Why is my bike SO slow?!

[dianne_1234]

Nevs are definitely a slow tire (but they grip everything!!), so I wouldn't discount that.

http://www.kendausa.com/en/home/bicy...n/nevegal.aspx

There are lots of Nevs, some very heavy (read: lots of ruber to flex and eat up your energy). I'm with Becky: try known-good tires before getting rid of the bike.

[zoom-zoom]

Hmmm...the thing is I've gone from small block 8s to a much heavier and wider tire on my CX bike and never noticed a huge difference--I actually like the heavier tire because they are much more aggressive, more stable down hills and rough areas, and I can bomb through sandy and muddy areas better (which is pretty much all of West MI--it's all sand dunes with pathetic grass). I asked my DH about the possibility of the Nevegals being the issue and he pointed out that the tires on the Mukluk are WAY heavier and that bike still was noticeably easier to move and keep moving, even up hills.

I almost wonder if it's more than one factor at play and that we could end up spending a lot of time and money to not really come up with any one solution for a bike that we'll likely sell in a year or two. I'd really like to borrow one of my friends' identical bikes (I think there were 4 of us who ended up with this bike when our LBS had them a year ago) for a few miles and see if theirs are noticeably different.

We'll definitely be looking for a higher end used bike for the rugrat when the time comes. I don't want him to always be stuck frustrated with heavy, sluggish bikes. He's such a slight kid that he can't even use his body weight to beast a bike around (unlike me, heh).