Trying to enjoy the nicer weather...

So the weather is warming up a bit, and the sun is out here in the Gateway to the West. Feeling a bit like a sloth and having avoided pretty much any physical activity short of the walk from my car to the lab or the effort it takes to lift a burger from the table to my mouth all winter long, I decided to take my bike out for a ride today. Now I've haven't even sat on my bike for about six months now. Basically, it has stood against a wall in my condo looking nice and shiny all year.

To further enhance my poser stance, my bike is a Bianchi, which would have made Wakinoffee drool uncontrollably back in the day. Sounds fancy, until you take a closer look and realize that mine is not of the legendary Italian-made lineage, but a cheaper line made especially for the American market with frames made in Taiwan. Not that M.I.T. bikes aren't made well, but it's kind of like comparing a Lexus to a Toyota. Like any decent poser, I also use clipless pedals (the bike came with them), which actually haven't been that problematic for me...until today.

If you haven't used clipless pedals before, basically your shoe has a specialized cleat that locks into the pedal. This improves your pedal efficiency, but also makes it a bit more difficult to free your feet for stabilization during a stop or fall. Stop without your feet "clipped out," and you remain literally attached to your bike, making for an extremely embarrasing situation for yourself (or quite a humorous one for onlookers).

This is what happened to me this afternoon. I seemed to forget this important principle, and ended up on my back with my bike held up in the air, still attached to my feet. Luckily, there were no eyewitnesses to my goof (at least none that I saw), and I heard no uproarious laughter erupt. Oh well. At least I finally made an effort to get some exercise.