In Which Pedal Anxiety is Misplaced

I’ve had a minor biking plan involving pedals for some time.

We have a lady’s bicycle that my daughters often ride, which was generously given to us by my sister, specifically for my daughters to ride.

And that bicycle had double-sided pedals, with one side for bike shoe clips, and other for regular shoes.

None of my daughters who rides that bike has bike shoes.

Last year, before RAGBRAI, I replaced the pedals on my road bike, and discovered that having biking shoes and clips are a good thing. I purchased double-sided pedals and a pair of bike shoes. The results were good—in particular because, unlike many bikers, I suffered no spills as I got used to the clips.

And I started to think that it would be cool to have similar double-sided pedals on my hybrid bike.

As I mulled the plan this winter (yes, I’ve thought about it for weeks, sometimes I way over plan), two problems occurred to me: 1) I don’t know how universal shoe clips are, and I was concerned the clips on the pedals from my sister’s bike would not work with my bike shoes; and 2) Pedals can be a bit difficult to move—they can require a lot of force to loosen, and I’m not at my best struggling with tools.

So, in my mind, it was always a “should I, or shouldn’t I?” kind of question.

And then I looked at the pedals on the inherited bicycle. They were the same size, brand, model and everything as the pedals I have on my road bike.

So issue 1 was moot. The clips looked like they would be fine with my shoes.

Issue 2? Thursday afternoon, I planned to take a bike ride on a fine sunny Iowa spring day, ending up on campus so I could print mid-term stories for grading. And I decided to be brave and see how hard it would be to swap pedals.

Not at all, as it turned out. The issue with pedals, besides the possibility that they may be so tight that they will be hard to loosen, is that left and right pedals screw in opposite directions. It’s a bit of experimenting to figure out which way to loosen them.

Of the four pedals I had to remove, move and then reinstall, exactly zero proved difficult. The whole project probably took all of 15 minutes, and the “regular” pedals from my hybrid bike are now on the bicycle my daughters ride, and the double-sided pedals on my hybrid bike.

Pedals taken off my sisters bike on ground beside my bike. I was wise enough to keep left and right straight. The pedals are labeled, but keeping them straight without having to depend on the labels was a good move.

Regular pedal on my bike about to be removed, double-sided pedal that has shoe clip on one side and shoe-friendly surface on the other is ready.

After completing the project, I donned my bike shoes and took the hybrid for a ride. I went down the trail to Cedar Lake before heading to campus. The south side of the lake was marked as “closed,” the river crest earlier this week flooded that area. But the trail was already dry, even if you can see debris where the water was.

After circling the lake, I headed to campus and climbed the hill the “hard way” behind the library.

I can’t say the new pedals made it easy to climb that steep hill, but I was distracted and thinking about them as I rode up the hill, and got almost to the top before I really began to feel that I was riding up a steep hill.

Cedar Lake, Thursday afternoon. The barriers below are from flooding earlier this week.

The next day, Friday, I put the toddler seat on the bike, and my wife and I took our 3-year-old grandson to a nearby park. Because we were going to play with him there, I wore regular shoes.

So, success all the way around. It’s nice that I can get more time with clips this year. I’m sure I will use them for RAGBRAI, and riding with them is a bit different. Thank you, sis, once again. I know the bike you have use is intended for my daughters’ use, and it’s still going to be used that way, but the pedals have found a new home.

Grandson enjoyed Friday ride to Noelridge Park.

And, once again, life pulled the joke of the actual job being far less than the imagined one. Too often it seems to work the other way, but I’m glad that this time, it worked this way.