CPFITNESS

I'm 6'3" 250 lbs had my giant rapid 3 since 2nd week of february. Just got another flat tire today. That makes my total now 3 flat tires. (5 if you count the 2 that I damaged because the LBS kinda mis-informed me on my minipump)

The first issue was not an actual flat tire, the tire itself somehow bubbled on my 2ND TIME OUT on the bike. not sure what caused it I just knew that I felt a bah-bump bah-bump and looked down and saw my wheel wobbling. I was scared ****less that I bent my rim that early on because someone had told me that at my weight I was going to go through tires.

They replaced that tire with an armadillo, so far no problems with it though I don't really like the feel of the tire and I'm paranoid that i've blown a tire again.

2nd issue was a couple weeks later, I ride 8 miles to a postoffice in lower manhattan and lock my bike up. I come outside an hour later and the front tire is flat. fortunately there is a bike shop 2 blocks away. I tell them to just replace it with an armadillo as well.

3rd issue was caused by me, I was trying to top off my tires with my mini pump and broke both valves. took it to lbs and had them replace the tubes. get down the street and bah bump, bah bump. I see that the front tire was off the bead. I deflate,tuck it back in, inflate with my minipump (that I was finally told is not for topping off pressure, its to get enough air to get you back on the road and headed to the nearest decent pump/air compressor) i pump it up and it's good to go.

A few days later I top off the air in the tire and bah bump bah bump, the bead on the front is out again. This time I take it home and inspect the tire and there appears to be a little bit of damage on the tire but I couldn't tell if it was enough to make it not seat properly. i finally decide to just put the stock tire back on the front. I rode 18 miles with that on sunday and then rode 10 miles today and locked up the bike. I come downstairs a couple hours later to go to work and whaddyano, tire is flat again! I pump it up with mini pump and roll the bike around a bit and I hear the air hissing out.

So now I'm going to put my armadillo back on and see if it will seat properly. if not, I'm going to see if I can send it back because perhaps it is damaged enough on the sidewall and wont seat. All I know is that I'm trying to love my bike, i really am. when she is working, she is great. but these flats are killing me. I live in Manhattan, the streets suck and I really do my best to avoid the bad streets. unfortunately, i'm new to biking so I'm still learning which streets to avoid, but it's not like I'm jumping off of curbs or nailing huge potholes.

It's gotten to the point that I've lost confidence in riding the bike, especially at high speed and that is really annoying because I love how peppy the bike is. What kind of tires are you guys riding on. The stockers are kenda kwest 700c x 28 max pressure 85psi though LBS said I could inflate to 100. the armadillos are rated at 100psi max. Any suggestions for me? Can I go to a wider tire on these stock rims? would that even help? how much speed will it kill?