At low speeds with SPDs
So I'm really warming up to these. Not nearly as tough as I'd feared. I had to do an emergency clip-out on Sunday when a stopped car that I was passing suddenly decided to turn left (as a quick asside--this was in the vicinity of the Haight Street Fair. What is it about street fairs that is so apalling? is it that in an effort to reclaim the streets for people, people feel compeled to drive there? A backlog of SUVs trying to find parking in the neighborhood that hippies made famous).
In fact it's all those nights dancing as a mod boy that makes it seem second nature. The pointed toe stab gets the cleat in, and the heal-swing gets the foot out. Whenever I want to stop, I just conjur up the sounds of the Small Faces, and I'm out.
The one difficulty I'm having is clipping out at low, really low speeds. i.e. doing a track stand (when one realizes one can't stand quite long enough). Or stopping on a hill (thank goodness for walls to grab). That sideways motion feels unstable. Maybe it's an illusion. I should go practice somewhere soft.
In fact it's all those nights dancing as a mod boy that makes it seem second nature. The pointed toe stab gets the cleat in, and the heal-swing gets the foot out. Whenever I want to stop, I just conjur up the sounds of the Small Faces, and I'm out.
The one difficulty I'm having is clipping out at low, really low speeds. i.e. doing a track stand (when one realizes one can't stand quite long enough). Or stopping on a hill (thank goodness for walls to grab). That sideways motion feels unstable. Maybe it's an illusion. I should go practice somewhere soft.
posted by VeloDiablo at 12:13 PM
2 Comments:
Rest assured - you WILL fall. With that knowledge though, you should be fine. I fell twice the first couple weeks I got my SPDs; once on Market Street in front of some old Chinese ladies who laughed at me and once going up a trail (lost momentum) in the Marin Headlands.
Practice but be prepared for a couple falls until your brain accepts the "heel out" motion as the norm...
Good luck :)
Isn't it cool to go faster by lifting your feet up?? Fun stuff.
My first clipped-in fall was a slow motion affair. I went for a recreational ride to a nearby park and stopped in the parking lot. And then I remembered my feet were clipped in.
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