“Remember you’re clipped in”

And that is a very sound piece of advice. However, he forgot to add “and make sure you remember how to get out of your pedals”.

It was that second piece of advice I could have done with when I found myself teetering at the junction of Buchanan Street & Argyle Street this evening. The problem stemmed from the fact that I was on my mountain bike (due to the fact that the road bike is currently hooked up to my trainer) and that I had decided this morning to change the regular pedals for a set of clipless pedals that had been kicking around for a while but I hadn’t gotten round to putting on the bike. I knew from previous experience that it wasn’t a good idea to go out with a set of untested pedals, so made a point of adjusting the pedals and testing until they seemed ok.

However, while testing the pedals I noticed that something seemed to be different from the pedals on my road bike. It took me a while to work it out but I realised I was having to twist in the opposite direction to get out of the pedals. With the pedals on my road bike I twist my heel away from the bike to get out but with these pedals I was having to twist my heel into the bike to get out. I’m not sure why that would be, I double checked they were on the right way around but figured it was no big deal as it seemed to be easy enough to get out.

And thus I found myself at the junction of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street coming to a halt to avoid going into the side of a nasty big bus only to find as I twisted my heel that nothing was happening and I couldn’t get out of my peddles. And before I knew it I found myself spread eagled on the pavement in front of a bunch of young neds who found it all rather amusing.

• ned 1: “Had a few too many beers big man?”
• embarrassed: “Damn stupid pedals!”
• neds: “Aye right!” (followed by much hilarity)

So, I picked myself up and got back on my bike and cycled off into the distance.

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