Tyres and weather

There are two things that are near to unbelievable and that I will be forever grateful for ...

The Weather

It was simply amazing! It is crazy to believe that we only had two days where it rained ... I only had a good 40 minute (torrential) downpour in Tanzania and then another good hour or so just over the border into Zambia. Furthermore probably only another two times where it spat briefly ... and we hardly even noticed it. And last year they had three weeks of rain every single day!!

We did have several nights where it rained ... we counted 14 nights in total.

Besides the lack of rain, the temperatures were also really great ... Egypt was not too cold and Sudan not too hot (the hottest though was a good 47 degrees). It really only got chilly again down the west coast of South Africa.

... But therefore it has been pissing with rain for most of the time back in Cape Town.

My Tyres

I didn't need to fix one tube/tyre while on the road ... YEEHA!!

For anyone doing this or a similar trip ... tubeless IS the way to go.

I must admit I did break 5 or 6 spokes over the trip ... but then I didn't have the best spokes ... and I will learn from this!

Regarding the tyres and tubes ... I punctures two tubes (which were in my slicks), but both were filled with slime, so they stayed inflated and I merely changed them at a later stage when servicing my bike. I had to refill the slime in my tubeless off-road tyres once, when there were some holes ... but they easily sealed with the slime. I also had one majorly irritating rest-day where I really struggled to seat my slicks to my rims ... a note to all wanting to use tubeless and fit slicks - try them out and find a pair of tyres that seat easily. All of us tubeless riders eventually ended up using Michelin XCR Road Tyres/Slicks ... they seat real well!