After school I went home excitedly (as every time when waiting for a packet). I knew it had to be delivered this day. Because of the excitement I quickly ate up so I could open it. So what was is the packet? As the title already tells got myself clipless pedals for my enduro bike, to be exact I ordered the Crankbrothers Mallet E and a pair of Fiveten that fit the pedals and my feet on Bike-Components.
First I opened the shoe box and tried them on and checked wether they fit my feet. They were slightly bigger than my normal shoes I use for biking but all in all they feel different, also the entire shoe and especially the sole is much stiffer than on my pair of trainers I use to ride flat pedals.
Ensuing I took the new pedals to my workshop and installed them on my YT Capra. You should never forget greasing the screw threads because otherwise it could happen that you cannot untighten them anymore and you have to buy a new crankset :I ! I mounted the cleats right away but it took me some time to figure out the right position to suite my personal preferences. Before my first ride I had to practise to clip in and out, later in the afternoon there where some situations I would have been happy getting out of the clip mechanism faster. At first I was very hard, so I had to screw the pins more into the pedal that they get shorter which made it easier for me to clip out. Once I get used to the new feeling I want to undo them again to generate more grip.
Now it was time for a first ride. When you are used to flat pedals it is a really weird feeling to be bound to the pedals, your feet won 't move anymore sidewards or something like that. The only movement you can perform is the rotation of you foot to the left or to the right. But clipless pedals offer so much oportunities, e. g. pedaling on rooty or bumpy terrain, or more efficient pedaling in general. I rode a bit on the street, but as it became more and more boring, so I decided to ask my friend wether he wanted to go out for a ride. Arriving at my friend 's house his mother had already opened the door and told me that he was ill. While talking I forgot that one of my feet was still clipped in, and I very slowly toppled over because I couldn 't get my foot loose, solely I didn 't expect that to happen. The feeling when you know you are going to fall over and you can 't do anything against it, is the worst feeling you can imagine.
After that first fail I decided to pay more attention to my feet when stopping the bike.
As the day went on I felt more and more comfortable on the clipless pedals. And in the early evening houres I went for a steep climb on the dirt road. In order to the rain of the last days it was very muddy and slippery as f***. Oh, I 'm sorry for my choice of words... As it was bound to happen in the middle of the climb my backwheel was spunning and, as you would expect, I fell again. In the end I fell at least 6 times while stopping and forgetting the pedals or spinning wheels and my clothes were full of dirt.
I will practice and ride more this weekend and I think after a few days I will get used to the feeling and usage of clipless pedals. Maybe I will write another progress report about this topic once I will have gained more experience.
I hope you enjoyed this small text, it would be nice of you to leave a comment or constructive criticism on my writing so that I can improve.
Ride on!
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