Where Fig Tree Pocket Road starts to curve around onto the Centenary Motorway bikepath, there is an almost-blind-spot where, up until my first Monday morning on the new Ridley, I had never had the misfortune to come face-to-face with anyone. However, on that fateful Monday morning with my feet feeling very unsure on new pedals that my cleats were stuck way too-firmly inside, I found myself head-on with a guy coming fast the other way. He swerved. I braked, came to a dead stop, tried unsuccessfully to extricate my feet from the pedals, wobbled and fell over on my right-hand-side … into the bushes. As they say, nothing much was hurt except for my pride and the other guy couldn’t have been nicer, but it highlighted a problem I’d been having for the previous three months on Sam’s bike, though not to the same extent, namely: badly adjusted pedal binding springs.
I confess with great embarrassment that I had actually fallen over twice prior to this. both times as the result of having to make sudden stops and being unable to remove my cleats from the pedals. What I didn’t know – and this is something that should definitely be on the list of the first 10 things every new commuting cyclist needs to know – is that the springs are adjustable. I went down that Monday to the local bike shop near my work: MB Cycles in MIlton, and asked the guy there what I needed to do to make the pedals release my cleats more readily. I assumed I would need some kind of lubricant or something along those lines. He was good enough not to actually laugh at me, but instead showed me the screws on the pedals that I needed to adjust.
The reason I’m posting this is because I was quite astonished at the difference adjusting those screws made. There are (on Shimano pedals) 2 screws on each pedal. The process involves first tightening all four of them all the way ’till they stop (by turning them clockwise), then unscrewing each of them the same number of turns so that every one is equally tight/loose. I unscrewed each screw 5 revolutions. There is a little red indicator that shows how tight the springs are. At this adjustment each indicator showed about half tension. I thought I would leave the adjustments at that stage and see if any improvements were apparent the next morning when I rode to work. Well, for me, with my pedals and my shoes, this turned out to be the perfect setting. For the first time in three months I wasn’t battling to get either of my cleats into, or out of the pedals. Hallelujah! Riding just became so much easier and more pleasant, and all for just 5 minutes of mucking around with an Allen key.
So if you are new to riding and having problems getting your shoes into, or out of your pedals, don’t do what I did and put up with it – do something about it. Here’s the instruction sheet that tells you how to adjust your pedal springs if you have Shimano mountain bike pedals like mine. If you don’t, get onto Google and do a search. The instructions for adjusting your pedals will be there somewhere. Make the adjustment. Your life will be better.
goethe's dream 