I learned an important lesson this weekend

[prinessbeca]

I was riding along, clipped in, having a grand old time when my friend told me we'd missed a turn. So I tried to unclip and had a lot of trouble. My left foot came out fine, but my right foot just wouldn't release. Finally I got it out, stopped the bike, and turned around.
I got back on and tried and tried to clip my right foot in, but it wouldn't catch and...hmmm that's strange, why isn't it making the metal scrapey sounds?
SO I stopped, dismounted, and looked at the bottom of my foot. No cleat!
So I examine the pedal and there's my cleat, still firmly attached to the pedal instead of to my shoe.

I got out my tools and started trying to pry it off with one of my skinny wrenches. I wasn't able to get it, but luckily another biker stopped and pryed it off for me.

So I learned a VERY important lesson: always make sure your cleats are super tight on your shoes before every ride. Apparently they can come loose over time!

[tlnbmd]

wow, thanks for the warning.
will check my cleats! I never do that.

[SadieKate]

Blue Loctite.

[jobob]

Blue Loctite.

What SK said. This happened to me once when I forgot the Blue Loctite.

[withm]

I too once had a cleat screw loosen just enough to almost prevent clipping in, and worse, prevent un-clipping. Good idea to check your cleats and screws periodically.

[Jiffer]

A guy friend of mine full on broke a cleat about halfway into a century. Not a pleasant second half of a century for him!

[Megustalaplaya]

I wouldn't have thought to check the cleats (once I get them on my shoes). Thanks for posting this!

[prinessbeca]

Blue Loctite.

What's that?

[Owlie]

A guy friend of mine full on broke a cleat about halfway into a century. Not a pleasant second half of a century for him!

EEK! [contemplates putting an extra cleat in the bag]

Beca--it's an epoxy that essentially glues the threads of the screw to whatever they're screwed into to keep them from coming loose.

[prinessbeca]

EEK! [contemplates putting an extra cleat in the bag]

Beca--it's an epoxy that essentially glues the threads of the screw to whatever they're screwed into to keep them from coming loose.

ahhhh good to know! Thanks for the tip, that sounds like a great idea.

I can't imagine breaking one halfway through a century...they're so small, maybe I WILL keep spares in my bag....

[chatnoire]

This happened to me at the beginning of a ride, only my cleat didn't loosen up, it ripped apart. There are photos on my blog (in my signature) if you want to see, just use the equipment review tag.

Fortunately it happened at the beginning, in front of an REI, so I went in and bought a new set of pedals and cleats (Look Kéo) and had them installed right then, and we made it on the ride 20 minutes late.

I'll keep an eye on my current ones, though, too, just to be sure! Thanks for the reminder!

[SadieKate]

What's that?

http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/10/...r-Blue-242.htm


I <3 Google.

[winddance]

What SK said. This happened to me once when I forgot the Blue Loctite.

This happened to me in spin class when I forgot the Blue Loctite.