I said I would post on the topic of clipless pedals since I joined the ranks of clipless users after the 70 mile ride to Carlsbad in soft-soled shoes and toe clips that turned my feet and calves to mush. Well, I learned the hard way that I wasn’t quite “ready for anything” and am suffering the consequences.
The good news is that I avoided being hit by an oblivious Sunday morning SUV driver. I was going to join a cycling club for a 40 mile ride beginning in Santa Monica and was riding to Peet’s Coffee on Main Street, the group meeting place, and a favorite place of mine.
Peet's on Main Street, Santa Monica, CA
I opted to take side streets to avoid Pico, a highly trafficked street. This is the second time I’ve opted to avoid Pico only to find that drivers who are on side streets may actually be more dangerous to cyclists. Once before, many blocks away on a different side street, a driver who started shouting and cursing out his passenger window, drove on ahead of me, and started stomping on his brakes every few seconds, angry to have to share the road with me and my bicycle. I had been carefully looking to avoid the car door zone on the side street on which the parking/bike lane was parked up. I wasn’t even taking the lane, and I told him I could if I needed to. He said, “Not when I’m on the road!” I’m hoping the City’s proposal to narrow car lanes to accommodate bike lanes will reduce this kind of behavior.
I came down a hill to a stop sign at a 4-way intersection, heading west. There were already cars stopping to the left and to the right, heading north and south, respectively. I paused while they took their turns, but I didn’t clip out; I balanced while I waited. I was wearing the BCCClub windbreaker and my helmet – I could not have been more brightly clad. It was a sunny, clear day. There were very few cars on the side street.
Beach Cities Cycling Club Jersey
But this did not protect me from a driver who simply wasn’t looking or seeing – I was already in the intersection when she drove right for me! For a moment I thought she would have to see me once she was as close as she got, then realized I could not depend on that and swerved sharp left and fell onto my knees, both feet still clipped in. My full body weight went onto my left knee, less onto the right. I clipped out and was kind of in shock. How could she not see me, I was right in front of her, obeying the traffic signals, wearing bright colored clothing, etc. I was angry, no doubt because I could tell my knee was hurt. The driver said she didn’t see me, and what was I so upset about, I just had a couple scrapes on my knee. She had no insurance information nor anything to write down her name with, but she handed her driver’s license to me. I didn’t have anything to write the information down with. I tried to commit it to memory, but when I got home and looked her name up on the internet, I could find no trace.
In fact, I had my iPhone with me but forgot this at the time. My knee was throbbing and my left brake was bent from the bike falling on it. I rode home to take care of my wounds and am still not 100%. I still have knee pain and weakness caused by the fall. My doctor said I can only ride my exercycle, not to put much tension on it when riding, and to keep icing and taking ibuprofen. A pound of cure: it’s been 4 weeks.
I was riding my exercycle yesterday, and my road bike stands next to it. I was looking at it feeling the happiness it brings me, which is why I’m posting this. I hadn’t felt that since the fall, but I know I’ll be riding again one day soon.
I just didn’t have the facility with clipless to react quickly enough to have prevented my injury. I was angry at the driver, but my skills were just what they were. I practiced with the clipless on a soft riding surface after I got them, and went on a group ride and had a great experience a couple weeks before this accident. But clipping out is not second nature to me yet.
So, I may go back to toe clips for local road riding, purchase stiffer soled shoes to go with them, and figure out when and how to practice in the clipless off-road. I prefer an ounce of prevention.
