Getting clipless has been on my list of items to purchase for such a long time. Popular opinion is that clipless pedals/shoes are really one of the first investments you should make, as the performance improvement is significant. You can buy pointy helmets and all sorts of other things, but the performance gains are small. You need to be near-professional in order to really justify the cost vs. the gain (though many people have gear that is well above their ability). But the clipless system is huge. It makes your motions more stable; It allows you to use your hamstrings to pull up on the crank rotation; It allows you to increase your cadence comfortably; It smooths out your pedal stroke. All of this can end up making you 2 mph faster. The return is well worth it. Of course, it's not completely free speed. You still need to focus on your stroke, your cadence, your position. Though it's damn close to free speed.
I've been riding (off and on) for about 6 years now. Surely, at some point, I should've made the jump to clipless. But I didn't. Sure, the price can be a bit prohibitive, but I've dropped more money on stupider things in the past 6 years. I can guarantee that. So why did it take so long? Well, for one, I've only recently gotten into competitive cycling (via triathlon), but that only partially explains it.
The real reason, I believe, is that I didn't want to be the guy who had fancy gear that was way above my ability. As one triathlete put it, "Some people have more money than they have sense.". I think that's particularly true in cycling/triathlon. You see people on race day who have spent insane amounts of money on all of their triathlon gear. And it's intimidating. You think that you're surrounded by seasoned professionals who are going to kick your ass in every leg. And then the race starts. There really is no better feeling than passing a guy with a pointy helmet on the bike leg. Especially while in sneakers. How much must it suck to be passed by someone with none of the fancy gear that you've spent thousands of dollars on? My guess is that it sucks quite a bit.
And so the reason is really two-fold: I didn't want to be a gearhead, and I didn't want to get passed by someone without clipless. Of course, I'm sure I'll get passed by people without clipless, but at least they should be fairly legitimate cyclists.
My general approach with buying technology to improve speed is that I have to meet 2 criteria:
1. I have to consciously think about why the technology is necessary. Let's face it, I never would have thought to invent a clipless system for cycling. Thankfully, someone else was smart enough to figure it out. Because of this, it thrusts focus on specific parts of the pedal stroke that I may or may not have figured out on my own. This gives me the opportunity to manually emulate the technology. In the case of clipless, it forces good form into your stroke. However, it doesn't force perfect form into your stroke. It's entirely possible to use clipless in a less-than-optimal manner. Which would suck. So before purchasing, I can pretend that clipless doesn't exist yet, but that the optimal form has been figured out. Then I can work on matching my form to the optimal form. So when I actually install my clipless, I'll know exactly what is supposed to be happening, and the technology can be used the way it should be used.
2. I have to earn it. Simple as that. Understanding the technology is one thing, but if I don't work at it, day after day, it's not going to help me in the long run.
My goal should really be to minimize the effect that the technology has on my performance. If I'm doing everything perfectly, technology will give me slight gains, and let me focus on another part of my technique
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