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Heya all,
I have started riding into work a lot more (and inadvertently started another one of the tasks on my Life Milestone Register). Last week I cycled into work Monday through Thursday and I have to say, although tiring it felt really good to get out.

Today I decided to go out and get some proper riding shoes for my bike, the ones that lock into the pedal when they are seated. Before I go on… the pics. (Apologies that the first two are kinda blurry):

 

You can see that the pedals are slightly different to what you would find on most bikes. The top and the bottom are clearly different. The first photo shows the side of the pedal that allows for using a standard shoe. The second photo shows the other side of the pedal that is used for a bike shoe that locks onto the wheel.

The metal cleat that you can see on the bottom of the bike shoe (pictured above) is used to slot in and lock the feet into the pedal by sliding the front part in then pushing down. I have to say at first this was a rather scary adventure when I put them on as to release the lock you have to twist the heel of the foot outward and lift. As I started using them I must say the feeling is *brilliant*. It stopped my feet from sliding around on the pedals and gave a much greater feeling of stability than without them. The general idea is to both stop the feet from sliding, however also allow you to use additional muscles to assist pedaling with the pulling up movement of rotation (if that makes any sense)… For example normally pedaling you only use power on one movement, the push down of the front pedal, where as being locked in allows you to use the lift of the pedal as you come round the back of the rotation… really cool.

Now for the last photo, the war wound of the day *grins*. When I was first getting used to them (which is still going to take me a while regardless), I got slightly off balance and *almost* fell off the bike. I managed at the last second to regain my balance however came out with a nasty scrape on my leg. LOL coulda been worse.

Well I hope you all enjoyed another little insight into riding. I have booked in to a two-hour-a-week-for-seven-weeks ‘See Sydney By Bicycle’ course starting on the 10th of Feb, so I should have a lot more things to chat about and post photos of course.

Until next time
Toodles… Stu