Clipless Pedals are an adventure

September 13th, 2010 Posted by Rachel. Published under Gear + Product Review. 2 Comments.

Over ten years ago, my family’s first German exchange student, Frederic introduced the concept of clipless pedals to me. His English or my memory could be improved, but I’ve never forgotten the basic principles. After I got a little bit more into bicycling, I looked back on those discussions with Frederic dreaming of a full 360 degrees of motion.

And you know what? It’s immediately apparent on the first down pedal that you get that full 360 degrees of motion. Hills are easier, taking off can be done more quickly and smoothly, and you look like a pro too.

But then the pedals also try to kill you.

Well…not really, but Jessica and I are still trying to get used to them and as a result have had a few stuck feet. I, myself, had a scary moment last night when my precious Bianchi Volpe’s rear derailleur was acting up. Tippy, tippy (with a car coming up behind me) but then my foot came out in the nick of time!

The nice thing about our Shimano pedals is that they are half clipless, half not, so we can still ride around without stepping in until we get more used to them and don’t tip into traffic. The other nice thing about the non-clip half is that it’s pretty spikey, which grips shoes really well. As a result, I feel that I’m still getting pretty close to 360 degrees of motion– even with regular shoes on.

We’re still figuring out the tension on the clips though. If they’re too loose, the clips are useless; if they’re too tight, they have a ninja grip on your foot and over you go (hopefully not into traffic). I set my left foot pretty loose because I take that one out for stopping at intersections. Jessica is thinking hers are tightening without her doing, giving her a few scares at stop lights.

We’ll figure it out soon though. And we’re not giving up either. With thousands of miles ahead of us, we’re going to be in need the full 360 in order to climb the Rockies, the Smokeys and all those other hills in between.