Keep my bike?

[Bethany1]

My first bike a couple of weeks ago was a Specialized Hardrock to go out on the loose gravel roads with my son. He has a Rockhopper 29ner. I thought I would enjoy it, but I'm not. Mostly because I can't ride it very far and it's heavy. Even 4-5 weeks later I'm only good for about 2 miles. One mile or so out and then I have to come back before my body gives out. Gravel, hills, and a heavy bike are not a fun combination as I've discovered.

I started crying after walking it up the hill to come home yesterday. I love the bike but I hate the back roads because I suck at it. I had all these plans on racing through the back roads, jumping and going over stuff and enjoying the dirt but it sucks. I'm too old/out of shape for this. Without having a true place to even use the bike to it's full potential, there's only so much you can do on a back road anyway.

Over the weekend I bought a Specialized Sirrus that I'm enjoying. It's lighter, faster and I made it farther on a real road making it more fun and enjoyable. I got a few miles outside of town before I realized I had better go back. Going down the highway is far more interesting even if you going uphill. I almost wanted to trade both in and go and buy a true road bike today since I get the idea of why you are bent over to ride now.

Road bike I was looking at is a Specialized Dolce. However; I worry that because I've only started riding a bike 5 weeks ago, I don't really know what I want and I'd regret the purchases.

[Blueberry]

So is your question whether to keep the Hard Rock or whether to buy the Dolce? I would keep the Hard Rock - build some strength. Ride alone on it (perhaps) - my DH is a LOT stronger than I am on a bike, and it can be frustrating for me. I have to be in the right frame of mind.

Give yourself some time before you buy another bike - unless you can get an awesome trade in. You may find you want a slower/more upright bike for some purposes (groceries?).

[Owlie]

You sound like me---you don't take--not failure, exactly--but not living up to your own initial expectations well, do you?

It sounds like you want permission to give up on the Hardrock and go for a road bike. Don't give up on your dreams of riding on back roads just yet. Treat it sort of like interval training. You can only do x miles? Okay, then ride x miles on a regular basis until it becomes easy. Then move on to x+1 miles.

Riding your Sirrus should help with overall fitness too. But I agree with Blueberry--give yourself some time before buying another bike. Do some research, and maybe you'll want to keep the Sirrus for just tootling around. Nothing wrong with that.

[spokewench]

I would not quit on either bike yet. If you have only been riding 5 weeks, you are just out of shape and once you feel better and have some miles under you, you will begin to find out what you really want in a bike. Just because you can only go a few miles, that is okay right now, you just don't turn into an "animal" over night!

You are a lucky person. If you just keep going out to ride regularly, you will be amazed at the learning curve your body will make. When you start, and you keep riding regularly, your body will start making an incredible bell curve to feeling better on the bike. Just a little patience and you will be jumping things and riding like you want to!

[Crankin]

You know, I felt like that almost the whole time I had my mountain bike. It was a nice FS bike, but I don't think I ever rode more than 7 miles on it. I had one, maybe two seasons where I improved my skills, but since I was always riding my road bike, it stayed in the bike shed most of the time. I ended up walking a lot. My fear kept me from really enjoying the experience,despite the fact, I love being out in the woods.
We used the bikes once last summer on hilly dirt roads in Maine and even that bothered me. It just feels so different than road riding, and after that I was OK with selling the bike. Funny, even though I can do 50-100 mile road rides, I just never "got" the mountain biking, despite really wanting to be a tough dirt girl. The most humiliating riding experience I have ever had was a group mtb ride on the "easy" trails at Great Brook Farm and the Cranberry Bogs in Carlisle.
I would sell the mountain bike, keep riding the Sirrus and after awhile, if you do get a road bike, keep the Sirrus for errands or commuting.
ETA: I did start road riding on a hard tail mountain bike, with slicks. It's aluminum, though, so not really heavy. It was DH's first mountain bike and eventually I used it for an errand bike and it was then given to my son, who used it to commute in the city until he bought a single speed.

[channlluv]

When I started riding it was on a 37-lb steel frame Palomar GT mountain bike. I could only (barely) go five miles on a paved bike path. A few weeks later, I was doing ten miles on that path, then fifteen, twenty (it's a five-mile loop), and about two years later, on my 45th birthday, I celebrated with a forty-eight mile ride on that bike on that path (by then I was doing turn-around laps at the four-mile marker). I'd lost about twenty pounds, too, and I looked and felt about fifteen years younger than I did when I started that adventure.

I don't ride as far lately -- I switched to a road bike and I am still working on my endurance with that bent over posture -- but I still get out there. I have ninety pounds yet to lose.

