Bad news, good news
What a roller coaster of an afternoon.
First, it was raining with embedded thunderstorms. The splat of raindrops and the hiss of tires on the road probably explains why I was oblivious to what happened next.
I had an appointment at Full Moon Vista to have Yellow Bike worked on and to get my new clipless pedals and shoes. Since Yellow Bike was not yet ridable, I had to tow it there. This involves removing the front wheel, dropping the forks over a crossbar in my rack, lashing it down with bungees, then attaching the front wheel to the frame.
Rather than go with the tried-and-true method of bungeeing the front wheel to the frame, I got the hare-brained idea of using zip ties instead. This probably would have worked, except, this is a batch of zip ties I should have returned to the store or just thrown away when I bought them months ago. They’re brittle as all hell and break easily and unexpectedly.
Can you guess what came next?
If you guessed, the wheel came off, you’re correct., If you also guessed that I didn’t know about it until I arrived at Full Moon Vista, give yourself bonus points.
Several tips back and forth have failed to turn it up. It could have bounced and rolled anywhere. I Presume it was then discovered by someone who needs it more than me.
That it was a wheel with a brand new, $50 tire and $8 tube is bad enough. But the custom colored rim is irreplaceable. Colored rims went out of fashion at the end of the 90s. Yellow Bike was the last Trek made with them. I kinda liked the look, myself.
Kyle found a cheap, but serviceable rim in the basement at Full Moon Vista. So I guess I’ll buy that. They don’t sell the Continental Ultra Gatorskins there, so I’m undecided about that. Should I go with a mismatched tire to go with my mismatched wheel? I dunno. To early to make that decision.
I came home and had a nap before returning to Full Moon Vista for my cleat fitting session.
More bad news
Kyle and Scott worked on the fitting. Scott also raised my saddle another centimeter. He didn’t want to say it, so I gave him the lead. Bike’s frame is too small for me. I suspected it right from the start, and pretty much knew it by the end of last summer.
He’s concerned that I could crack the seat tube because there’s so much seatpost out there working like a lever against it with every pedal stroke and every bump. He further advised, “When you sell this bike, keep that seatpost. That’s a great seatpost.”
I can’t afford to replace the bike right now, so I’ll just have to live with it.
The good news
Scott worked out a couple of other things with my fit, then took me out to the parking lot for lessons on how to use clipless. He explained both the proper technique, but also how and why improper technique didn’t work. He watched and coached for a bit, then left me to practice in the rain.
It’s going to take me a bit. I think I’m thinking about it too much. The times I was able to let go and just do it, it worked perfectly. After a few minutes it really started coming down hard, so I went inside and settled the bill.
On the ride home, I did all right. I immediately noticed how much easier it was to pedal. The reason is that I used to try and curl my toes around the front of the old pedals to try to keep my feet from flying off. I was expending a lot more effort that I was aware of just keeping my feet in place.
It’s actually quite relaxing, not having to work to keep my feet in place. What surprised me was how natural it felt once I got to just riding along. Apparently, all the effort of trying to keep my feet on the pedals was in response to my feet wanting to be in clipless.
In other words, much of my pedaling was in directions other than just the downstroke to begin with. That’s part of the reason my feet were flying off the platforms. I was pushing forward at the top and pulling back on the bottom—two things you’re supposed to do clipped-in that don’t work well when you’re not, because, guess what? Your feet fly off the pedals.
So all I really need to add to my pedaling is pulling on the upstroke. And that seemed to happen naturally too. All of this made it easy to hammer in traffic, once I got clipped-in.
I’m still having a bit of difficulty getting the left clipped-in. It seems to happen best, again, when I don’t think about it.
Unclipping is going to take a lot of time, I think. The technique Scott wants me to use is to unclip the left at the bottom of the stroke, I’m used to taking my left off the pedal at the top of the stroke. When I get it, it’s perfect. Unfortunately, I usually overshoot my mark for stopping. It’s not so bad in a parking lot, but in traffic…
Plus, I’m paying so much attention to unclipping properly, that I don’t do other things, like downshift. Starting in traffic in 38-14 ain’t so smooth. Especially not when I’m trying to get one foot clipped-in.
Even so, I can see where once the adjustment is made, it will be a tremendous improvement.
More good news
Coming home I took a victory lap. Coming down Anderson Ave, a rider coming in the opposite direction crossed the street on a head-on, intercept course.
“I gotta get me a light like yours,” he said, commenting on my Dinotte Ultra 5 headlight, which was strobing merrily in Uzi Burst Mode. “I saw you like a mile away.”
I could only have been a half-mile, max, but I thanked him anyway.
