{"id":2623,"date":"2015-09-20T19:41:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-20T10:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2015-09-20\/2623"},"modified":"2015-09-20T19:41:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T10:41:56","slug":"update-on-my-fear-and-trepidation-of-cycling-clipped-in-its-mostly-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2015-09-20\/2623","title":{"rendered":"Update On My Fear and Trepidation of Cycling Clipped In: It’s Mostly Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\u3053\u306e\u8a18\u4e8b<\/span>\u306f\u9577\u3044\u3067\u3059\u304c\u3001\u7c21\u5358<\/span>\u306a\u8981\u7d04<\/span>\u3059\u308b\u3068\u3001\u65b0\u3057\u3044\u30b5\u30a4\u30af\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u7528\u306e\u9774\u3092\u6163\u308c\u3066\u304d\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted<\/span> “<\/span>Trepidation and\nAnticipation: Moving Up to Cycling Shoes<\/a>”<\/span>, which opens with the same\nphoto seen above, and in which I admit<\/span> my anxiety of riding with shoes that\nphysically clip to the bike's pedals. The fear arose<\/span> from not being able to\nput my food down in an emergency, thereby causing me to fall over, perhaps\non nasty rocks or at high speed, or, even worse, in front of friends.<\/p>\n\n

Prior to this change, since I first<\/span> got bitten by the\ncycling bug<\/a> in January, I'd ridden<\/span> 2,978km (1,850 mi) with normal\nshoes, which is roughly the straight-line distance from San Francisco to\nChicago, though with an accumulated 50,507m of elevation gain, what I've\nactually done has exceeded that hypothetical route by almost an order of\nmagnitude. This is not very much compared to many cyclists around here, but\nit's a lot<\/span> for someone like me and I'd grown comfortable with how I was<\/span>\ndoing things.<\/p>\n\n

Here's how I used to ride:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nDMC-SZ9 at an effective 28mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/3.3, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRodeo-Clown Style<\/span>\nwith normal sports sneakers\nphoto by Manseki Kanemitsu (May 14 2015)<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

This is from a\n60km<\/span> outing to the mountains of Uji<\/a> in May, one of the many days of\nexploration on the bike that I've not been able to write about yet.<\/p>\n\n

There are great benefits to wearing normal shoes when cycling, the\ngreatest of which is the ability to immediately (and without thought or\neffort) move your feet from the pedals and place them on the ground, saving\nyou from unceremoniously crashing over or into something.<\/p>\n\n

But the ability to walk normally when not on the bike is also a great<\/span> benefit...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nDMC-SZ9 at an effective 58mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/4.2, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMoving From a Dead<\/span>-End Path<\/span>\nphoto by Manseki Kanemitsu<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

In the photo above I'm climbing up an embankment separating the\ndead-end path I'd mistakenly taken from the main road I should<\/span> have been\non. The steep<\/span> climb on slippery grass was difficult enough with the\nultra-grippy workout shoes I was<\/span> wearing, so I can<\/span> imagine it would have\nbeen extremely challenging with hard-soled cycling shoes with\nsmooth-plastic soles suffering from a big<\/span> cleat-wart on the front. On the other<\/span> hand, such an attempt would have certainly been humorous fun for\nthose watching.<\/p>\n\n

Later on the same trip, while riding a mountain<\/span> trail, we stopped at an observation deck,\nwhile walking around I didn't<\/span> have to hobble around.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nDMC-SZ9 at an effective 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/3.1, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nphoto by Manseki Kanemitsu<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Road-bike cycling shoes are meant for riding the bike, not walking\naround. The cleat<\/span> bolted onto the bottom of the sole under the ball of the\nfoot makes for an awkward hobble at best.<\/p>\n\n

Later we got some bad directions and ended up walking down a mile<\/span> of steep mountain trail...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 1400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

It was no problem for me with my sports shoes, but others had to pick and choose their steps much more carefully.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAvoiding the Gravel-Puncture Gods<\/span>\nI realize that I'm new to cycling, but somehow I think<\/span> they're not doing it quite right...\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

So, given the advantage to normal shoes, why would anyone physically\nclip oneself to the bike pedals?<\/p>\n\n

The reason that I heard most often from those that did it (which is\npretty much everyone else that I ever<\/span> road with) is that it made them feel\nsafer and more efficient.<\/p>\n\n

The “<\/span>safer”<\/span> comes from not having to worry about slipping off the\npedals, and that does sound appealing. I'm not quite<\/span> sure how or why it\nhappens, but when going up very steep sections of road, I'd have one<\/span> foot\nslip off on average perhaps one time a day.<\/span> At best this<\/span> was jarring, but\nsometimes could be painful as my shin hits the pedal or delicate parts slam\ninto the bike.<\/p>\n\n

In any case, I intended to give them a try,<\/span> and as I wrote<\/span><\/a> I was<\/span> quite\nnervous at the idea. I gave them<\/span> a short<\/span> little try, and came up with “<\/span>Gave The Cycling\nShoes a Try<\/span>; Wasn\u2019t So Bad<\/a>”<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

Two weeks have passed, and I've ridden a total<\/span> of 523km with them.<\/p>\n\n

