Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A Space Cadet Goes Cycling


A new year, a new amusing misadventure.  Today I joined some cycling buddies for a 45-mile, no-drop New Year ride.  I brought my road bike, along with my road shoes with Look Keo cleats -- nothing unusual here.

Look Keo cleat


Except that, upon driving nearly an hour to the ride start, I realized that my road bike was still in "commuter" mode, which meant that it had... not Look pedals.  Instead, it had these contraptions:

Not a Look Keo pedal

So, faced with a choice between sensibly calling it a day and riding 45 cold miles with flexy running shoes on crazy pedals the size of pencils, I... well, I probably don't even need to finish that sentence.  Climbing out of the saddle was a little sketchy, because I suspected that, if my foot slipped even a little, I'd impale myself on the pedal spindle or at least crack the hell out of my shin.  But what would the new year be without a little comic misadventure?  Oy vey.  I turned down a buddy's offer to duct tape my feet to the pedals.

It wasn't the swiftest ride I've ever had, nor was it the most, well, stable.  But I knocked it out nonetheless, and with it, crossed another "Doh!" moment off of my bucket list.  Maybe today I'll do my track workout in cycling shoes.

2 comments:

  1. You missed out using man's best invention: duct tape... There's good and evil in the world. Duct tape is what holds everything together!

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  2. Most people would have thrown in the towel. In fact, of all the people I've seen make this mistake, you're the only one I know who has ridden anyway. Definitely give this one some mental leverage on a hellish ride when your feet ARE clipped it. Great work, DT.

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