Wednesday 19 September 2012

MrGrumpy cycles again

Until now MrGrumpy has only cycled to work on a Monday and then both ways on Tuesday and back to work on Wednesday. Today he cycled back again, his legs did not feel too bad.

He has brought some new pedals (one side for normal shoes, the other for clip on cycle shoes) and some shoes to work with them. They were on sale at the bike shop so he was able to keep the costs down. All he had to do was swap the pedals, should have been quite simple, but the original ones must have been tightened by an orangutan with a scaffold bar. This make it quite a task to undo with a cycle spanner, he managed to remove one but the other was even tighter. He managed to find a real spanner which just about fitted (it was imperial but he really needed 15mm) with that and standing on it finally loosened it. He assembled the clips onto the shoes and set the clips to min effort to release.

He had read that you need to practice getting your feed into and out of the clips, so before riding home he tried a couple of time while still in the car park at work. It did not seem too difficult, so off he went.

It felt different, he could tell that he was using slightly different muscles, but it felt more efficient and less effort.

Then came the first traffic lights, he came to the end of the short trail section and needed to press the crossing button and therefore had to stop... panic as he stopped with both feet still clipped into the pedals... a bit of shaking and wobbling before he managed to get both feet off, just in time...  

The next few stops, he ensured that he released his left foot prior to stopping. It's going to take a little while for him to get the hang of getting his foot back in, especially as the pedals only have a clip on one side.

He did not get home any quicker, but he did not feel quite as out of breath, it will take few rides for his legs to adjust.

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