Building confidence with clippless pedals ( help )

Lowest gear possible. Only unclip one pedal (left for my preference).
Have the right pedal up pretty high when you take off so you can get at
least half a decent stroke in, then bring the left onto the pedal to
try to clip in. If you clip in first try, great. If not, just rest your
left foot on the pedal and only really pedal with the right (if you
know what I mean) until you are up to speed (enough to balance and
screw about trying to clip in).
I just got some new shoes recently, and it's a little different
clipping in, so I'm relearning a bit - I know how you feel, sort of.

blah said:

Lowest gear possible. Only unclip one pedal (left for my preference).
Have the right pedal up pretty high when you take off so you can get at
least half a decent stroke in, then bring the left onto the pedal to
try to clip in. If you clip in first try, great. If not, just rest your
left foot on the pedal and only really pedal with the right (if you
know what I mean) until you are up to speed (enough to balance and
screw about trying to clip in).
I just got some new shoes recently, and it's a little different
clipping in, so I'm relearning a bit - I know how you feel, sort of.

actually (just to confuse you 😄) I would do the same as Blah suggests but with a BIGGER gear. Smaller gear will mean youre pedals 'dissapear' on you much quicker. The bigger gear allows you to get momentum with one pushoff-stroke thus helping balance and giving you more time/confidence to get the second one in. Then again, its starting to sound like some cruel training drill 😄

My key tip would be to not look at the pedals, but watch where you are going instead. Stops you running into stuff or falling off the bike. If it takes you a while to clip in, at least you're still upright.

Shabby said:

My key tip would be to not look at the pedals, but watch where you are going instead. Stops you running into stuff or falling off the bike. If it takes you a while to clip in, at least you're still upright.

Funny you should mention that Shabby. I find that I can clip in a lot quicker if I don't actually look at what I'm doing and just look straight ahead. I don't know why, it just seems to happen that way. The times where I look down I find that I'm generally stuffing around more trying to clip in.

I do what Blah said but I leave me left leg clipped in. I have greater coordination of my right leg so I clip that one in last.

On Thu, 19 May 2005 at 21:10 GMT, Spin Doctor (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

This is where I lack the confidence to unclip, and more nervous to clip and
do the hill start.

Can you offer me any advice to make this feel more easy for me, as I always
feel like running the redlight to avoid the hill start.

Learn to trackstand 🙂

People who trackstand really well could never figure how to get out of
their pedals.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"Some people think that noise abatement should be a higher priority for ATC. I
say safety is noise abatement. You have no idea how much noise it makes to have
a 737 fall out of the sky after an accident." -- anon. air traffic controller

jazmo said:

I do what Blah said but I leave me left leg clipped in. I have greater
coordination of my right leg so I clip that one in last.

Bah! left leg clipped in indeed, obviously don't ride a motorcycle as
well. I've tried stopping at lights on bicycle and unclipping right foot
first but the brain won't allow it, too many years of motorcycle in peak
hour where it is always the left that goes down first, and comes up last.

daveB

quote='DaveB'jazmo said:

I do what Blah said but I leave me left leg clipped in. I have greater
coordination of my right leg so I clip that one in last.

Bah! left leg clipped in indeed, obviously don't ride a motorcycle as
well. I've tried stopping at lights on bicycle and unclipping right foot
first but the brain won't allow it, too many years of motorcycle in peak
hour where it is always the left that goes down first, and comes up last.

daveB[/QUOTE]

You have to find what suits you, I am a right foot clipper outerer, just suits me better and I unclip inwards not outwards, just never felt comfortable twisting outwards.

Of course the more comfortable you become with clipping out the less you do it, because you know you can clip out you tend to trackstand/creep more while waiting for lights because you know that you can get out if you need to.

As to get comfortable with being clipped in, wait til you break a cleat and have to ride home with it not clipped in and it frustrates you all the way home, then you no the true value of being clipped in.

PiledHigher said:

As to get comfortable with being clipped in, wait til you break a cleat
and have to ride home with it not clipped in and it frustrates you all
the way home, then you no the true value of being clipped in.

that's gotta be easier than Guy Andrews at Forster IM Tri who lost a
crank (not sure how you do that) and had to pedal something like 30km
with one leg. Yikes!

DaveB

DaveB said:

PiledHigher said:

As to get comfortable with being clipped in, wait til you break a cleat
and have to ride home with it not clipped in and it frustrates you all
the way home, then you no the true value of being clipped in.

that's gotta be easier than Guy Andrews at Forster IM Tri who lost a
crank (not sure how you do that) and had to pedal something like 30km
with one leg. Yikes!

