Let that be a Lesson to You

Keen SPD Cleat
Originally uploaded by Snak Shak

I gave myself a little scare yesterday...

Yesterday I had a bike rodeo event I was assisting with over at the U of M, so rode the LHT over to the St. Paul campus early in the morning. That bike has some flat/SPD pedals on it for maximum versatility, which I think will be handy, especially for teaching.

Now that it's finally summer, I've been wearing my Keen SPD sandals for most of my "clipped in" riding, but yesterday morning I opted for a pair of very lightly used Lake shoes that I picked up from a Bike Lover at a very favorable price.

I probably rode about 1.5 miles or so before I had to stop for a red light. I rolled to a stop and found the tension on the pedals so tight that I almost couldn't unclip. I avoided going down like a bag of hammers but was a lot more careful on the rest of the ride over to St. Paul.

I have never had that problem - I generally keep my clips pretty light except on the LeMond since I ride in traffic so much. My theory is that the cleats on my sandals must be worn more than I realized, and I have the pedals clamped down pretty tight to compensate. The new Lake shoes have fresh cleats, and this was the first mating of those cleats to these pedals.

I'll put a lightly used pair of spare cleats on the Keen's today and see if all my pedals need to be loosened.

Kind of glad I discovered this without acquiring scrapes and bruises for the learning experience.