1st Clip-In Shoe Ride

[mcminn]

Hello other newbies. Just here to say that I managed a ride with Crank Bros Candy-C pedals and cleats. No problems. I clipped in. I clipped out. I stopped. I got off. I did it again.

I've only had a road bike for 2 weeks. I just started riding a mtn bike regularly in mid January. And I am rightly known to friends and family as a clumsy sort. If I can do it, you can too.

I DID spend the evening before with my bike in the indoor trainer mounting the bike, clipping in, pedalling a wee bit, clipping out, dismounting. Rinse, repeat. It was time very well spent. When I got one my bike for real, my feet knew what to do.

No doubt I'll tip over one of these days, but my first ride out, there were no incidents.

[tctrek]

Good for you! I doubt you will find too many people who don't have a clipped in/falling story.

On my first ride with clipless pedals I fell in a creek.. 1 foot clipped, one out, at a dead stop. Rolled into the creek bike and all. 10 people with bikes standing there watching the most embarrassing moment of my life. I got out of the creek, ripped up and bleeding, shoes full of creek mud. Got on my bike and rode 10 more miles to my car.

That was the first and only time I fell, but to this day, I ride right by that stupid creek -- I refuse to stop there!!

[Tri Girl]

Great job!!! Falling isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Hopefully you'll beat the odds and never have to kiss the pavement.

[mcminn]

Great job!!! Falling isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Hopefully you'll beat the odds and never have to kiss the pavement.

I know the kisser will meet the pavement some day, but I'm glad it wasn't my first go. As a clumsy newbie, I need all the positive experiences I can get to cement in my scared wee brain that this cycling thing is good fun instead of screaming terror.

[eclectic]

congratulations! Isn't it a great feeling?

Re falling - I have fallen more before I went clipless than after - go figure on that one!
Of the couple of times I tipped over clipless I was going less than 2 miles per hour, didn't think I was clipped in and I was oooops! over I went

tctrek - you win for the best clipless fall story I have ever heard

[Andrea]

TCTrek- I had a good shameless-clipless fall over the weekend, too. I was pre riding a really tough gravel road section of a race course... I made it through some tough stuff- a frakin' steep (~15% grade) hill, deep gravel, hairy descent on said deep gravel, fishtailing, you name it, I did it.

Then I passed someone I knew who had a flat. I decided I'd turn around at the top of the hill to go back and meet him. At crawling speed, I hit a beer bottle stuck down in some really deep gravel on the far side of the road and tipped over I stayed clipped in, of course, and had to wrestle with my bike to get out of it and back on the road. Luckily, noone saw me

[sundial]

On my first ride with clipless pedals I fell in a creek.. 1 foot clipped, one out, at a dead stop. Rolled into the creek bike and all. 10 people with bikes standing there watching the most embarrassing moment of my life. I got out of the creek, ripped up and bleeding, shoes full of creek mud. Got on my bike and rode 10 more miles to my car.

You were training for cyclocross.

Andrea, you were riding your road bike in that stuff??

[Andrea]

Yep- Rouge Roubaix in Louisiana. I love taking my road bike onto gravel/dirt roads.

[Jiffer]

Yay! You'll get more and more comfortable the more you ride. Congrats on a great first experience.