Over the moon with the first off!

bigharj
bigharj Posts: 78
edited September 2012 in Road beginners
Last night I fitted Shimano m520 clipless pedals to my bike and spent this morning trawling youtube videos to see how best to clip on and clip off. One guy said to practice at least 25 times before setting off.

So that's exactly what I did and as I live in a cul de sac I went for a test spin. Got the hang of things quite easily and had a few near misses, I did not realise that you have to clip off in good time before coming to a stop.

As I was riding I was practising clipping on & off whilst on the move, when I soon realised my right foot was stuck in the on position, no manner of jerking my foot would unclip it until I panicked and finally fell off!

Turned out I had and only test fitted the cleats and one had worked loose. I am glad I fell off today, I learned a valuable lesson about checking & double checking.

Comments

  • fatdaz
    fatdaz Posts: 348
    I only loosened one side on each pedal when I first fitted M520s - we live and learn
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    Did the SPD instruction manual mention training wheels? :lol:
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • DavidJB
    DavidJB Posts: 2,019
    Try getting out of the look keo blades (16nm)! Lets just say you have to have a pretty firm de-clip stroke ;)
  • Guanajuato
    Guanajuato Posts: 399
    I've had a couple of those, where one of the bolts (2-bolt ATAC cleats) had loosened and dropped out. The latest was this weekend on a sportive in the lakes. Loads of people around, steep hill, cattle grid and my daughter stopped dead in front of me. Twist, realise what's happening, twist again frantically, slow-motion tumble of on to the nice, soft, very wet, bracken. :lol: At least it gave me an excuse to get off & push. I can't quite work out why I can't unclip with the other foot though - habit of always putting my left foot down.

    Lesson learnt - THREADLOCK! :mrgreen: Now to find spare cleat bolts.
  • bigharj
    bigharj Posts: 78
    Nice to see it happens to the veterans too ;)
  • biscuit959
    biscuit959 Posts: 111
    Guanajuato wrote:
    I can't quite work out why I can't unclip with the other foot though - habit of always putting my left foot down.

    I always figure there's two reasons for unclipping your left foot. If you fall over to the right not only do you fall towards traffic (UK only) but thats where all the expensive bits are on the bike lol.
    Strava: http://app.strava.com/athletes/117170
  • Mikey41
    Mikey41 Posts: 690
    ^^ that sounds very reasonable to me :D
    Giant Defy 2 (2012)
    Giant Defy Advanced 2 (2013)
    Giant Revel 1 Ltd (2013)
    Strava
  • jay197
    jay197 Posts: 196
    Guanajuato wrote:
    I've had a couple of those, where one of the bolts (2-bolt ATAC cleats) had loosened and dropped out. The latest was this weekend on a sportive in the lakes. Loads of people around, steep hill, cattle grid and my daughter stopped dead in front of me. Twist, realise what's happening, twist again frantically, slow-motion tumble of on to the nice, soft, very wet, bracken. :lol: At least it gave me an excuse to get off & push. I can't quite work out why I can't unclip with the other foot though - habit of always putting my left foot down.

    Lesson learnt - THREADLOCK! :mrgreen: Now to find spare cleat bolts.

    That story had me grinning like a cheshire cat...............nice one :P
    http://www.tryasaddle.co.uk

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