1st clipless ride tomorrow..

[littlegrasshopp]

Any advice? I've been riding around in the yard and have had no trouble clipping in and out. The neighbors left their camp fire (I live in the country) to come out to the street to figure out why it took, me and SO AND a flashlight AND him chasing me - for me to ride a bike :) :) Yet, another reason they have to think we're weird! :D

We finally realized we had them set pretty tight. Loosened them and there was much less drama involved :) So we're off to ride Crabtree tomorrow. Pretty rooty - but it's a girls ride and a couple have just switched too, so there will be lots of support. Please send me your good vibes!!

[NJBikeGal]

All I can say is...stay relaxed. I think that the first time I "crashed" was going uphill and just coming to a standstill and then realizing that I was clipped in! I fell over in slow motion like tree falling...I wonder if anyone heard me?! If you've practiced, I'm sure you will do fine....good vibes, coming your way from NJ!!! ~~~~~~

[rocknrollgirl]

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You do not live far from me....and I race, and do triathlons......(sorry I checked your profile) and I am a teacher!!!!
Where do you ride?????

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry,
I saw a woman in my area and got really happy.....
shoot me a pm if you want to chat.

Ruth

[mimitabby]

good luck, tell us how it goes.
Hey you two NJ girls, where do you live?

[rocknrollgirl]

I sent her a pm....I live at the shore, but juding but what I saw on her profile, we are probably within an hour of each other. How cool is that!


Ruth

[NJBikeGal]

Sorry...little slow on the uptake here today! :) I live just outside of Philadelphia, literally a few miles over the bridge! Just a little tri-racer hoping to get into racing road and mountain next year!

That's about it! :)

[roshelleuop]

Good luck on the clipless!! You will do great!!!! Just ask someone to keep reminding you and before you know it, you'll be reminding yourself and wont even have to think about it. :cool: :cool:

And when you stop, don't be afraid to lean extra far to the side of where you unclipped your foot. I thought I would look stupid doing that so I tried to balance as straight as possible (trying to look like I knew what I was doing or something :rolleyes: ), then realized one little gust of wind can put me to the other side and timberrrrr I go. So just lean a little more than normal and you'll do just fine!!! And remember, if you ever feel uncomfortable or not sure what traffic is going to do, you can always unclip both feet :D :D You are the rider and are in control of everything you do, don't ever forget that ;)

Plus, when you fall at a stand still, it is wayyyyy funnier than painful. :p :p Just look at me in July with my first adventure with clipless pedals. I'm laughing hysterically at myself! My friend that is sitting next to me had fallen prior at an intersection, so thought she'd join me for the picture! We were both new at it and we both survived! You will too!!!!
http://wisconsinbetties.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_wisconsinbetties_archive.html

Roshelle from Milwaukee

[littlegrasshopp]

I road tonight but not the clipless ride I had planned. Since the group was going to be large and I had extra free time, I called a friend to get her to do a baby trail with me so I could warm up a bit. I did and it was a lot easier than I was expecting. I was very timid throughout. Standing on those little things feels very fragile! But I could climb so much faster!!

When I got to my regular ride, I couldn't get my first foot clipped in! I stood there for like 15 minutes moving it around and looking at my cleat and moving and trying and FINALLY it clipped in. SO goes "see that wasn't hard that time..." to which I was thinking "that time" took me 15 minutes...it was ALL "that time!" I tried again and it just didn't seem to want to work. I decided that because of the size of the group - I didn't want to hold everyone up with my clipping IN to START my ride, so I switched them back to platform. SO wasn't happy with me. BUT I've only been playing with these things for like 1 full night! I don't feel too guilty. I'm going to ride around the yard some more tomorrow and see if I can get better at clipping in! Out seems to be going well...but I have work to do on clipping in!

[CyclChyk]

Grasshopper - if you can take this stone from my hand.... sorry. Showing my age and my nerdiness.

Seriously though, something that works for me is just put your feet on your pedals and start pedalling. You cleat will find its way in all by itself. You will hear the click and sure enough you will be clipped in and riding. I found if I try to clip in prior to getting going, I always act like its the first time.

[TerraNik]

When I first bought my clipless pedals (they're eggbeaters - Crank Bros Candy), I had similar problems - took me about 5 minutes every single time to get my foot into the right position. To overcome that in the short term, I got clipped in, and just noted where my shoe lined up and found a landmark to match with the pedal. That worked quite well. Since then, now that I've been using the pedals every day, the spring in them has loosened, and I guess I have also gotten used to where I have to put my foot in to clip in. I now don't even have to look at my feet, and they just clip in with a bit of a wiggle! :)

So don't lose hope! When I got mine I thought I would NEVER be able to do it, but you will! Just practice!

[mimitabby]

good grief, you guys are not helping. I am NEVER going to learn this!
yes, i promise i will try on a stationary bike this winter.

[littlegrasshopp]

just curious - I'm using spd's right now. I'm very lucky to have a fiance with quite the pedal collection....one of the guys on the group ride got after him for not letting me use his "times." He'd loaned them out. The group seemed to feel strongly that I needed to be using those instead. Any advantage to the times over spd's ? I seem to be clipping out just fine.

[NJBikeGal]

Hey Grasshopper,

I have Time Attacks on my mountain and I LOVE them! They are self-cleaning when you clip in, so even if your shoe is FULL of mud, you can still clip into your pedal...GREAT FEATURE! In reality, I've never used SPDs so I can't say that I can compare them, but I would fully back Times. Plus, they are a nice sized platform, which helps me!

[littlegrasshopp]

I think I might ask if he can "borrow" them back from his friend for a week or so and let me see if they are easier to "find" for my foot. I'm still going to work with the SPD's though :) I want to be clipless before we got to TSALI in two weeks :) !! 4 days of biking in the smokies! I know that's nothing you guys in the bigger mountains but it's a huge mountain bike area around a beautiful lake and I'm so excited about going!!! Camping and riding for 4 days! WEEEEE!

[bouncybouncy]

I have SPDs but if I had the choice I would have Times...the advantages of the mud factor alone!

I do LOVE my SPDs tho...they are easy! great learner pedals! and not too tight if I do want them to be! I will have them for awhile because I am not very hard on my equipment (even tho I am on the same trails as hubby and doing the same drops/puddles/climbs/rock gardens) he seems to just be harder on his stuff...weight is a factor I think. I have had them for over 2 years and "aquired" a pair for my commuter...not to mention the # of cleats I have :o Anyway, because I am using them on 2 bikes with same shoes upgrades are more $$$, when I do switch/upgrade I will DEFINITELY get the TimeAtaks!!! SOOOOO, at this point if I knew what to ask for I would have said Times...hind-sight, but good fore-sight for others :D

[SalsaMTB]

I had a really hard time clipping in with my original pedals, Shimano 515s. They were terrible. I switched over to Times and all my problems were solved! I highly recommend Times!!