freemti

Well, after a conselling/training/tuning session with the LBS I put my speedplay light action pedals on the bike and the cleats on my bandy new shoes (specialized road carbon) last night. Turns out I had them mis-aligned a smidge and they needed some dry lube. Clipping out now does seem way easier than I had played it up to be.

I added >1 mph to my average speed on my commute this morning so I beleive something is working better. Before I was wearing regular sneakers on MTB-esque pedals. The motion of pedalling seems easier although more confined (by defintion I guess), although there is a considerable amount of float on the speedplays.

I read the arguements that say pulling up doesn't buy you much, that may well be true, but I did feel the 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock forward part of the stroke was more productive. I'll see how they perform this weekend - I have two longish rides planned. I also feel the disparity in leg length more, my one leg is ~1/2" shorter than the other due to a childhood injury. I may investigate getting shims to correct this.

RomSpaceKnight

Congrads on going clipless. Spinning circles is the correct idea. Pros exert power through the whole revolution of the crank. Good luck on getting shims for leg length. Let us know how that works out.

DataJunkie

Most excellent. Spinning at high rpms is much easier with clipless. I shoot for 90-100 and my knees appreciate it. One of these days try spinning at around 110-120. OMG that is a hard one to keep up and feels awfully strange. Still fun every so often. Speaking of fun I hear a bike calling my name. Getting sick of my cube.

Sammyboy

Also, pulling up buys you f-in' loads in certain circumstances. Next time you're on a hard climb, or power starting from the lights (any hard acceleration really), pull. You'll notice the difference.

jeffremer

Some people say you are exerting power throughout the entire pedal stroke, others say that by pulling up you are merely reducing the dead weight on one crank while the other pushes. My limited experience has me believing the former a little more than the latter, but I guess a case could be made for both. You definitely feel the pulling on a steep grade.

Once in a blue moon I'll ride a few blocks somewhere without my bike shoes and I'll spend most of the time thinking how weird it is that my feet keep coming off my pedals on the upstroke.

freemti

Note to self:

Make sure you're actually in a gear before starting up a grade expecting to clip the unclipped foot on the first go round.

Question:

What do you call the marks the big gear makes in one's lower leg? Do you get extra points for bleeding?

(well, that's one lesson learned the hard way...)

jeffremer

You'll get the hang of it, when I first started it would take me a few tries to clip in, now I do it on the first rotation without thinking.

Cat-5 tattoo, chainring tat, among others...some say it's telltale sign of a newbie. I just unclip to the left side, but this will invariably spark a left/right side unclipping war. It'll take you a little while but regardless of what side you unclip you'll get used to either having a chainring mark or avoiding it.

oboeguy

Good job going clipless. Those Specialized carbon shoes are nice (have a pair for my road bike).

BTW, don't "pull up". Go with the Greg Lemond technique of "pulling back". Specifically, he has suggested visualizing scrapping mud off the bottom of your shoe. Terrific for a smooth pedal stroke, IMO.

slvoid

And get some q-rings or a fixed gear.