Originally Posted by dee-vee

Wasn’t a real commute today, was a job searching day. Anyways I have had my new bike for about a week and one of the tires looked low so I took my crank brothers power pump alloy and tried to add some air. It seems to take way to much work to get it on the valve so I take it off and the valve stem is all bent (presta). I figured great now I can change my first road tire and see how hard it is. So I find out it is really hard to get a road tire off the rim, took a good 10 minutes of shoving and trying with all my might with the tire levers I have. Finally its off and I notice the spare tube I have is allot bigger than the old one. I got it off nashbar.com and it seemed like the right size (28-32c for my 28c tires) but it is to big.

I was pissed at this point because this is such a hassle and would have taken me less then 10 minutes total to change a mountain tire. I put the tire back on with no tube and walk it to the bike shop about a mile away. I was in a hurry so they put a new tube in for me and I bought 2 more spare tubes that are the correct size. All I can say is road tires REALLY SUCK when it comes to fixing them!!! There must be some secret I don’t know about to get the tire on and off.

I also got a new pump because the guy at the LBS said mine sucked and even he was having a little trouble with it. He recommended a mountain bike pump that goes to 90psi. I asked if I should get a frame pump instead and he said no. So I got a Blackburn Mammoth. My tires say like 120PSI on them so I don’t know if 90psi will be good enough. But being the noob I am when it comes to a road bike I just got the pump.

I will spend some time putting a new tube in when I can sit at home and figure out the best way.