The first long mountain ride with them, reported on in “<\/span>Clipped In: Baptism By Fire, But\nFeeling<\/span> Well Satisfied<\/a>”<\/span>, helped me\nget over a certain<\/span> part of the fear, including\nsome of the fear of falling over if I can't<\/span>\nunclip quickly enough. Because I did<\/span> fall over\nonce for exactly that reason, and didn't get hurt to badly, I realized<\/span> that it wasn't necessarily the end of the\nworld.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 3200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nStill Alive<\/span>\nafter having fallen over due to an inability to unclip quickly enough\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Perhaps my biggest steps forward came a couple<\/span>\nof days later with this 83km (52mi)\nmountain ride<\/a> with Manseki. We'd originally<\/span> planned to do a simple,<\/span>\nlight ride just to get our mojo back after having been away from the bike\nwhile having our respective summer vacations, but we ended up doing so much\nmore.<\/p>\n\n

First I learned that you don't actually have to keep both feet clipped\nin all the time. We'd met for<\/span> the ride here in town at Kyoto's Nijo Castle,\nwhich involved some slow riding through crowds on sidewalks, and I was<\/span>\nscared to death of having to suddenly stop my already-slow progress because\nof someone making a sudden<\/span> change of direction, but Manseki told me he\nalways keeps one foot unclipped in such situations. This was an\nenormous<\/i> relief, and made things much easier.<\/p>\n\n

For our ride, we decided to man up and climb over Hanase Pass (\u82b1\u80cc\u5ce0)<\/span>\nto have coffee at Cowbell, a ride<\/span> I've done before described here<\/a>. I have a<\/span>\nlove\/fear of the climb to Hanase Pass, 5.6km (3.5mi) of unrelenting\nsteepness that has no flat or downhill parts. I've done it many times but I\nstill<\/span> feel slightly ill right before each attempt, simply at the prospect\nof subjecting myself to the climb.<\/p>\n\n

But I made it without stopping or falling over, and that certainly gave me extra confidence.<\/p>\n\n

After coffee, we decided to try the climb to Momoi Pass (\u767e\u4e95\u5ce0),<\/span> and again, my level of trepidation\nspiked. The distance<\/span> of this climb<\/a>\nis short — just 1.2km (0.75 mi) — but the average slope is over 11% and the average for the\nmain 600m of it is over 15%.<\/p>\n\n

In fact, the only other time I'd even attempted this soul-crushing hill, I ended<\/span> up walking the whole way to accompany a friend<\/span> who was new to\nriding clipped in and fell over, right in front of me, at the steepness at\nthe start of the climb. This instilled a lot<\/span> of fear in me, both of riding clipped in,\nand of that particular climb.<\/p>\n\n

So, buoyed by my success at Hanase Pass, I decided<\/span> to confront my feat of Momoi Pass head on.<\/p>\n\n

It was much more brutal that I remember from walking up it some months\nprior, so much so that I quickly<\/span> decided to abandon my policy of not using\nmy smallest (of three) front chain rings. A real road<\/span> bike, when I get<\/span> one,\nwon't have such an easy gear, so I've been trying to do all my rides\nwithout. But this attempt<\/span> was way too much and I wasn't<\/span> sure that I could<\/span>\ndo it even with the easy mountain-bike gearing. Thoughts of falling over\nonto the horribly-potholed road filled my mind as I decided<\/span> to downshift to\nmy bike's easiest gear.<\/p>\n\n

In trying to downshift on the slow, steep climb, the chain popped off\nand I came<\/span> to an immediate halt. This was exactly one of my main fears of\nriding clipped in. No forward<\/span> movement means that you fall over\nimmediately, and this is what happened... except somehow — I have<\/span> no\nidea how — in that split second the frantic spasms of my foot freed\nitself from the clip and I could<\/span> put my foot down, avoiding the fall that\nmy mind had already decided was a foregone<\/span> conclusion.<\/p>\n\n

I put the chain back on and continued on up without further incident.\nSurviving the chain incident, and making it to the top of Momoi Pass, did\nwonders for my confidence.<\/p>\n\n

That day's ride, which I hope to eventually write about separately, then\ntook us through some wonderful countryside that was new to both of us.\nAt times<\/span> I forgot<\/span> that\nI was<\/span> riding clipped in, and the sudden\nre-realization of it would bring a shot<\/span> of\nadrenalin and minor fear. I'd been told<\/span> many\ntimes that the biggest chance of falling was when idly coming to a stop<\/span> and not unclipping because you simply forgot\nyou were clipped in. I could<\/span> now see how this was entirely possible.<\/p>\n\n

Some of the wonderful mountain roads we took had the nasty combination of steepness and slipperiness\n(due to wet mossy\/green stuff)...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 72mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 3200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFun Little Hill Covered With Moss<\/span>\n120m of 19% to start a 700m section averaging 12%<\/a>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

There's a real chance of the entire wheel slipping when applying power\nup these steep grades, so being able to complete this without falling over,\ndespite the occasional slip, also added confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/1.7, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSlippery 'n Slimy<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

The return climb up the other side of the same pass is even steeper<\/a>, and is\neven more mossy (similar to the photo above, which is of a flat<\/span> section\nelsewhere on the road). Confidence goes up again.<\/p>\n\n\n

The next ride was “<\/span>Bridget and Sarah\u2019s Tour-de-Kyoto<\/a>”<\/span>...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nDMC-SZ9 at an effective 30mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/3.3, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nphoto by Manseki Kanemitsu<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

On this 100km ride<\/a> I noticed<\/span> two changes:<\/p>\n\n