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Well, That Wasn't So Bad
今日は初めてちゃんとしたサイクリング用の靴を使って、美味く出来ました。倒れる心配は有りましたが、今日は倒れなかった。
After posting “Trepidation and Anticipation: Moving Up to Cycling Shoes” yesterday, I put the pedals on my bike and today I went out for a short test ride with them.
It was much easier than I had feared.
After putting the pedals on yesterday, I tried mounting the bike stationary in my house, and I had a lot of difficulty unclipping the shoes from the pedals, so my fear of falling over went way up. But then it was suggested that perhaps the bolts weren't tight enough, and indeed that was the problem. Once I tightented things properly, it was easy to clip out. Thanks Jason.
Still, with thoughts of slowly toppling over sideways on my mind, I dressed “appropriately”, which in this case means comically. I put some padded braces over my knees and then jeans, and wore padded winter gloves. Not quite the Michelin Man, but close enough. 🙂
I rode near home just to get a feel for them, stopping a number of times to readjust the cleats. Once that was done, I felt comfortable clipping in and out, so moved on for a little ride.
One of the first things I did was a little 50m (150') climb, just to get the feeling for the pedals on a slope, both in and out of the saddle. I put a bit of effort into it, but not too much. I could certainly tell it had been a month since I'd been on the bike. Still, it turns out that I missed my PR by just three seconds, so that bodes well.
I did a couple of other small climbs at a more relaxed pace, then one final climb where I stopped and restarted over and over again, inching my way up. I got pretty good at clipping in quickly and without looking, so that also bodes well.
So, one day down without falling over. Good day. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
It is not the first, the second or even the third ride that will get you in trouble. You will be plenty cautious then. It is when you start getting confident being clipped in and have to make a late decision to stop and have not un-clipped that will get you in trouble. My wife got to watch me fall over twice in one ride where we were doing a trail ride that had many road crossings. I then got much more conservative in un-clipping no matter what when I approach a potential stopping point since I am running Shimano SP-A530 pedals that can be flipped over. I also loosened the resistance down to un-clip significantly.
Oh, I have no doubt… I merely got by the first phase. I’m most worried about the times when the need to stop or otherwise touch down is sudden and immediate, which would trip up (so to speak) anyone. I’ve had many experiences where I thought “I would have been toast had I been clipped in”. We’ll see. Perhaps these shoes will make me a better cyclist, or a better liar. 🙂 —Jeffrey