You can do this. Just give yourself some time. If the mountain bike is a comfortable ride for you and it fits your body, try it on the road if it feels faster than the Sirrus. That Sirrus looks like a nice ride, too, though.

Just give yourself time to build up your fitness.

And be sure to have the bikes properly fitted to your body. An ill-fitting bike and cause a lot of body aches and too-soon fatigue.

Good luck!

Roxy

[Bethany1]

Well, a good cry never hurts. It's been a long bad week and today just broke me down. I decided to put the original tires back on my mountain bike and take off the clipless on one side, flat on the other pedals and put regular pedals on.

I got the front wheel done with ease and started on the back one. I have disc brakes which makes it trickier. I follwed a YouTube video and got it off. I got the back wheel done and tried to put it back in. 10 minutes later I finally blew up and started sobbing and I just couldn't stop. My hands are black, I cut my thumb with the chain and I just wanted to dump the whole cycling thing and admit defeat. After five weeks I suck. This whole thing sucks and I want out.

My son came up out of the basement into the garage and saw me bent over the chair sobbing and asked what was wrong. I told him and he took a look at the back tire. He has disc brakes on his and had a better idea of what to do. He told me to go clean off my hands and take a break. That had me sobbing even harder because I wanted to do it myself without help.

I went into the kitchen and started cleaning my hands. A few minutes later he comes in and said he had the chain and tire on and to try out the bike. I don't know what he did, but the brakes shift so smoothly it's incredible. I rode it around in the rain a few blocks shifting up/down and I didn't have my chain get caught up during the 2nd gear like it usually does. What a sense of security. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Riding in the rain is actually fun if you don't have a true mountain bike trail. I was sliding through the puddles and going around the street corners to see how fast I could go. I tried to bring the front tire up, but it's too hard on my back. Forget a bunny hop for now, but having the bike ride so much better has really helped.

I discovered I like the saddle on my Sirrus and asked my LBS if he had the same saddle in stock. He didn't but has ordered me one.

The only other thing I would like to change on my mountain bike is to put the same handle bar that I have on the Sirrus or find grips that have the vertical grips to put on.

Crying out 5 weeks of frustration has released a lot stress and tension. I'm keeping my bikes.

[hebe]

Well done! I'm sure your son would show you what he did, so that you can do it yourself the next time. You've got brilliant spirit to show such determination.

fwiw, I'm coming up to 45 and am a newish rider with a HardRock too. I love mine. If you're not riding very bumpy ground, have you thought about setting the front suspension to off (red) rather than on? That might feel a bit more efficient and is very straightforward to do.

I hope you enjoy both bikes!

[redrhodie]

My son came up out of the basement into the garage and saw me bent over the chair sobbing and asked what was wrong. I told him and he took a look at the back tire. He has disc brakes on his and had a better idea of what to do. He told me to go clean off my hands and take a break. That had me sobbing even harder because I wanted to do it myself without help.

I went into the kitchen and started cleaning my hands. A few minutes later he comes in and said he had the chain and tire on and to try out the bike. I don't know what he did, but the brakes shift so smoothly it's incredible. I rode it around in the rain a few blocks shifting up/down and I didn't have my chain get caught up during the 2nd gear like it usually does. What a sense of security. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Why would you not want help? You've only been doing this for 5 weeks! You're a beginner. I've been doing this cycling thing 6 years, and I'm definitely still far from expert, and ask for help all the time.

When I read the OP in the thread, I was thinking your brake was rubbing. Whenever I've hated riding my bike, my brake has been rubbing. When your bike feels heavy and slow, check your brake. Lift the wheel, and give it a spin. If it doesn't go for a nice long time, it's time to ask someone else what's going on, and have them show you what the problem is.

Ask you son to show you what he did, and if he is impatient, ask your lbs for help. This is an opportunity to learn how to fix this next time it happens. Hoping that it stays fixed, well, things break.

[beccaB]

My husband and I have been riding road bikes(well mine is a hybrid) for many years and have trained for and completed 10 centuries. I thought it would be great fun and good cross training to get mountain bikes. On the advice of some bike store guys we got Specialized Rockhopper. It was a good bike for not a lot of money to start with. I soon found out I had created a monster. After I had spent all that time trying to convince my husband we should get those bikes, he took to it right away and I was the one who was afraid. We started out on technical trails and I can't tell you how many times I crashed and burned! Someone told us to back off a little from that and try dirt roads. As it turns out there are a lot of really interesting dirt roads near us with lots of rollers and cool scenery. I did have to loosen up one clipless pedal so I could unhook easier.One valuable benefit I have gotten from the mountain biking is that I can ride my road bike confidently over that gravelly stuff they put all over the roads in the spring. It's making me a more confident rider altogether.