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That time I looked like an idiot on my bike...Twice.

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I has a new bike

I mentioned in my last post that I had bought a fancy new road/racing bike. It's embarrassing how much I paid for it, but look - JUST LOOK - at how pretty she is. A Specialized Bicycles Tarmac model with all the fancies and metallic white paint. It's made of carbon. CARBON! Which means I can pick it up with like...two fingers.

With Fancy Shoes & Pedals

It requires fancy pedals and fancy bike shoes that clip in so you are quite literally attached to your bike as you ride. Clipping in means your legs push AND pull on each stroke making you go farther with less effort. So much fancy!

My fancy new riding shoes that 'clip in' to the pedals

The fancy new pedals that will eventually become the death of me.

I have ridden almost 100 miles on this bike already in just a couple of weeks!  But the first 60 miles were with regular pedals and regular shoes to get used to the bike. Then I got 'fitted'. This is where the bike shop hooked me up to a stationary traininer and watched me ride for an hour and made all sorts of adjustments to fit me just right...including the install of said fancy clip-in pedals and shoes.

But It has It made me cool? hell No.

I've had two rides with my new fitting adjustments and clip-in petals. When I'm riding, it's amazing – so much more efficient and fast! But stopping? I suck at this.

This is how it's supposed to go down:

  1. You see an approaching stop, so you gracefully twist your right foot to the side to 'clip-out' and prepare to put it down on the ground when you stop.
  2. You slowly come to a stop and place your foot on the pavement while leaving your other foot clipped in so you can gracefully begin pedaling once you're ready to start up again.
  3. To start back up, you start pedaling with your left foot to get momentum and then clip your other foot back into the pedal and off you go. 

Here's how it went for me...TWICE, now:

  1. I see an approaching stop, so I gracefully clip-out my right foot and prepare to stop. "So smooth" I think to myself.
  2. I come to a slow and graceful stop and put my right foot down. "Man, I'm so good at this clip-in, clip-out stuff and I'm totally new to this" I continue to tell myself.
  3. Then for some unknown reason, I attempt to shift my stance and the bike starts to lean left and since my left foot is still clipped-in, I can't stop the lean and I fall completely over to the side, Chris Farley style. Well shit.

My thought process during this slow-motion scene? PROTECT THE BIKE!  So as a result, my hands go down and my left leg pulls up to help to break the fall and I wind up with serious scrapes on my palms, a swollen ankle and a fat strawberry on my thigh. #myfirstroadrash

Dang it! Scratched already.

OW, my ankle! (although the swelling doesn't look so bad in the pic) 

Lessons Learned?

Practice more and stop inexplicably leaning to the left when you stop! 

Maybe one day I'll be as cool as my bike.

Christopher Cecil