I posted a while ago about a friend who's transferred from a mountain bike to a road bike. He bought a beautiful Trek last week.

Last night he dropped round with a new pair of shoes and clipless pedals. We spent a while chatting about how to clip in, then he wobbled off for a try.

This morning, I emailed him to find out how it went, and admitted that we'd talked aboult how to clip in, but not how to clip out. I hoped he was able to release before he fell over.

He replied that he's very supple for his age, and the bike fits under his desk just fine.

Hope you tightened up the brakes and let the tyre pressures down aswell.

Friends like you- I could do without.

No worries - he was fine. We went for a ride last night, and he was FAST - enthusing about his purchase and the difference it had made, and how he couldn't believe how it made him want to ride harder and faster. And now, I'm going to have to do the flat tyres and binding brakes adjustments to equal things up a bit.

He's a hydraulic engineer and a saxophone player, with a full and subtle appreciation of well made machines. His midlife crisis was buying a better saxophone for about what other midlifers pay for sports cars. He took to the new bike and all of its little ways like a duck to worms!

Good post, but you need to include details like brand of pedals and shoes so we can get into an argument about which one is the best.

Supple. That's the characteristic I could have used a few days back myself with the new mountain bike. Must remember that.

Thanks for a very welcome laugh.