First LaPa Ride In Clipless, Clip Stack 2, First Road Incident

So, this morning, I decided to go out in my new pedals and do the LaPa ride that I usually do on a Wednesday.  (I wasn't feeling well yesterday).

I have a general rule to get off the road by 7:30 / 8:00 because the crazies come out.  Especially on a weekday.

I should have listened to myself.

I had decided to fit in a run to breakwall (flat), and leave out Torrington (hill).

This was because - for some reason - in clipless, going up a slope, I mentally feel like I'm going to fall backwards off the bike.

I say mentally, because I don't see how this could physically happen.

Anyway, on my way back along Anzac to hit Mons, I couldn't get in the right lane to turn right because of all the (7:30am) traffic.

So I pulled into a driveway, and yep, forgot I was clipped in and stacked it.

But it didn't hurt.  And I laughed because it didn't hurt!

I also laughed because I never thought I would ever forget I was clipped in - even though people say that's mostly why people clip stack - I mean, how could you forget you were stuck to a bike?  But I did.  :)

(Bonus bruise from Clip Stack #1)

I think it was ok because I had a strategic sports bandaid on.  They're so cushy!

I strategically stuck it on the bone that sticks out when you kneel.

Anyway, I got up and waited for a break in the traffic.

Saw a break and pedalled across the 3 lanes into the right lane.

I was glad the lights were changing, as that would give me time to get to the traffic light and the traffic would be slowing down.

An SUV coming up the road seemed to decide that they didn't want to be behind me, so they accelerated up behind me and swerved around the left of me to get to the right lane ahead of me, and then braked hard to stop at the red light.

I braked as hard as I could and stopped just behind them, almost hitting their fender.

Lucky I was clipped out on my left.

However, I was quite shaken.  It seemed a silly move to me, for someone to do their utmost to speed up to overtake someone turning right, to go around the left of them, only to stop in front of them.

When the lights changed, I turned right and stayed in the left lane (I always do, so I can ride slowly as vehicles can go straight and overtake.

We were sitting in the lane together and I was so shaken (shaking like a leaf), I almost swayed and clip stacked on the other side.

I looked at the driver to see what their demeanour was.

It was a lady and she was concentrating very hard and not looking at me.  Her whole neck was stiff and she was looking straight ahead at nothing.

I kept looking at her and she kept looking straight ahead.

(This is weird - most drivers look at you without you looking at them).

Anyway, the traffic started and I was so shaken that I pulled over at a bus stop and stopped for a bit.

I had a bit of a cry, which turned into a while, and only stopped when a lovely man with a moustache (and in Attaquer gear - I think) stopped to check I was ok.

I was actually really glad he stopped because I was starting to get sucked in by the fear monster, this time about motor vehicles.

I ended up walking my bike across the intersection to go home.

Gingerly got back on my bike and basically with an unclipped left, followed a bus all the way home.

I think the thing that most got to me, was that the lady was going out of her way to not look at me - like she knew something was up - it was so weird.

There will always be people that just think they have the right over all other people.

I'm sure there'll be many more incidents like that.  I must focus on learning to compose myself quicker so I can get back on the road.

I'm totally ok.  Just shaken.

Working Through Fear Of Clip Stack

So, as most of you may know, I made it.

I did a ride today without another clip stack.

I went downstairs and first I practiced clipping in and out 1 foot at a time.

Then I clipped in my right and glided and stopped.

I still felt like I was not ready to go out yet, so then I leaned my bike up against the wall, clipped in my right, and practiced clipping my left in and out.

I did get stuck a few times, so I kept practicing.

Then I practiced stopping and starting and clipping both feet in.

My success rate was pretty good - about 90%.

Then I stood at the exit of the driveway and mentally tried to start cycling.

A neighbour came downstairs to put something in their garage and saw me just standing there on my bike, looking at the road, not moving.  I must have looked really weird.

After a little while longer when I couldn't think of anything else to do, I decided to just head to Centennial Park.

What everything says / thinks their clip stack looks like:

(image via www.backroads.com)

(Maybe I'm lucky I fell in the privacy of my driveway..)

I was going to take it conservatively and get off and walk across the major intersections.

But once I was rolling, I realised that if I needed to stop, my left leg just needed to be free, so I made the decision to free my left leg in anticipation of any risky areas.

Which was quite a lot of the way, especially with all the cycleways in the doorzone.  I was never sure if a car would pull out.

I'm guessing my right thigh is going to get stronger for a while, compensating for my left leg which I had unclipped, but sitting on the pedal, not really applying much force, in case I clipped in accidentally.

I got to Centennial Park and did a few laps where I practiced clipping my left leg in and out, in and out.

My success rate dropped down to about 60%.  I'm not sure if this was because I was alert and processing everything else going on.  (As it was the middle of the day, the demographic were lots of slow kids and slow leisure cyclists, no fast lycra cyclists to be seen).

So it was fine, while my success rate is low, I figured, I just need to allow time to clip out and also allow for this and if I think I need to stop, just clip out early.

I feel pretty confident about it all now.

