Clipless, not clueless

Yes, you. All of you. New-to-the-sport MAMIL and weathered, battle-hardened wheelmen alike. Do yourself, and all other road users, a favour: Learn to clip-in to your clipless pedals WITHOUT LOOKING. Please, for the good of your own friends and family and for the love of all things cycling, learn. NOW.

Cycling is, we are repeatedly told, ‘the new golf’ — I get that. I also get that this means there’s a lot of new cyclists — and I even like that fact. The cringe-worthy offset of this, though, is that many cyclists who now prematurely consider themselves to be ‘good’ or ‘experienced’ have bypassed the very basics that make up the difference between a good or experienced cyclist and a truly experienced cyclist. For one thing specifically, that most truly experienced cyclists can clip in to their pedals by feel.

I have lost count of how many near misses I have seen — both from cyclists nearly crashing into other cyclists, and from cars, vans and lorries almost rear-ending cyclists. Too many cyclists set off from junctions with one foot clipped in, far too busy looking down, trying to flick their other pedal around with their unclipped foot, failing to realise they’re wandering all over the road or going nowhere. In doing so they’re risking mayhem in a bunch ride and risking their own life amongst other road users. I even saw one chap almost come to a complete standstill to ensure his clip-in was a resounding success.

It’s only a matter of time before one of those near misses results in something nasty. I dread to think how many times it has already been the underlying cause of a cyclist being in an accident.

In fact this post is an update of an article I have written previously for Eleven Vélo — I was driven to regurgitate it because I’ve even seen this recently from a whole heap of people who really should know better.

When my wife started riding more seriously she was using toe clips. The nature of those being that you can set off, get moving and then decide to flick the pedal around to slot your foot in. Perfect, right? So why not take the same approach with your clipless pedals? It is possible, and it does work.

I first rode clipless pedals on a mountain bike. Often the very nature of mountain biking is such that you either need to clip-in in a hurry, or you need to learn to manage your pedalling such that you can apply power without risk of the dreaded ‘saddle-to-nether-regions’ impact that results from a slipped foot. You learn to mange it and often in doing so will end up clipping in ‘accidentally-on-purpose’ (by which I mean by simply riding your shoe and pedal interfaces find each other naturally and you clip in). Learn what you need to do when setting off to get your road pedals the right way up and you’ll often find that exactly this happens.

When I convinced my wife to switch to clipless pedals she started with a set of mine. She got the hang of them using the same approach as her toe clips. However, on returning to the bike after some time off for an operation, she lost her confidence. This was when I switched her to Speedplay pedals. She found herself getting used to them really quickly and, being dual-sided, she quickly learnt that all she needed to do was to find roughly the right spot on the bottom of her shoe — by feel — and start pedalling. More often that not she clipped in without really trying. I’m not saying that you ‘need’ Speedplays to do this, but dual-sided pedals can certainly help (although despite this suggestion, I simply cannot condone MTB pedals on a road bike).

It’s easy enough to do. Get used to the motion which results in you setting off and being able to place your foot on the pedal the right way up. This is a very simple case of bringing your foot towards the pedal from behind, such that the toe of your shoe flattens the pedal out ready for clipping in and pedalling as you set off. This is the reason that your pedal hangs the way it does: it is hanging such that the motion of your foot results in the engagement of the front of your cleat which, in turn, engages the rest of your cleat to the pedal. It is what you might call a ‘natural’ clip-in. And if you don’t get it right first time, carry on pedalling (gently, to prevent slipping), get some momentum, then try again when you’re up to speed and not causing a road block or putting your life on the line.

You do not need to turn the pedal over to clip in. You do not need to flatten the pedal to clip in. You do not need to aim the toe of your foot into the front of the pedal to clip in. You just need to pedal to clip in. I don’t want to teach anyone to suck eggs, but I still ride with folk now who consider themselves to be good riders — even they can’t get this right.

So, please, learn. Stop staring at your foot creating a road block and get used to what you have to do to clip in without looking — or, at the very least, learn to apply power to an unclipped foot without risk of slipping so that you can look at your foot to clip in further down the road.

It’s such a simple thing, and you’ll thank me for it once you’ve got it right.