DaveB

Ummm, it must be that awesome power that triathletes demonstrate!
Hehehe.

He was leading his age group too, until the pedal snapped off. Took a
while before he got to the Shimano man. I couldn't figure out why he
didn't stop and unclip it though, the weight must've been annoying, bad
enough being on one leg but having to hold the other up?

Tam

Thanks so much guys and gals, I feel better now, and I will try some of your
tips, thanks again,
Happy cycling.
"TimC" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Thu, 19 May 2005 at 21:10 GMT, Spin Doctor (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

This is where I lack the confidence to unclip, and more nervous to clip

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

do the hill start.

Can you offer me any advice to make this feel more easy for me, as I

always

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

feel like running the redlight to avoid the hill start.

Learn to trackstand 🙂

People who trackstand really well could never figure how to get out of
their pedals.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"Some people think that noise abatement should be a higher priority for

ATC. I

Quoted message said:

say safety is noise abatement. You have no idea how much noise it makes to

have

Quoted message said:

a 737 fall out of the sky after an accident." -- anon. air traffic

controller

Don't unclip early, in case the light changes to green. Push off hard to get
some momentum.

Some pedal types are worse than others for clipping into - some tip over
upside down if you miss them first time. If you've got these and it bothers
you that much, get some other pedals, of a type that stays the right way up,
or double header types like eggbeaters or speedplays.

Pete

"Spin Doctor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am a newbie with clippless pedals, and I must say that I love them, and
higly recommend them to anyone who has not got them.

But I wanted to ask some advice on building confidence.

While I feel comfortable to clip in and out of them, I dread to hit a
slight
uphill and get a red light.

This is where I lack the confidence to unclip, and more nervous to clip
and
do the hill start.

Can you offer me any advice to make this feel more easy for me, as I
always
feel like running the redlight to avoid the hill start.

I know practice will help me, but maybe you have some simple tips to make
this more easy for me.

Thankyou.

On Fri, 20 May 2005 at 01:33 GMT, DaveB (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

PiledHigher said:

As to get comfortable with being clipped in, wait til you break a cleat
and have to ride home with it not clipped in and it frustrates you all
the way home, then you no the true value of being clipped in.

that's gotta be easier than Guy Andrews at Forster IM Tri who lost a
crank (not sure how you do that) and had to pedal something like 30km
with one leg. Yikes!

I had a go at that just to see how circular my motion was. Highly
double plus non-good. I was so gumby.

One of the training methods for fixie riding appears to be peddling
with one foot, but at least you get some assistance on the upstroke.
When I peddle, it sure feels like I am pulling up on the toe clips,
but it doesn't seem to translate to much upward motion.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
Unix isn't just for geeks:
grep && gawk && unzip && strip && touch && finger && mount && fsck \
&& gasp && more && yes && umount && make clean && make mrproper && sleep

Right foot clipperoutering leads to the dreaded grease tattoo. Like
Dutchy's.

blah said:

Right foot clipperoutering leads to the dreaded grease tattoo. Like
Dutchy's.

Nahh, I'm a leftie and I still end up with the grease tattoo. But Ithink
it only happens when I get to the top of a hill, unclip, and slump over
the bike in exhaustion. Worst grease tattoo I got was top of Burgundy St
on BR.

DaveB

blah said:

Right foot clipperoutering leads to the dreaded grease tattoo. Like
Dutchy's.

Right foot clipperoutering should make it less likely due to the fact that your right leg steps away from the bike.

Its those crazy left foot clipperouterers that would get chainring tatoos!

PiledHigher said:

Its those crazy left foot clipperouterers that would get chainring tatoos!

You ALL have one! youre just in denial 😄😄😄😄

F"cyclotherapist"Dutch

By that logic I'd be regularly severing my calf while pedalling,
surely? The fact I'm clipped in keeps my right leg a set distance from
the rings. I find I only get the grease mark when waiting for someone
on BRs (like DaveB said) and unclip both feet.

blah said:

By that logic I'd be regularly severing my calf while pedalling,
surely? The fact I'm clipped in keeps my right leg a set distance from
the rings. I find I only get the grease mark when waiting for someone
on BRs (like DaveB said) and unclip both feet.

yeah? you still have one tho. youre just ashamed 😄

F"Iron-Chef-Suburbia"Dutch

flyingdutch said:

yeah? you still have one tho. youre just ashamed 😄

F"Iron-Chef-Suburbia"Dutch

I'm a right footer, and never had a greese tatoo as a result. The only time I've got one is when I've been off my bike and brushed against it.