Husband also mentioned that it's important to place pressure downwards when unclipping, as lifting does nothing.  I think this may also be something that I need to focus on.

I think it's a matter of practicing and getting it into muscle memory.  I'm successfully unclipping most of the time, so I must be doing something right, I just need to work out what the patterns are.

I've also read (and my husband mentioned it), hill starts can be challenging.  So, something else to watch out for.

[Also tonight, I had a thought that maybe my cleat could do with a little adjustment, so we changed the angle a tiny bit.  Perhaps it was needing too much twist to get out of it.]

(Image via Hyperbole And A Half again)

NO.

(Even though there was one on the balcony as I typed this.  Bleagh.)

The Morning After The Clip Stack - Update

I would like to get back on the road bike.

I'm no longer scared of the bike.  (As I was yesterday).

I'm scared of the extra pain I will have in my leg if I fall again..

It's strange though, because in the last few months of riding, falling never occurred to me, so why should it now?

At the end of the day, it's just a scrape.  It's not like I got hit by a car and thrown into a barbed wire fence or anything...

(image via cjsmblog.com)

Although Hoogerland got back on and kept riding.  Immediately.  For the rest of the Tour de France.

My husband thinks it would almost have been better to have clip stacked on the road, as I would have been forced to get back on the bike and get over it to ride home.

And it would have been ok.

Anyway, I aim to do a small ride today on this Public Holiday (despite Mondays being my rest day).

I think it will be good to do a practice ride on a public holiday (so traffic will hopefully be more similar to a weekend than a weekday), so I can get back into my weekly routine as otherwise, my next planned road ride would be Wednesday early morning before work.

(image via harrietkempton.com)

Ah, so true.

Which pedals? Shimano SPDs

I realised I didn't actually describe my pedals.

Despite the road shoes being smaller and nicer looking, 

I decided to get mountain biking pedals because they are easier than road.

We decided on Shimano shoes and Shimano SPD pedals as they're pretty mainstream, standard and popular.

Even within the Shimano SPD system, there are various choices.

I actually received lots of conflicting recommendations, eg:

"These are good as the platform is wider and you can pedal without clipping in"

"These are not so good because the plastic makes it harder to get the cleat in the pedal"

"These are good because you can use 1 side for normal shoes and the other to clip in"

"These are not so good because you have the added complication of trying to work out which side of the pedal you're trying to clip in to"

In the end I went with the double sided pedal with no extra bits.

Even though the others were deemed easier starting points.

I figured it was a bit like my decision to buy the road bike, if you know where you're headed, you could just decide to commit and make it happen.

My journey

Bad day: pms + no sun + clip stack + fear

So, following the clip stack this morning, am having a really low day.

PMS + no sun (remind me never to move out of Sydney unless it's to Spain) + fall of bike = not wanting to ride my road bike any more.

The bruising has now presented and I feel like it's gone to a 3 out of 10.
It hurts to move my left knee and my right shin is quite sensitive.

I went from this:

(Image via one of my favourite blogs: hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au)

To this:

(Image via Hyperbole and a Half)

I don't even want to touch my road bike right now:

(Another Hyperbole & A Half image via otpwg.wordpress.com)

My husband suggested that maybe I hyped up the easiness of the clipless yesterday too much.

(Image via hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au)

Falling bent the hood of my bike so we went into the bike store and they moved the hood back into position.  Apparently this is really common and some cyclists have it loose so they can move it back easily when this happens.  So no damage.  (bummer hey? ;p)

I can tell that my road bike in my mind has been enveloped by a cloud of fear.

(Image via jason-hedrick.blogspot.com.au)

I feel like I've been a bit defeated.  Like I've been in a fight mentally & physically and lost.

But my 2014 New Years Resolution is to conquer fears that I know are false.

(Image via welcometoladyville.com

Like they say in Strictly Ballroom:

(Image via themoviescene.co.uk, text added by me - wow, I've turned into someone that adds text to pictures)

So I could see the cloud of fear forming and after lots of talking to myself, I forced myself to go on a ride on my commuter bike because I didn't want the cloud of fear to eat the concept of cycling in general.  

After all, it had already taken my road bike.

(I still haven't been able to touch my road bike since put it back in the garage after falling....  my husband had to walk it to the bike shop and back...)

(image via http://dreamreboot.com/tag/fear/)

I actually ended up doing 40km in total.  (Which is a lot on a commuter bike with a pannier / rack / fenders).

Actually, I wasn't sure what length I was intending to do, but I just kept going, lap after lap.

I actually had a bit of a cry while I was riding because I felt so annoyed / upset at myself for not wanting to get on my road bike again.  

(But then this guy tried to race me - you can tell because they keep looking back to see where you are - and so I took him on and kept on his tail for a lap and a half and that amused me for a good bit.  One of the reasons I like cycling is that you have lots of arbitrary goals - other cyclists - that come and go randomly and give you reasons to chase.)

Anyway, I know that it's just fear because I know that I love riding my road bike and I can't believe that I wouldn't want to get on it again.

I guess next time I get on the road bike, I think I will practice clipping and unclipping first, with one foot still on the ground.

