1) So I snagged a good sized piece of glass earlier this week on my rear wheel before I bombed down a pretty large hill in San Marcos. Thank God I noticed the PSI drop before I descended. In my almost 3 years of commuting every day now, I've only managed to get 2 flats. This puncture, however, is on a fairly new Continental GP4000S tire and it's a good sized gash (I think?). The reason I'm posting about it on here is because I don't have enough experience with these things to know if it's safe to keep using the tire or what. So here are a few pictures of the damage. I could use some advice. Thanks!
Glass still in
Glass removed
Okay, so maybe it's not as big as I thought. I still feel better asking you guys though. What do you think? I ride the bike every day and occasionally ride a 20-40 miler on the weekend with friends.
2) My most recent purchase, early this summer, was an 89 Miele Azsora. It is my first experience with a real road bicycle and my first experience with older vintage style lugged tubing. So far, it has been above and beyond my expectations. It has easily displaced my other 2 bikes in the stable and will unlikely change for the foreseeable future until I get another vintage roadie. However, the one mechanical thing I'd really like to do on the bicycle is upgrade the brakes. After coming from a mountain bike with discs and recently trying my friend's center pull cantilever brakes, I really feel the need to upgrade my brakes sometime in the near future. The stopping power is just laughable and really does not inspire any sort of confidence. Even my single speed with relatively cheap side-pull brakes has more stopping power. Anyways, here are some pictures of my current brake setup. I know very little about what my options are and if I can find used brakes that would be an upgrade without breaking the bank. Thanks again for looking!
Front
Front
Rear
Rear