new rider again

[Tater]

Goat heads: armadillo tires or slime. LBS says armadilloes on my new bike. Slime is good, but LBS dude said not so good in high pressure road tires. Dude said it tends to just blow right out through the holes, not clog them. That was his answer when I asked to make sure armadilloes were available for my bike if I run into lotsa flats.

Tater, have you tried them?


Karen in Boise (debating a ride in the rainy windy icky weather today, but after work!)

Yep, I have Armadillos on the commuter-mobile, but not the road bike. I've ran over broken glass, tree branches, road debris and not had any problems with them. Picked out thirteen goatheads one afternoon after a commute. They have to be pretty long to puncture the tube. The only flat I have had with the 'dillos (2500 miles on them) was after riding over a nail. One puncture on one side of the tube, nine on the other!

Karen, if you ride today you are a nut! That wind is just too much for me and I am wussing out of today's ride. Going forward isn't too bad, but having to lean into the wind is! Good luck if you go.

[Kano]

Karen, if you ride today you are a nut! That wind is just too much for me and I am wussing out of today's ride. Going forward isn't too bad, but having to lean into the wind is! Good luck if you go.

I did NOT ride -- couldn't even talk the dog into going out today, and will now have bad hair for a month after going for the mail! My hair now looks like this:

Instead, my daughters and I went to the mall and looked around for pretty new things to want!

DH wanted to ski tomorrow -- I've gotta work again. Hard to pass up fresh snow!

Karen in Boise

[Kano]

Forgot to mention -- stopped at the LBS today, and talked with "my" bike dude about gloves. Got a nice, boring black pair -- didn't want to limit my shirts and such by picking up the pretty blue, pink, or purple ones!

Bike dude did say give it a little more time, cuz, you DID just change over from the upright bike. I do like that he remembers me from the other day -- they're a busy place, and we didn't spend that much time in the store! But more importantly, poor bike dude had one heckuva limp today: left shin had bad case of road rash! He was pretty positive about it anyway, though -- but it looked SORE!

The other thing I wanted to ask about while I was there was those Presta valves -- had to find out how to put air in those tires before I've got flat tires and don't know what to do about them! Sweet young road-rashed bike dude was very understanding about what seemed a pretty silly question in my book, but of course, I know that the dumbest questions are the ones we don't ask! Those valves are cool! I'm suitably impressed with the dude who came up with that idea!

Karen in Boise

[sbctwin]

Kano, there are little adaptors that you can get that will convert a presta to a shrader(sp?) valve, if you only have a pump that fits a shrader valve. I keep one screwed on a tire in case I need to pump up at a gas station or whatever.

[Kano]

Lisa -- tilting the handlebars -- does that make it more challenging to be comfortable in the drops?

SBCTwin -- bike guy, the poor dude with the bad road rash on his leg, mentioned the adapters. His comment was if my pump only does the schraeder, it would be a good idea -- didn't occur to me that I might run into someplace where I couldn't get my hands on a "switch hitter" pump! Maybe I'll get an adapter after all! Or my own tire pump, so I don't have to stick with DH! (he's been the pump carrier in our family)

Karen in Boise -- where it's been another incredibly windy day!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa -- tilting the handlebars -- does that make it more challenging to be comfortable in the drops?

You don't want to tilt it drastically differently- just make little adjustments. If the bike fits well, it shouldn't BE too difficult to be comfortable in the drops. Over months of riding, your core muscles will strengthen and keeping your weight balanced will become not as difficult as when you are a new rider. That was my experience, anyway.
Make sure you are never straightening your arms and locking your elbows when you ride- it tends to put too much weight on your hands and that makes you unbalanced. Try to keep your weight balanced between your seat, your hands, and your feet.
I had to experiment with finding the right length stem so my reach was right.

[Aint Doody]

I found that having the top bar totally level hurt my wrists and as Fredwina said, the drops weren't comfortable at all. I guess we're all put together differently. I think that's a good thing!!