But the sun just came out, so I'm going to watch Amelie to cheer myself up.

(image via dellawhite.com)

While eating Chicken Twisties & Campbells soup,

(image via creativechristianmama.com)

And maybe,

(Image via Hyperbole And A Half again)

AS IF!  That's one fear I'm definitely not planning to conquer in 2014!

[EDIT: After having some friends cheer me up, and now that the sun is out, I do feel like I want to go and have another go at it.  However, I'm feeling pretty tired from the emotions of the morning.  But I'm pretty happy that I'm at least considering getting back on the road bike!]

Clip Stack

So, it did happen, despite all my positive thinking.  :)

It hurts.

I mean, on the scale of 1 to 10, it's probably a 2 where a 1 is a papercut or something.

I got confident, clipped in both feet on the way out of the driveway, got ready to practice clipping out, and then proceeded to fall to my left while trying to unclip my left.

It did happen very slowly.

I think I forgot or underestimated the power / strength to unclip - something that I got used to yesterday.

I'm such a prissy person, and made a conscious decision many many years ago (perhaps in high school) that I would never fall ever again.  And since then I've only fallen once or twice.

[In other news, I wish I had a brother growing up - I feel like I would have grown up less prissy.  Although one would argue that my sister isn't prissy at all and even tried her best to make me less prissy.]

So I bent my left hood, and I'm not sure what that means, so I'll have to take it to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) when they open at 11am and see whether it's all ok to ride / whether it's a quick fix.

I'm getting new (smaller) handlebars put on this week, so I'm not too fussed as everything was being undone anyway - but it is a shame if I can't ride it until then.

After going upstairs to put some bandaids on, I went back downstairs and had a few goes of clipping and unclipping my left, to see if I could give it another go to get on the road, but I didn't want to.

I have to admit, then I sat down and had a little disappointed cry.

(image via livenerddierepeat.com from a post about how robots are going to kill us one day?)

However, I still want to put some kms in this week as I'm down 60km from my usual target.

I might take my commuter out, since I'm awake and it's 7:30am - to "get back on the bike" as they say...  :)

My clipless brings all the boys to the yard

Well, instead of "all the boys", more like 1 man.  And instead of "the yard", more like to the park.

I got bored and despite the crazy southerly winds, decided to venture out into the park to do some practice riding with the clipless pedals.

Get joined by random man.  I think he was bored from riding alone for a while.

I guess that's ok.

But how did you go with the pedals?

It went well!

It's almost anti-climactic how calm and not stressful it is!

I'm definitely confident about getting on the road.

My husband says that things I fear are a bit anti-climactic because by the time I get over my fear and do it, I've researched it all to bits and am so overqualified for the activity.  This may be one of those instances!

James at the bike store did say that picked up the clipping in and out much quicker than most people.

They put my bike on the stationery trainer so I could practice on a non-moving bike first.

It took a little while to get used to finding where the pedals were, and we had to adjust my right shoe because the pedals needed to line up with the ball of my foot more, rather than the middle of my foot.

It also took a little while to get used to clipping in and out.  I noticed:
IN needs some weight downwards.
OUT needs some force to flick your heel outwards, while your foot is flat.

For some reason, I found the clipping in and out action much easier once I got to moving around in the park.

Before switching the pedals, it was also useful that my husband noticed I was already putting down my right foot consistently when I slow down, before putting my left leg on the ground to stop, so it meant that I was almost going through the consistent motion I needed to be doing, even before upgrading to the special shoes. 

The drills I decided to do in the park were

• Practice starting and stopping slow.
• Practice starting and stopping fast.
• Cycling without being clipped in.
• Clipping in and out while moving.

I was going to practice falling towards my right and trying to unclip, but I chickened out..

Good tips I received

• The foot that you would kick a soccer ball with, this is the foot that stays clipped in when you're riding.  (For me, this is the right foot)
• This means that you get used to clipping and unclipping the other foot mostly.  (For me, this is the left foot).
• This means that you need to lean the bike to the side AWAY from your clipped in foot, which is also the side of your foot ON THE GROUND.  (For me, this is the left).
• If you don't clip in straight away, don't panic, just keep riding and clip in when you can.  This is actually really easy to do because the shoe is so stiff you could be pedalling a music box handle.

My process for starting:

1. Clip in your right foot - by finding the pedal and applying weight downwards.
2. Raise your right pedal to get ready to take off.
3. Start pedalling.
4. Put your left foot on the pedal.
5. With your left foot, find the bit you need and apply weight to clip in.  If you don't manage it first go, keep trying, or just keep pedalling until you get momentum and can try again.

My process for stopping:

1. Brake
2. Clip out left foot.
3. Once bike is almost stopped, put left foot on ground. I guess it's important to lean slightly to the left, but I find I do this anyway without thinking to put my left foot on the ground.

(Another person's experience: http://www.hellodaly.com/2009/08/ready-to-ride-giro.html)

Useful articles

• Bike Pedals: How to Choose and Use
• How to: Master clipless pedals
• Video: Skunk River Cycles: Why You Should Ride Clipless Pedals