A Red Letter Day

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DSC00215Today has been a good day.

For the first time in forever I went biking with a person! A real live person!

My mom and I took a nice, almost ten mile jaunt over to a local park. Hooray for being able to talk to someone (other than myself) while riding. It was such a beautiful day to be out, doing something I love with someone I love.

But today was groundbreaking in another regard as well. My dad dug out his clipless shoes which are too small for him, switched out the pedals on my mountain bike and then tutored me in the ways of the clipless pedal.

I went around the driveway practicing how to clip in and out. What a bizarre feeling to have my feet stuck firmly to the pedals!

During one rotation around the driveway, my parent’s dog got in the way, blocking off my path with her line. You can guess what happened next. I braked and then toppled over with all the grace of a camel.

And with that wonderfully auspicious beginning, my mom and I set out. In my mind I kept reciting, “rotate to stop, rotate to stop, rotate to stop.”

There are so many different ways to pedal when clipped in!DSC00207
With one foot.
With the other foot.
With my heels down.
With my toes pointed.
With my feet flat.
By pulling up on the pedals.

My mom asked me if I was okay, I guess my experimentation must have looked pretty weird.

20 thoughts on “A Red Letter Day”

  3. Almost everybody falls once. My wife went down twice, all of my friends went down at least once… It’s almost a rite of passage. Congratulations! And now you get fast (watch – it’s pretty cool).

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  4. You are growing by leaps and bounds. Now clip less pedals. You will love them. You will travel faster, more easily. Congratulations! I never had biked with my mom. That would have been great. Cherish the moment.

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  5. I had my first day in clipless pedals today too. While I didn’t fall, there were a few panic moments–though I did conquer a very steep hill without having to stand up on the pedals.

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  6. When I feel for my 3rd time the year I got clipless pedals, it was in front of a dude on a recumbent trike at the start of RAGBRAI. Lots of witnesses! He asked if they were new to me and told me it would take 3 falls to learn. I told him that was very encouraging since that was my 3rd…..and last! At least because of the pedals 😉

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  8. I struggled with clipless for a long time. I fell at least 6 times, one time into traffic. I finally gave up on clipless and took them off my shoes. Someone told me there’s a setting screw that you can lighten up the tension to make a quicker release. Made all the difference! Now I love them. Good luck…great picture of you and mom. Cool.

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