I purchased the Specialized Hemisphere tyres during a service on my Kona Fire Mountain, in preparation for riding the 8 miles each way to work and back from
my new home every day. My requirements were a relatively low cost, but hard wearing road tyre that had good puncture resistance, and basically made pedalling on the road more
efficient than the previous MTB tyres. As with most of the bike components I buy, I'm not particularly bothered about the weight - light things are more likely to break
unless you pay pretty stupid amounts of money for them, so I'd rather have components that weigh a bit more and last a bit longer. This doesn't apply to tyres particularly,
but as I have that attitude with other components, making a huge effort to get the lightest tyres on the market seems a bit of a waste of time.
The tyres were £14.99 each, so the low cost criteria has been met. I've covered about 100 miles on the tyres so far, so am not in a position to really comment
on how hard-wearing they are (although they're still looking like new), but I've certainly not had any punctures yet (touch wood!). So puncture resistance seems pretty
good - I wouldn't expect a huge amount of punctures anyway, based on the type of riding I'm doing with them - probably about 98% of riding with this bike is on-road or cycle
track, as opposed to off-road, with the odd grass verge to deal with, but of course you do get instances of broken glass and other sharp materials on the road so there is a
risk there.
In terms of rolling resistance, I'm pretty pleased - after building up some speed, the bike will now roll on the flat once you stop pedalling for a
lot longer than before, and pedalling is also now more efficient. They are very quiet on the road too, something which I wasn't actually thinking too much about when buying
them, so that's a bonus.
Overall, I'm really pleased with these tyres. They are the first road tyres I've used so I don't have anything to compare them to, but they certainly tick all
of my boxes. As with all reviews, scores are subject to change over time.
Update - 3.1.2007 - Riding to work this morning, I got my first puncture with these tyres. I was level with Kingston Beach, in Southwick, so about as
far from a cashpoint as I could be on the ride. Took the bike to Halfords to get a new inner tube fitted (I'd left my tools at home, in the bag I use for off-roading - doh!).
This was £6.99 for the slime-filled tube, and about £7 for fitting.
There was no evidence of sharp object in the tyre casing itself, so it's hard to say what caused the puncture.. I'd certainly not done anything obvious like
riding on glass; I'm dropping half a point from the score because I'm disappointed at how soon the tyre punctured on such a gentle ride.
Overall Score: 7.5/10
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