Whenever I go out on a Friday night, I know that I am decreasing the likelihood that I will make Saturday’s group ride. Either I will get home too late and be too tired to wake up, or I will be dealing with some form of hangover–mild or otherwise.

This Saturday morning, I actually managed to wake up, get ready, get all my kit on, and get out the door to meet the club ride. I was a bit late in leaving, but I still expected to get to the meeting point on time.  I am normally a bit early for the ride, which is something I like.  Glancing at the time as I started Strava, I was a bit worried as to how close I was cutting it.

The roads around my house have been repaved and were smooth. I raced down the street and even made the light–a very rare occurrence as the other direction has a greater priority.  It was then that I noticed something was off.  My left foot wasn’t sticking in the pedal.  Near the end of the ride two weeks ago, I knew that the cleat was a little worn and had told myself to replace it.  I had a set at home, but somehow forgot to do it.

You can see the one on the right is worn much more.

I pressed on, but I wasn’t comfortable. At little bumps my feet came out of the pedal and I didn’t feel confident.  I also knew that I pull up with the pedals on long climbs and wasn’t happy about not being able to do that.

I continued on, but soon came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to make the ride. I chastised myself for giving up.  Was it a real mechanical problem or could I have continued on?  I hit another bump and my foot jumped off the pedals.  I think I made the right decision.

My only problem was that I could so easily go home and not put the new cleat on. Thankfully, Monday is a holiday and the group has a ride planned.  With this motivation, I got the job done and the new cleat is in place.  I thought about changing both of them, but opted just to change one as the other wasn’t nearly as worn.  I guess the one I unclip first gets worn out faster as it has more contact with the asphalt. This way I have another one in case the same thing happens  Also, I am going to leave a little early for the ride and see if I notice a difference.  If I have to, I will have enough time to change the other one.