what a rookie....

[elk]

this goes in the what a rookie category...

DH and I went riding today on a paved path (beautiful and deserted) that is basically a mile and 1/2 uphill and a mile and 1/2 downhill....not too steep but enough to put a burn on you when you're just returning from a long winter sans riding...

I was struggling like mad and had to get off and walk twice...last fall I never got off, just worked my way up. I was kind of bummed thinking about the buckets of strength I'd lost... and then in the last stretch downhill I glanced down and noticed I had a pretty flat tire in front...and when I called DH over he said the back was TOTALLY flat....

It took us a while to figure out the pump....it kept leaking...and then the valve on the tire was loose...which is how it went flat in the first place (I had filled them 2 weeks ago)...eventually we realized I had a REAL flat on the back...

it's fixed now. but to think I had been not only struggling but RIDING MY RIMS! I felt better and worse simultaneously...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yikes!
Didn't you feel that weird mushy 'flat feeling'?
Well the good thing is that maybe that accounted for your sluggishness.
Hope your tires and rims are ok....

[sgtiger]

LOL! I've done that. And another time the rear brake pads were not set right and I felt so sluggish riding. When I figured out the problem and fixed it, i felt like I was flying. Well....for me, anyway.

[elk]

yes...it was a relief that i hadn't morphed into a total slug...but i did worry about what i might have done to my Aurora...so i took her into the LBS, had them fix the tire and the rims seem fine...

I didNOT feel mushy...but I did feel the bumps and cracks inthe path especially hard...

[BarbaraAlys]

And the take-away lesson is....check your tires before every ride!

Honestly, there is so much to learn about the bike when you are starting out it is easy to feel like a dork, I do all the time!

Now, think how much fun that ride will be the next time with air in the tires!

Barbara

[SandyLS]

Yup, I'm guilty of doing the same thing. Sure was a relief to find out it was the tires and not the engine! Now I also check tire pressure before every ride.

[elk]

and OMG...my tires were firm when I set out this morning and I did 20 miles with ease and joy...

I think I learned something.....

[lovelylibrarian]

I've had that happen with my hybrid. One day it was SOOOOOOOO hard to get around. I thought something was terribly wrong with me. It didn't even occur to me to look at the tires. My husband noticed and told me that they were almost flat.

If it's any comfort, you are not the only one. I'm not sure if it's my Italian Catholic upbringing or not, but I always tend to think there is something wrong with ME instead of other things-- like a flat tire.

[OakLeaf]

I air my high-pressure road tires before every ride, but I'm a total slug about airing my hybrid tires. Long about it starts getting really hard to pedal, I'll attach the pump and it'll turn out there was like 20 lbs in the tires

[Caiti_Love]

You guy's make me feel so much better!

I just got my first road bike two weeks ago and I feel like a total dork about EVERYTHING--from changing gears to clipless pedals (which I have put away in a safe place for now!)

It's nice to know I'm not going to be the only dork somewhere out there falling at red lights and getting flat tires.

Caitlin

[elk]

turns out the NEW tube had a defect in it too....so now I hope I'm good....

[Kano]

I put the tires from my comfort-beast on my old hybrid the other day. Comfort-beast's tires are big, fat, heavy, knobby things. They're noisy too. But they're not 25+ years old and horribly cracked, so I thought I'd try this for a while, as I put this little bike into use again as a grocery-mobile.

I rode it to work yesterday morning. She's a slow little thing, slower with these tires than she was with the scary ones. But it was the ride home, speaking of flats...

Blew the rear tire about the halfway point (good thing DH was meeting me, the slime did NO good -- does that expire? He had tubes. I hadn't picked up some spares for myself yet). There was no missing the situation, especially since suddenly it sounded like I was riding on a "suction cup wheel" -- like I had a bazillion little suction cups going splut splut splut as the wheel turned!

(DH meeting me on my way home -- that's a whole 'nother thread!)

Karen in Boise

[Zen]

-- like I had a bazillion little suction cups going splut splut splut as the wheel turned!

What a great description!
I know that sound

[Geonz]

+1 on the Me 2, tho' I don't remember riding *flat.* Took me three or four times of riding and thinking "I must be coming down with something"... and then finding out I was 20% low on the aire in the tyres...

... and in general, I also suffer from "just keep pedaling!" and have striven to lower my threshold of "at least stop and spin the wheels and squeeze the tires!!" Rode 22 miles with a friend once who was saying she was out of shape... we even talked about how "maybe it's something mechanical" because I was coasting while she was pedaling, and then I said something to one of the guys who said "well, let's stop at the top of this hill."
One tug on those dragging brakes and the ride got easier, but she was already pretty worn out. Then I got in the car and drove 750 miles and pulled into my sister's and checked my front tire there, which was, yup, a bit low... and my surrogate brother in law says "and like a woman you didn't stop to check it, did you?" Boy, did I wish it had been a woman on that ride who'd said "lets stop!" ... and vowed to BE that woman and have done so several times since! BEcause picking up each end and rolling the tire to make sure it's spinning doesn't really take a lot of knowhow...

I'm learning

[sundial]

My rear tire went pllllllllllllllllll on my mtb. I just thought the trail was more technical.