What initially sounds like an Egyptian curse, is in fact my choice of ’summer’ tyre for our two everyday bikes.

The Scarab boasts ‘Wide, semi-slick centre tread for low rolling resistance, with traction cleats for off-road use’ and ‘Equipped with PRS Puncture Resistance System’ and at less than a tenner from www.wiggle.co.uk they should be fine until next winter.

Obviously I shall report back on just how ‘Puncture Resistant’ they are. What I will mention though is that they were a real bitch to get them to seat properly on the rim ( I even tried inflating to the max 50psi to see if they popped into place). It took me most of one evening to change four tyres on two bikes. Now, I don’t know whether it is because there is a contradiction in sizes or not but after decades of fitting bicycle tyres I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like them.

The label clearly states 47-559 (26×1.7)

And the tyre shows 47-559 (26×1.75)

I know the difference is in the width, but as the tyre is primarily measured metrically, I can only assume it won’t be an exact imperial 26 x whatever. I may be wrong of course

The conclusion is that while they perform nicely, I’m hoping that I WON’T get a puncture during their lifetime, and I WON’T be replacing them with the same tyre again.