May flowers... and bike rides

[Crankin]

Keep the road bike, even if you don't ride it that often. Maybe look at different gloves or changing the position of your bars. I had the same issue with my flat bar Jamis Coda, but I am still sorry I sold this bike. I used it on errands, commuting, farm store rides, but it could hold its own with others. It was heavier and slowed me down a little, but I always felt good after a ride on it.

[north woods gal]

Thanks. Yeah, probably best to keep it, given that it can do things the fatter tire bikes can't do and, as most of us know, it's almost impossible to get even close to getting your money back when you sell a bike.

Yuck! Looks like three or four straight days of rain and thunderstorms in our area, according to the forecast and it is raining, right now. Well, we do need the rain and there are worse things than having to ride indoors.

[ny biker]

Definitely check the position of the handlebars on the road bike. I used to get hand pain until one day I was having a new saddle fitted to my bike, riding the indoor trainer at the LBS. The person doing the fitting noticed that my handlebars were at the wrong angle. He adjusted it and I haven't had hand pain since then.

Also different bar tape might help with shock absorption.


So I didn't ride this weekend for various reasons but I can tell a story about a friend's experience. He had two flats in the same tire. The first one happened while he was riding on a MUT. Someone stopped and helped him change the tube. Then he had another flat, was going to call for someone to pick him up when a couple driving by in a Subaru stopped to help. They drove him to a nearby bike shop where the mechanic found a teeny-tiny piece of glass in the tire. I've had a similar experience with a flat caused by a piece of glass so small that you really have to work to find it. Another friend taught me to always line up the logo on the tire with the valve stem to help you know what part of the tire to check once you find the hole in the tube. He also keeps folding reading glasses in his bike bag, a stronger version than he usually wears for reading so he has extra magnification.

[north woods gal]

Thanks. Will play around with the handlebar position.

Always amazes me how you can so often ride over a ton of junk and not get a flat and then just the smallest thing gives you one. Very rare to get puncture flats due to road debris in our area, thanks to low traffic and folks not littering, much. Also, no nasty thorns in our area, which were a nightmare when I lived in the plains states.

My biggest danger of getting a flat on one of the MTBs or fat bikes is a pinch flat from going too low on the tire pressure and the tube getting pinched between the rim and tire. That usually means a new inner tube, because the inner tube tear is spread out over a large area and the puncture hard to locate. Only had one, this winter, because I dropped the pressure way low, down to the recommended minimum, while the fat bike was in our warm house, then headed out into the frigid cold. That change of temp from toasty warm to zero cold was just enough to drop the pressure even more and half hour, later, got the flat. In the winter, I now only check and adjust pressure when the tires have been out in the cold long enough for the pressure to stabilize to the cold. Just a reminder for anyone else nutty enough to ride in serious cold.

[ny biker]

Thanks. Will play around with the handlebar position.

Always amazes me how you can so often ride over a ton of junk and not get a flat and then just the smallest thing gives you one. Very rare to get puncture flats due to road debris in our area, thanks to low traffic and folks not littering, much. Also, no nasty thorns in our area, which were a nightmare when I lived in the plains states.

My biggest danger of getting a flat on one of the MTBs or fat bikes is a pinch flat from going too low on the tire pressure and the tube getting pinched between the rim and tire. That usually means a new inner tube, because the inner tube tear is spread out over a large area and the puncture hard to locate. Only had one, this winter, because I dropped the pressure way low, down to the recommended minimum, while the fat bike was in our warm house, then headed out into the frigid cold. That change of temp from toasty warm to zero cold was just enough to drop the pressure even more and half hour, later, got the flat. In the winter, I now only check and adjust pressure when the tires have been out in the cold long enough for the pressure to stabilize to the cold. Just a reminder for anyone else nutty enough to ride in serious cold.

I seriously doubt I'll ever ride in those really cold temps, but you raise a point that I had not thought of. I typically top off my tires outside because most of my bike rides don't start at home so I keep my frame pump in the car. For my car tires, a drop in temp from the 60s or 70s down to the 40s will lower the psi significantly and cause a noticeable drop in mpg. So I suspect that if I pumped up my bicycle tires inside my 70 degree home and then went out to ride in 40-degree temps, there could be a noticeable drop in psi, though not necessarily enough to cause pinch flats.

Of course there won't be a chance to find out any time soon -- we're expecting a heat wave for the next few days, temps in the 90s and humid.

[north woods gal]

90s? OMG. Highs in the 50s for us, later in the week.

Pinch flats become a possibility when you play with pressures down around the minimum recommend psi for the tire, which is often the case with mountain bikes and fat bikes to improve traction and so on. That temp related change in pressure for road bikes is more likely going to just change performance of the tire, but on a long ride, that can be significant.

Interesting point, though. What kind of pressures does everyone run on their road tires? I'm usually between 80 and 100% recommended pressure on my road bike tires. On my MTBs and fat bikes, unless I'm heading out for some pavement work, I'm usually somewhere between minimum and 60%. For instance, on my fat bikes with their 26x4 or 4.8 tires, the recommended pressure range is only 5 to 15 psi and I never run more than 12 psi and, then, only for pavement work. My trail riding is usually between 5 and 11 psi. If I go too high on the tire pressure with fat bikes for trail work, I start to get a lot of bike bounce on rough trails and lose some control. Too low and I also lose some steering control, i.e., the bike is too slow to respond. Only 2 psi on a fat bike tire can make a world of difference.

[Crankin]

I used to pump my tires to 120 psi, in the hopes of preventing flats. Now that I've had Gatorskins for 3 yrs., DH has convinced me to lower that. I keep it at 110, although he keeps telling me to go down to 100.
Did a small ride this morning, as my group was riding out of Kittery, Maine and I have stuff to do. 15 miles, in Acton and back to West Concord. I was miserable the whole time, not just from my back. But, I did it and feel good now. It's going to be hot here, too, 80s later today and over 90 tomorrow. I will be riding to the gym at 5:15 am tomorrow, do my class, and ride home, a total of 2 miles. Thankfully the ride we are leading is next Thursday and not tomorrow!
Back to western MA to do some riding with our friends this weekend.