Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
Lol, this is one of the reasons I point out that the efficiency advantage is not there. If you're having other common issues with clipless - falling over, not liking being unable to jump off the bike and walk around in regular shoes, etc, I don't think it's worth it.
If you like clipless that's cool. I'm just saying that it's often not worth going through a mountain of work to try to make them work if you're running into issues (like I really like being able to lock the bike and walk around in flat regular shoes).
If you want to get them to work, my suggestion is to take your pedals and shoes to a gym with a stationary exercise bike. Put the clipless pedals on the bike. Ride it, clip out clip in, spin a bit more, clip out clip in, etc. Maybe do it it a few times. The goal is to build up the muscle memory of how to get in and out of the pedals - without any risk of doing a fall.
Like I said earlier, I like the efficiency of clipless pedals. As I pointed out, I was able to climb at a faster speed, bigger cog/chainring ratio, less fatigued and recover faster than with my flats. Looking at Strava, for that hill segment, I did a personal record today with the clipless pedals. I also got two personal third best time as well during that ride. My 'Suffer Score' remained the same as my previous commute back home but my average wattage went up by 25W.
I have an exercise bike but I don't think it will help because my issue isn't with the unclipping per say but the leaning of the bike as I stop. An exercise bike doesn't lean, well, not mine at least... I just need to remember to lean the right side so I don't fall over or maybe unclip the other side as I'm about to stop so if I do lean the wrong side, my foot will stop the fall and not my side of the body
Thanks for your suggestion though. Now it's time to add another layer of
New Skin to that scrape (blood was flowing too much from one scrape for just one layer of New Skin to stop it). It stings like hell when applied to a fresh wound but contains antiseptic and beats plasters, specially on hairy legs lol.