Its finally happened. Today I went clipless at last.

Incidentally, it was also the first time I’ve ridden since Christmas break. I thought today was going to be a horrifying display of grunts, falls, and clipped-in crashes… but all went suprisingly well.

It took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to clip in, however. Tim frequently had to get off his SS and physically align my foot with the pedals, so you can imagine how sad I looked at first.

I must say that the learning curve for riding with your feet stuck to the bike is suprisingly low. For some odd reason, the “panic” movement of my foot is the exact movement necessary to unclip, and therefore I had no accidents. Okay, thats a lie. I made a sudden stop and fell on my side and into a pile of leaves about 30 minutes in. Yup, both feet were still clipped in and I looked like a fool. Good times.

The last six months of procrastinating and saying “I’ll just try it out next time” proved to be pointless. Now I see what everyone’s talking about: You have TONS more power with these pedals versus the old school platforms.

If any of you out there are like me and have been putting off trying out clipless…. don’t. My ride was amazing today, and even though I’m out of shape I managed to stay on the trails for three hours.

The bottom line: I love Crank Brothers!