(no subject)

[lethargic_man]

Bah, I fell off my bike again today. I managed fine for the first two weeks with my SPDs, because I was being very cautious and unclipping every time I drew near a junction. Then, realising how much reclipping slowed me down when pulling away from junctions—the very time I needed to get up to speed of the traffic the fastest (the slower you are compared to other traffic, the faster it goes past you, so the more danger it presents to you)—I took to unclipping less. And today, I approached a junction I thought was clear but wasn't, had to brake suddenly, and couldn't unclip in time.

I got away with a mild bruise; the brunt of the impact was borne by an onion in the bag on my back. (I have now destroyed, and indeed, eaten, the evidence.) However, the impact appears to have put my derailleur out of whack: it looks undamaged, apart from an accentuation of the existing damage from scraping, and the steel hanger it's mounted on does not look appreciably bent, but nevertheless it's tending to select one below the gear it should for the upper gears, making top gear difficult to get into.

My question is whether I should try and adjust the derailleur myself, or should I take it into a bike shop? If I do it wrong, I have the capacity to make a right royal mess of things, and last time I mentioned something like this in the bike shop, they told me to take it in; but OTOH I feel I should become more self-reliant as regards maintaining my bike: my brother recently changed the gear cassette on his bike, something which the last time I did I took the bike into the shop for, and paid for the labour for.

Anyone got any informed opinions?

Comments

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

Your clips sound very dangerous and risky to me. Get rid of them and have normal pedals again. I did not even know about before you showed me. I don't want you dead!!!

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Don't be daft. I'm not going to die falling off my bike when it's not even moving. All I had this time was a bruise on my bike; last time I had cuts and scrapes. If my bike had been moving, it might have been nasty; but I'm not going to hurt myself badly falling from a stationary bike.

Besides, (a) I like being able to accelerate fast from a standing start with my SPDs, and (b) the SPDs and pedals cost £95, and I'm not going to waste that. All I need to do is learn to (a) unclip in a hurry, and (b) strike the right balance between not unclipping enough, and unclipping too much.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

What a wast of money! It still sounds too dangerous for me in London traffic. It might be suitable if you were in a small town or country side. Then you have the time to unclip before falling off.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

When you cycle to work 50 miles a week leaving you worn out, and then choose to turn down a device making your cycling more efficient, then and only then will you have earned the right to describe it as a waste of money!