4th of July was slightly underwhelming. Hazy light rain made the big DC
fireworks show less awesome. But the weekend wasn't all that lame. I
went to REI and found real bike shoes on sale and got click-in pedals!
Then
I was excited by my new toys and was playing with the pedals and shoes
and ended up getting my left shoe locked to my right pedal. I couldn't
get it unattached so took it to my local bike shop and they couldn't do
it with their hands either, so we ended up putting the new pedals on my
bike and then using the leverage of the bike to get the shoe detached.
oops.
This meant that I got the teeny tiny pedals on there sooner
than I wanted, but it wasn't as hard as I'd thought it would be to get
the hang of clicking in and out. I didn't fall at all while practicing
on a flat empty road, and then found it easy to ride in to work this
morning. Then this evening, when going on a bike ride, I slowed suddenly
as I realized I was missing my turn and toppled straight sideways onto
my elbow and hip. oops, again. I'm fine, and it actually was a little
reassuring. While I hope to not fall over too many more times, it really
didn't hurt much and it was pretty much the worst surface to fall
slowly onto (packed dirt path with some gravel), so now I can believe
everyone who told me that it wouldn't hurt too much and would mostly
just be embarrassing.
I did however learn that I need tighter
helmet straps because my helmet wobbled much more than I'd like it to if
my head were about to come into contact with the ground.
I've
been really tempted to jump in and get a road bike, but the used bike
venues aren't presenting any reasonable opportunities and it would be
sort of financially dumb to buy a new one this summer. So my goal is to
get a whole bunch more miles on my clunky hybrid (now all frankensteined
up with clipless pedals) and then I will feel justified spending money
for a new one next spring/summer.
mmmm shiny
