Clipless first ride

[Big Nick]

Well with a lot of trepidation I fitted some SPD's to my hybrid yesterday

After winding off the tension in them to 1 turn from minimum, leaning against a wall clipping in and out for 10 minutes and then a few laps on the surrounding streets I decided to venture out on my first ride !

Did around 27 miles and everything went faultlessly and on downloading my ride data I found I had 15 personal bests on Strava!

Did another 10 miles this morning with the missus, again everything fine until a bit of a 'moment' as I pulled back onto the driveway! Luckily foot released just in time!

I think the times speak for themselves so they're staying on !!

 

[morrisman]

Much the same here 2 weeks with SPDs and aint going back, faster, quicker acceleration, better up hills and more comfortable. And my only momentette was also in the drive, fell against the nice plastic wheelie bins so no pain and no one saw me

 

[burndust]

First time on the spds for me today...only fell off once...it was dark early so no one saw me...lol....managed good in traffic on the way home though

 

[screenman]

I unclip before I need to not after.

 

[Easytigers]

Good idea to unclip early and not even bother with one foot if stopped and not sure that you're going to be able to set off e.g. at junctions, coming to the end of the drive

 

[Big Nick]

Yeah was unclipping early but forgot right at the end...d'oh! Kept it upright thankfully though

I was quite surprised you can still pedal ok with the minimalist nature of the spd's until you can get your cleat clicked in

I have to agree they make a hell of a difference

 

[BrynCP]

I've done about 300 miles on mine now, had just two near misses in the first few rides. First was when clipping in, leant the wrong way. Second struggling up a hill. It just becomes second nature now to unclip my left foot well in advance, but even if it's more of a rush I always twist and unclip rather than naturally pulling up.

Certainly make a difference to me, both in times and just in that I was regularly losing my footing on flat pedals which I thought was going to become dangerous.