Re: cleats

On Jul 21, 12:00 pm, --D-y <dustoyev...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 21, 11:38 am, Doc O'Leary <droleary.use...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

I think you're bringing in too much irrational fear.  You ride the road
you're on, regardless of how your feet meet the bike.  Roads don't
suddenly become flooded with gravel.

Right behind the gravel truck they do <g>.

But seriously, having ridden the same roads as the OP, what happens
sometimes is, the loose gravel is the same color as the stable gravel
that sticks to the tar, which makes it hard to see mounds and piles.
And if that round stuff is deep enough, you won't make it far before
at least having to stick a foot down.


My problem is that I was a motorcycle flattrack racer from age 13, and
learned to control sliding with the inside foot down. (Flattrackers
also slide sideways with both feet up, but that's mainly under power,
driving out of the turn.)

I'm getting more and more accustomed to riding clipped into my SPD's,
but am still not quite as comfortably adept in some situations.

 Gravel doesn't lift your bike up
and throw you to the side.  You hold a straight enough line and balance
if the road conditions are dodgy, cleats or not.  I ride in the
Minnesota winter and I remain clicked in 99.99% of the time.  There
might be the rare need to put your foot down while riding, but a lot of
that is mitigated by looking and planning ahead.

I rode those same Midwest roads in the winter, on hardpack snow and
ice. Tended to be mostly in fixed gear, toeclips and straps back in
those days. The hardpack (snow) has a fair amount of traction; ice may
or may not, depending on the surface, i.e. whether it is just ice, or
the stuff that gets polished by motor vehicle traffic wheels, at stop
signs and uphills, where people spin and slide tires. There, it's kind
of like that deep round gravel-- you might make it through a patch,
but don't count on it <g>. Putting a ready foot down to attempt an
outrigger passage might work, or backfire if your foot slips, too.
IOW, I "rode scared" part of the time but OTOH by the time you put all
those layers of clothing on, enough to stay mostly unfrozen with the
temp in the teens, you're pretty well padded anyhow <g>.

Commuting in the dark on ice last winter was spooky sometimes.


.

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