In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...
Quoted message said:
Heh. You're talking to someone here that is still uncoordinated at stopping. My brain appears not
to be able to bring the bike to a stop, get it leaning the right way, get the right foot down, get
bum off the saddle, and stop where I want, without going PANICPANICPANIC and ending up doing a
rather abrupt stop where I apparently put a foot down before I've actually stopped... leading to
the abruptness.
Couple this with the additional stress of knowing my feet are attached to the pedals and that
it will take a twist of both feet before I actually need to put them down, and the risk that
doing it early may lead to needing another quick bit of pedalling (stopping uphill is a
NIGHTMARE for me still) and inadvertant clipping back in, and you might see why SPD's outside
are a Very Bad Idea...
Velvet, I had roughly the same opinion of my ability to use SPDs as you, and in the case of my
veteran Raleigh similar problems stopping. All I can say is that learning to use SPDs is remarkably
easy; I haven't even had my comedy fall yet, (I feel a bit conned about that - I don't even have my
funny SPD story to tell), but I expect it will come with time.
Get some pedals, loosen the clips, get on the bike, lean against the kitchen wall and just practice
clipping and unclipping until you're comfortable with it. I have single sided SPD pedals with a
platform so that I can ride my bikes without needing to wear SPDs. This was a sort of security
blanket for me and it does mean that if I unclip too soon I can just pedal along unclipped. I also
have the multi-direction release SPDs which means I can twist out of them in any number of
directions.
Juliette
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nowt
