avoiding catastrophy, one shoe at a time

So, some people have this thing called wisdom. Those are the people that do their research and ask lots of questions before they try new things. And then, there's the rest of us. =o)

As I got my new bike about 3 weeks ago and have been testing the waters of clipless pedals, it's been pretty smooth sailing thus far. Everyone warned me that I would fall over at least once and that it would be in a very public and embarrassing place. So I was prepared for that aspect of new pedals, even though my embarrassing moment has yet to occur. One thing that nobody told me, nor did I do the research to learn, is to periodically make sure that the cleats that attach the shoes to the pedals are screwed on tight.

Today after much thought as to which direction to go ( North or South - there are only two choices) I headed out North. Side note: Alaska is not the most road-bike friendly state. Let me go check the map really quickly. It looks like there are about 15 or 20 highways in the entire state (remember - we're bigger than Texas) and only about 5 of them are paved. The rest are gravel and don't work so well on a road bike. So when I'm pondering where to go on a long bike ride, my choices really are pretty limited to the highway that goes north from town or the one that goes south. Ok, back to the story. I drove about 30 miles north of town, parked my car and kept riding North from there. I actually found a road that I didn't expect to be paved, but it happily was. So after stopping a few times for photo opps and hiking back to a waterfall, I came across a gorgeous scene that needed to be photographed. As I had done when I had stopped previously, I went to hop of my bike, but found I was stuck. My left pedal would not let loose of me. Some people had warned me to make sure that I kick my heel out hard enough, so I made sure that wasn't the problem. No, there was definitely something else wrong. So I did the only thing I could do - unite my shoe and disattach my foot from my shoe. With this new perspective on life, I was able to determine the cause of the problem. As I turned my shoe, the cleat that was supposed to be firmly attached to the shoe was not turning with the shoe - it was staying firmly in the pedal. As I investigated, I realized that the places to tighten the cleat are directly behind the pedal, so there was no hope of fixing the problem until I had the shoe removed.

After calling a friend on the other side of the country to get advice, I admitted defeat. I strapped my foot back into my shoe and rode the 20 miles back to my car. When I got there, I tried once more to extract the shoe from the bike to no avail. I'm sure those driving behind me got quite a chuckle out of seeing my bike on the bike rack with the shoe attached. And yes, as of now, it is still attached to the pedal. I think I may have to sheepishly walk into the bike shop on Monday and have them laugh at my predicament and then solve it for me.

And the moral of the story is: though humility is a virtue, foresight is much more valuable.