Trepidation and Anticipation: Moving Up to Cycling Shoes

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Clips, Cleats, Pedals, and Shoes

oh my!

自転車用の靴、ペダル、クリート等

Since getting bit
by the cycling bug earlier in the year, I've been slowly inching my way
deeper into it. I took the opportunity of my recent trip back to The States
to buy some “real” cycling clothes in my hard-to-find-anywhere-but-particularly-in-Japan size,
and this includes for the first time real cycling shoes that firmly attach to the pedals.

Not many shoes come in European size 48 or 49 (cycling shoes seem to use
the same scale worldwide, which is really convenient), but I found and
ordered three pair at Zappos.com (which I'm always pleased
with) from three companies in sizes 48 and 49, and ended up keeping two.

The shoes are combined with cleats that bolt onto the bottom of the
shoe, and specialty pedals that the cleats clip into (which are quizzically
called “clipless”, even though you most certainly do clip into and out of
them; the term “clipless” arose to differentiate from the
old “toe cage” type of pedal which at the time had been inexplicably
called “clips”).

I'm quite apprehensive about the whole “strongly attached to the bike” thing, because if your foot is connected to the
pedal, you don't have it available to stand on should you suddenly need to
have a foot on the ground, and so you can easily
end up falling over if the need for a free foot arises more suddenly than
your ability to free your foot. I've seen it happen with others, even by
experienced riders who just couldn't unclip fast enough in that unexpected
split second when balance was lost while maneuvering at slow speed.

I've heard that there are two types of cyclists: those who have fallen as described above, and liars.

So, I'm posting this before I actually try them to document my ignorance
and apprehension, and later will compare how I feel after getting some
experience with them.

I mention “ignorance” because I'm naturally skeptical about their
benefits. Everyone I've talked to who uses them recommends them strongly,
and many friends from Cycling Kyoto!
encourage me to upgrade so that I can enjoy the benefits. The benefits include
both safety (“I
don't feel safe without them”), and mechanics... the ease and
efficiency of pedaling.

I do have trust that the accumulated wisdom of 200 years
probably trumps my ignorant assumptions based upon nothing more than
unfounded imagination, but that trust is academic, so I need to experience
it a bit to actually feel it, I guess.

So I will soon. I'll rewatch videos on how to set up the
clips and how to learn riding with
them. I'll probably fall over and hurt myself, hopefully not too much.
Maybe I'll dress up like the
Michelin man for protection. We'll see.

Once I acquire a “real” road bike (something scheduled later this
month), I'll move the new pedals to it and visit Vincent Flanagan for a
proper fitting, and hopefully then go on to make lots of personal bests
on my Strava.

Going forward, I suspect I'll still favor my own “style” (or
lack thereof,
as the case may be) for my cycling wear, but now that I have “proper”
cycling clothes, once everything is in place I'll try a full-on proper cyclist getup and report on it here.