I had numerous silly moments in the era of toe clips--always when running errands or other street-clothes cycling and always when wearing the old inverted-waffle-iron type of sneakers--the pedals that were an easy in/out with cleats were a veritable Chinese finger puzzle in Nikes! A breathtaking moment from 1973: Some overcast spring morning of that year, Dana Ross and I were riding through Griffith Park in Los Angeles. LA listmembers: we were on Crystal Springs Blvd. where there is a retaining wall along the bottom of a hillside right next to the road. We were riding at training speed and listening to our tires on the ground when we start hearing a soft "clop, clop, clop" up the hill and to our right--just before two running deer drop down from the hillside to the road and run across right in front of us. Not close enough for a collision, close enough to get our attention for sure! They kept running to the other side of Crystal Springs.
David Feldman
>
> I'd love to share my silly moments with you all but I'm so perfect I
haven't
> had any yet! Unless you count the time last year when I mounted my fixed
> gear bike for the first time...
>
> With my two sons (aged 8 and 10) watching, I put my right foot in the toe
> clip and, with the bike moving slowly, tried to repeat the feat with my
left
> foot. Coincidently, I managed it at the exact same moment that I ran out
of
> momentum. The problem was that I couldn't get a foot out in time to
prevent
> the sideways topple known as the "dying swan".
>
> With my sons now splitting their sides, I tried again, craftily going in
the
> opposite, slightly downhill, direction. I got my right foot in no bother
but
> the next couple of hundred yards were spent furiously following the pedal
> around with my left in a desperate attempt to "engage", the toe clip all
the
> while scraping off the ground.
>
> But these don't really count as silly moments, do they? I prefer to think
of
> them as character forming.
>
> Cheers,
> Bruce "who still has all his teeth but not much pride" Robbins
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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