This diary was actually written for the Bi-Weekly Photo Challenge over at Photographica; which is why it's written the way it is, but I thought y'all might enjoy it, too. In terms of straight riding, I took the knobbies back off my bike and bought another pair of hybrid tires - they're slicks in the center but knobby on the outer edges to grip if you sink in. They're also larger than my old slicks - much closer to the the size of the original tires, so they definitely increase how fast I roll at a particular gait, at the expense of requiring more torque.