Click-in, aka clipless

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