Hey, those two months flew by. I'm very comfortable with clipless now, at least on the road bike. Not sure I'll go clipless on the hybrid, which I use for errands and casual group rides. But it's been great on the road bike.

I think I just ticked over 600 miles on clipless since the beginning of February, mostly over the course of a bunch of 20-40 mile rides two or three times a week. I also swapped saddles to a firmer roadie type saddle, along with a few minor tweaks.

The ice-skating sensation of the floating cleats was gone after two weeks. I don't even think about it now. Occasionally I'm aware of consciously shifting my heel angle to relieve minor knee twinges, including yesterday when I was climbing into a stiff headwind. Generally my right knee prefers it when my foot is toed-in slightly.

I might still prefer less float, mostly to make it quicker to unclip in traffic. I don't need quite that much float for comfort and protecting the joints. Being able to unclip a bit quicker would be okay with me. But as far as I can tell there's no middle ground with the old style Look delta cleats -- it's zero float or 9° arc. Apparently the in-between cleats are only for the newer Keo style. Not a big deal, though.

Not sure I'm faster with clipless. But it spreads out the effort so I'm less exhausted, especially on climbs. When the quads start to tire or go into sudden spasms I can pull on the pedals a bit until the cramps subside. And my foot arch spasms have stopped -- at least until after a ride when I take off the shoes. I really needed the rigid soles and added arch support orthotics to prevent arch spasms during rides.

I can tell now on rides using the hybrid with platform pedals that using clipless on the road bike has changed my pedaling style. On a 40 mile casual ride with friends over the weekend I found myself consciously needing to mash more to maintain consistent contact with the pedals. Took several miles to regain the knack. And I missed the clipless advantage on the one bit of steep climbing we did -- I stood and mashed halfway up the hill, then sat when the thighs were burning and... I couldn't pull up on the pedals! A younger friend passed me, noticed I was struggling and asked if I was okay. I mumbled something polite like "Screw you, young whippersnapper."