Clipless woes
I was wondering if anyone else has experienced what I’m going through, and if you have any tips. Long story short, I switched from flats to clips on my bike and I feel like just forgot how to ride.
I’ve been riding MTB for almost 4 years, but I’ve been riding clips on my gravel bike for the same amount of time. So I have the unclip motion committed to memory and don’t really have a problem unclipping or clipping in.
Last week I made the swap to clips for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I’m so OCD about where my feet are placed on my pedals that if I don’t get them in the right spot, I ride terrible until I’m able to replace them. I also wanted to avoid slipped pedals. I also wanted to have better stability through chunky trails. The CB mallet trail pedals seemed to tick both boxes. Anyways I went for a ride the other week on a familiar trail and everything seemed fine, no major hiccups. Today, I went on another ride and it literally felt like I forgot how to ride a bike. Getting bucked on every jump, not being able to commit to features, unclipping a foot way before obstacles, braking super earlier, and several crashes in loose berms.
I already determined that my cleats were probably too far forward, so I moved them a lot farther back on my shoes and that does feel better. To me, it seems mostly like a mental block that I just need to get over, but it’s still frustrating because it feels like I took 3 steps back in my progression. Does anyone have a similar story or have any tips to get over that mental block?