Originally Posted by
solveg
Well, Yeah! That and a bunch of other things. We even mucked with the BB. I'm just learning all this stuff.. just assembled my bike stand last night.
My concern was that this bike is so obscure, and the rims are unmarked. I'm just not up on how old rims interact with new tires-- I know some older rims are just not meant to take the higher pressure tires they have now, but I'm not sure what the limits are. I did put new rim tape in at the same time.
I'm glad I had someone show me how to muscle the tire in without pinching the tube. I've ridden about 4500 miles (if the odometer on my old bike is right) and I've never had a flat. Never did my own maintenance before, so I never took a tire off.
Girl's gotta start somewhere, y'know.
Then I'd suggest you read this webpage:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire_sizing.html
and generally, the whole website maintained by Sheldon Brown has proven to be the best, most informative and precise resource on everything-bicycles. As you grow in your bicycle mechanics skills, you'll learn to aprecciate it ever more.