Wheel Stands and Clip-In Pedals

Just had a wonderful weekend with a bunch of friends staying at South Perisher Lodge. Much walking, mountain biking, eating and drinking.


I had my first proper stack on my mountain bike in the four years or so that I have owned it. This in itself is probably an indication of my generally cautious approach to riding. Anyway, on Saturday I was messing about trying to do wheelies, and to my delight I soon discovered that I still remember how to do them, having had a mispent youth on my BMX which is now rotting in my garage.

So here I am, on a stretch of smooth concrete driveway doing a wheelie, when I realise I have taken the front wheel up just a bit too far. Normally at this point I would simply shift all my weight well forwards and the wheel would come down. Unfortunately the shape of my mountain bike is not quite as suitable for this weight shift as my BMX (well at least that's my story), so I shift to plan B and simply drop my feet off the pedals and stand up. It's about this point, well actually a few milliseconds too late, that I remembered I have SPD clip in pedals.

Picture a grown man falling one metre, flat on his back, onto cement. Now add a mountain bike, which I am still securely attached to with both feet and holding on to with both hands.

A lot of my bits hurt today.