ve liked for quite some time), but I settled on a decent set of Kumhos. Thankfully, I don’t think this will be a regular occurrence, and I have a set of new tires that I would probably have needed in a few thousand miles anyway…
I took a 31-mile ride yesterday morning and paid attention to my position for a portion. I really don’t think I’m that far off. So I’ll mark the current position and then move the seat forward a millimeter or two (which means raising it a touch too). We’ll see how that works out.
On my 38-mile ride today I learned one other thing. As I slogged up the first hill and reached the top, I decided to sit up as straight as I could and breathe deeply on the downhill, and you know what? What I’d said before about posture and balance affecting your breathing turns out to be true. On the next hill (the biggest climb on the ride), I decided to straighten my back and sit up with my hands on the hoods for the majority of the climb and focus more on my breathing, and whaddya know? It worked. Now, I’m hoping it’s not come kind of placebo effect, but honestly, I did feel better because I was breathing better than my typical hunched-over slog. Turns out the body works better with oxygen…
So stay tuned on those trials as I tweak things a bit over the coming week or so.