Pioneer to the Fall(s)

Happy Tuesday.  Grrrr.  As the rest of the 9-to-5ers of the world, I wish the weekends were longer.  Anyway, I have a little story to tell you guys, so grab your coffee and stare blankly into your computer screens.

When we bought the bikes, as we were getting fit, our friendly LBS rep told us that we should buy clipless pedals and shoes.  We knew what he was talking about but also knew it wasn't something we wanted to purchase and use right from the get go.  We wanted to get to know our bikes, and make sure the fit was right, etc, etc.  But before I continue... Can we talk about the name of this element of cycling?  Clipless pedals seems to be quite the opposite of what it achieves, because you end up clipping to them.  As in, your feet and the pedals become one in holy matrimony.  As is the norm in current society unions, this marriage of foot clipped onto a pedal can be quite rocky.  And by rocky I mean, you will fall on your butt while your feet are stuck in these pedals.  You'll fall simply because this is abnormal.  Since we're kids, we've only ever used regular unclippable (is that a word) pedals.  Ultimately, there was a mental tug-o-war over trying to feel any sense of comfort when you first try this out on the road, secluded or not.  In our case, I thought I was more of a nervous wreck than Michelle.  Lo and behold, she was the first to fall on the street...with cars around. Dun-dun-dun.

We had bought the pedals maybe 2 months after riding the bikes and the decision was heavily persuaded because the bike store we frequent (here's my shout out to biketech.com) were having an anniversary sale.  There shoes were 50% off...hello!  Now you're talking my language.  Shoes and sale are magnets to my wallet so of course we went.  We bought our shoes:

Mine are on the left.  Hello non-sexy shoes.

And the Look Keo Classic Pedals:

You bringing me down Keo!

The shop told us to come back during the week to get on the trainer and practice the clips.  Ummm, there was no way that was going to happen.  We wanted to try it that same day, so we practiced by holding onto the counter in the kitchen.  Clip in, and clip out, and pedal backwards because we don't have a trainer.  Ta-da!  After a couple of minutes, we were ready to hit the lake path.  And by ready, I mean we have no patience.  I tried to stop and get off the bike and jammed the pedal to my calf while my leg slipped because there is no traction on these shoes.  But I was so happy I didn't fall, that I'll take a pedal to the calf any day.  The very first time we tried riding on the streets with these pedals, I literally made a u-turn because I thought I was going to die.  Literally.  There was too many cars out on the street, that I did the whole 'jam a pedal to my leg' again while trying to stop before slamming into a car.

Fast forward to last weekend.  We try our hardest to get up early, around 6:30am to hit the streets on the weekends.  They're pretty empty at that time and being the early worm has managed to help us grow some comfort with this new pedal setup.  However, my dear Michelle tipped over last weekend.  She had the dreaded fall that all the bike guys told us would happen.  We were riding down a pretty long road near tomato fields and there are a couple nooks that are dead ends.  She was behind me and screamed out to stop up ahead in the dead end to have a drink of water.  So I had to turn slighly left and straighten out to place my unclipped right foot on the right curb.  Michelle has decided she's more comfortable unclipping with her left foot, but she was already leaning into the left curve and that's when it happened.  Hello, big bruise on the buttock.  Seriously, her butt broke her fall and all she had was a little bruising on her left wrist and left ankle.  Thankfully, the tip over happened near one of these nooks.  There were cars at the stop sign that were staring a bit, but they went along their merry way.  I'm not going to embarrass her with photo evidence (which I couldn't photograph anyway because I was too busy being worried) but this is my rendition of Michelle's fall:

I've fallen and can't get up, because these damn shoes have no traction.

By the way, I'm ashamed to admit that I graduated with an art degree.  Don't judge me.  Do I have any Interpol fans in the hizzouse?  No?  Do yourselves a favor and give them a whirl because they are awesome.  Ok, buh-bye.