1st clipless ride tomorrow..

Any advice?

I've been riding around in the yard and have had no trouble clipping in and out. The neighbors left their camp fire (I live in the country) to come out to the street to figure out why it took, me and SO AND a flashlight AND him chasing me - for me to ride a bike

Yet, another reason they have to think we're weird!

We finally realized we had them set pretty tight. Loosened them and there was much less drama involved

So we're off to ride Crabtree tomorrow. Pretty rooty - but it's a girls ride and a couple have just switched too, so there will be lots of support. Please send me your good vibes!!

All I can say is...stay relaxed. I think that the first time I "crashed" was going uphill and just coming to a standstill and then realizing that I was clipped in! I fell over in slow motion like tree falling...I wonder if anyone heard me?! If you've practiced, I'm sure you will do fine....good vibes, coming your way from NJ!!! ~~~~~~

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You do not live far from me....and I race, and do triathlons......(sorry I checked your profile) and I am a teacher!!!!

Where do you ride?????

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry,

I saw a woman in my area and got really happy.....

shoot me a pm if you want to chat.

Ruth

good luck, tell us how it goes.

Hey you two NJ girls, where do you live?

I sent her a pm....I live at the shore, but juding but what I saw on her profile, we are probably within an hour of each other. How cool is that!

Ruth

Sorry...little slow on the uptake here today!

I live just outside of Philadelphia, literally a few miles over the bridge! Just a little tri-racer hoping to get into racing road and mountain next year!

That's about it!

Good luck on the clipless!! You will do great!!!! Just ask someone to keep reminding you and before you know it, you'll be reminding yourself and wont even have to think about it.

And when you stop, don't be afraid to lean extra far to the side of where you unclipped your foot. I thought I would look stupid doing that so I tried to balance as straight as possible (trying to look like I knew what I was doing or something

), then realized one little gust of wind can put me to the other side and timberrrrr I go. So just lean a little more than normal and you'll do just fine!!! And remember, if you ever feel uncomfortable or not sure what traffic is going to do, you can always unclip both feet

You are the rider and are in control of everything you do, don't ever forget that

Plus, when you fall at a stand still, it is wayyyyy funnier than painful.

Just look at me in July with my first adventure with clipless pedals. I'm laughing hysterically at myself! My friend that is sitting next to me had fallen prior at an intersection, so thought she'd join me for the picture! We were both new at it and we both survived! You will too!!!!

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Roshelle from Milwaukee

I road tonight but not the clipless ride I had planned. Since the group was going to be large and I had extra free time, I called a friend to get her to do a baby trail with me so I could warm up a bit. I did and it was a lot easier than I was expecting. I was very timid throughout. Standing on those little things feels very fragile! But I could climb so much faster!!

When I got to my regular ride, I couldn't get my first foot clipped in! I stood there for like 15 minutes moving it around and looking at my cleat and moving and trying and FINALLY it clipped in. SO goes "see that wasn't hard that time..." to which I was thinking "that time" took me 15 minutes...it was ALL "that time!" I tried again and it just didn't seem to want to work. I decided that because of the size of the group - I didn't want to hold everyone up with my clipping IN to START my ride, so I switched them back to platform. SO wasn't happy with me. BUT I've only been playing with these things for like 1 full night! I don't feel too guilty. I'm going to ride around the yard some more tomorrow and see if I can get better at clipping in! Out seems to be going well...but I have work to do on clipping in!