I had intended to go riding tonight, but after talking with Casey, I wanted to check a few things out.  I’d talked with Casey about tires for the bike, and what kind of tires might be better suited for riding the Katy Trail.  I was convinced that my tires were too soft, and were making my riding tougher.  He had some good suggestions (knobby on the edges, slicker in the middle, and ones with much higher air pressure than what I currently have), but one of his suggestions was to make sure that my brakes weren’t dragging on the rims.

I decided I would go home and see if that was case.  Sure enough, the front and back brakes were both dragging the rims through part of the revolution.  I decided to try to fix it.

That was a bad move.

So, I wound up at West County Cycles, and John took care of my “handiwork”, as well as truing the rims.  His belief is that this will make a huge difference in the feel of my bike.  My rides have felt like I was riding through mud, so I’m hopeful of a dramatic improvement between these two repairs.  Tomorrow is our weekly group ride, so it’ll be a good time to see if the changes have helped.

Beck and I also talked with John a little bit about new bikes.  Beck doesn’t own a bike, so she has some interest in getting one so she and I can ride together.  And, frankly, my bike is an el cheapo from a sporting goods store.  Nice enough for what it is, but it could stand some upgrading.  I figure if I keep doing this level of riding (30-50 miles a week) for another month or two, then I might consider a new bike.  ‘Til then, I’ll keep the Huffy on the trail, and see where it takes me.