Bonjour from Montreal!

[Helene2013]

Thank you NY biker for the information.

We are very careful with our bikes (have to at the price they cost). Hubby cleans them up after every outing. He's a maniac cleaning with anything that has wheels. If he could only do the dusting and floor washing just as much in the house. hihi I guess you can't get it all.

[ny biker]

Another thing occurred to me -- how much air is in your tires? The higher the pressure, the more you'll feel road vibrations, and that might contribute to the way you feel on the bike. I think the max for my tires is 120 psi, but I usually inflate them to about 100 psi. I could probably even go lower without risking pinch flats.

[lph]

Seconding the advice on letting a little air out if your bike feels jittery and nervous. Max pressure on tires is for the heaviest rider the tires are made to carry, and that much pressure for a lighter rider isn't necessary or even helpful, as rolling doesn't improve past a certain point. I found a chart once where you could check correct air pressure vs weight (actually weight per tire). I weigh about 60 kg/130 lbs, and by the chart "should" have no more than 75 psi in front and 95 psi in back. I often have less since I commute and don't top up that often. I rarely get flats.

[Owlie]

Thirding the call to run a lower tire pressure. I have an aluminum frame (road bike) and I run around 100PSI in both tires on smooth pavement. (Yes, I can get away with less, but it's easier to just to top up both to the same amount.) I had a tire on the rear that said minimum PSI was 110. I still ran it at 100 and had no problems. (I'm around 135-140lbs)
And you can totally put 25mm tires on a road bike. That's probably about as wide as you can go, but 25s shouldn't be a problem. I can't imagine why the LBS would tell you that you can't.

Other big thing: Relax. My first couple rides on the road bike were terrifying, and mine is a "relaxed" geometry bike. Yours is pretty aggressive. It's engineered to be light and responsive, so if you're tense, that means that every little twitch gets transferred to the bike. On a road bike, you steer more with your core and body positioning than with the handlebars. Those come into play for low-speed turns. If it feels really twitchy and difficult to hold your line even after you get used to the bike, it may be because of a very short stem. (It's become a thing, these days, to put a very short stem on women's and small unisex road bikes to make the reach look shorter.) If the reach is an issue, I'm not sure how much you can do about that other than adapt. (I have a slightly-too-short stem on my road bike. It's a little wigglier than I like, but my shoulders don't ache anymore!) It took me a long time to get comfortable with my bike. I think it was around 1000 miles that I felt really comfortable. For you, it may be sooner, it may be later.

And no one is going to post on the internet about how their carbon bike didn't fail. Yes, failures happen (and sometimes they're rather catastrophic), but it's relatively rare, and NYbiker has pretty good advice.

[Helene2013]

I think my husband puts 110 of pressure. Will have to confirm with him. But according to the grid I should be where we're at (I'm a heavy girl for 5'.4'' but trying hard to lose weight).

This is a pic of my bike before I changed the handle for flat ones (I need to take a new pic). It is a woman's bike by the way. The bar is a bit inclined I know...it was voluntary due to elbow issues I had and once it was cleared, it was brought back to lower position.


I'm looking to get some 25mm tires. Just need to find out which would be the best one for me. I also wrote to American Classics just to make sure I'm on the safe side for warranty purposes since the bike is new of end of June. Waiting for their reply.

Anyway, I'll do the modifications that need to be done and then if I still do not feel "safe" on the bike with those many rides to come, I told hubby last night that the bike will stay in the basement on bike trainers (rollers and fix trainer) and I'll get a new bike that makes me feel safer next spring. Sometimes, it is what it is. If it has to be a hybrid again, be it. Pointless to sell it as I'd be losing half ot its value already. Might as well use it in the basement where I would feel safe to crank it up in speed, etc as I would not be afraid to fall, etc the bike being "bolted" on a trainer.

We're looking to buy the (2014 not out yet) Kinetic Rock and Roll and the Insideride rollers. If put on trainer, I will have the "real" handlebars put back on it so I can practice. And I also want to get use to clip shoes on those machines. Right now, there is no way for me to start with clipped feet while learning to trust my bike.

But I will seriously work hard to give myself time to be comfy on the bike and enjoy all my future rides. That is my main goal.

I will also try to find the best place in Montreal area to get a certified fitter (although the one I have at my LBS is one - but attached to the shop you wonder how "neutral" they can be) to see if other adjustments could have been done, or if simply the bike is not for me period!

Going for 2 long rides this coming weekend and I will take your advice to "relaxxxxx" and enjoy the ride.

[OakLeaf]

Something's not adding up if you're comfortable on rollers on that bike but not on the road. Rollers take so much more relaxed attention and all-around feeling of control and comfort...

[Helene2013]

I don't have rollers yet.... it's to come. And mostly for husband. I want to try (I like to try everything at least once. )