Muse back!
May 18, 2006 / Thursday
Clipless! YEAH!
I'd been itching to get on my clipless pedals since my shoes arrived last Friday, and yesterday was finally time. Aaron came over, installed the cleats, gave me a brief tutorial on how to click in and out, and took me to the nearby park with the little grassy hills for some practice, flopping, and cleat adjustment.
This is probably a good time to explain to people who are confused by the term "clipless" that clipless pedals are those which you clip in and out of. Yeah, duh, right? ;)
Okay, back to the story...
I made it to the park without trouble and we headed onto the grass, where Aaron proceeded to cut in front of me a couple times in an attempt to make me flop, er, I mean, stop. Actually, I did stop, and even remembered to clip out. Yaaay.
Then I headed for the little grassy hills, which I purposely approached in too high a gear, and when I ran out of speed mid-hill I clipped out. Yaaay again. I downshifted a bit, picked up the rear of the bike, and spun the wheel with my attached foot. Then I tried to get going again, and discovered after one downstroke that I was still in too high a gear. Too late! My weight was already transferred to the foot on the pedal, and I felt myself start to fall...
It was the coolest fall ever. I rolled onto my right side and continued onto my back. My bike, still attached to my right foot, flipped upside-down over me. My foot clipped out of the pedal halfway through the roll, my bike kept going, and when everything came to a stop I was on my back with my bike lying to my left.
I wish I had it on video.
Aaron missed it, too, so you'll just have to take my word regarding its coolest fall ever-ness.
I tried another uphill start and flopped left right after that. It wasn't nearly as cool.
After that we spent some time adjusting the cleats on my shoes. The new setup feels great! I love being able to pedal in a circle. And my hamstrings will finally get a workout when I ride.
But the best thing about the pedals is that boing has now become BOING. In fact, I was so busy BOINGING all the way back to my garage that when I got there I almost forgot to clip out. I saved myself as I started to fall over. Phew!
Fast forward to today, which, by the way, is Bike to Work Day. On my way into work, I stopped by one of our other buildings to pick up some BtWD goodies, then headed back out toward my building. There were 4 parking lot speedbumps on the way, and with my newfound BOING I cleared them all cleanly with both wheels. I love these pedals.
Have I mentioned I love these pedals? I love these pedals.
On a boing-related note, I played around with lifting the front end of the bike in the final stretch to the door. I usually get somewhere between 3-6 inches. Today, I got over 12 inches. I don't know if that has to do with the pedals or my increased comfort with the bike, but in any case, it caught me off guard and scared the crap out of me.
And I can't wait to do it again on my ride home. :-D
May 18, 2006 09:46 AM | Bicycle
Comments
Yay for clipless pedals!
I first got clipless when I was on a trip with my sweetie and her brother took us to a bike store. The only bike we had along with us was a tandem, so I put the pedals on the tandem, tooled around a parking lot clipping in and out a lot, felt comfortable, said "okay, honey, let's go!" and she said "no way!".
So I put the clip pedals back on the tandem, and when we got home slapped the pedals on my mountain bike and took off up Mount Tam.
Yeah. She was right. Reflexes in an emergency didn't work and I had pretty much the same experience with that slow motion crash that ended up with me on my back and the bike in the air. Doing that on the tandem would have been double-plus uncool.
But now I've got 'em on everything (tandems, mountain and road bike), and don't know how I ever lived with clips. Damn they're sweet!
Posted by: Dan Lyke at May 18, 2006 02:35 PM
one of these days... I'll conquer the mountain bike, and I'll go clipless. I'm just afraid of my reactions in a emergency.
Posted by: -april at May 18, 2006 02:40 PM
Dan: I'm pretty sure I'll do another uphill stall roll (or 3, or maybe 10) on my next ride out on the trails. I'm thinking I should wear something padded, or at least more abrasion-resistant than the usual. And yeah, wise of your sweetie to veto the pedals on the tandem that day!
April: Let's get conquering! When are we gonna ride? :-D
Posted by: Viv at May 18, 2006 02:45 PM
Your hockey gear would probably work. ;)
Posted by: Snarfdog at May 22, 2006 01:30 AM