OK, its time for confessions of stupidity and I'll go first.

I've had my right M2racer pedal accidentally release a few times lately and the plastic part of the cleat was very worn on one of my sets of shoes. Fortunately I had the plastic part of the cleat new in my spares. So Sunday night I quickly disassemble them and put them back together quickly. I did a group ride Monday night so I rode another set of shoes in case I needed to make some adjustments. I think anytime you are doing a shakedown ride it should be while you are by yourself and not subject the group to frequent stops because " I need to adjust something". So Tuesday morning I head out and want to ride the new cleats to make sure that they are adjusted correctly and that they are not accidentally releasing. The route I took I seldom have to stop or disengage my cleat. The one cleat felt out of place but I decided it could wait until I arrived back home. The entire ride I didn't have to stop or release my cleat. So I roll up my driveway and about ten feet from the door start trying to release my cleat. It’s not releasing so I quickly brake stop and turn the bike parallel with the door and reach out and hold myself up with the door. Neither foot will release so I reach down and take my feet out of both shoes. I then had to turn the shoes in to get them to release because in my hast I mounted my right cleat on the left shoe and the left on the right. I reacted quickly so I didn't crash but I did feel pretty stupid at the time.

The good thing about this is twenty minutes after I had arrived home a really nasty thunder and lightning storm rolled in and dropped a lot of rain so I it could have been worse if I had been caught in the crappy weather.

OK, who can top me?

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

I have one witness to this incident.

Was riding back to the car and felt a sorta loose float in my pedal/cleat. I have speedplay zeros which at the time were realatively new to me. Had ridden them probably 8-10 rides all together. I was cruising along at a pretty good clip (20-25 mph) and realized that this looseness was serious as I was not able to disengauge my cleat from the pedal. So I coasted into the parkinglot fiddling with my foot trying to get it unstuck. All the while my witness is watching me fart around with my foot while still moving and cursing. Finally I decide to unclip the opposite foot and come to a stop on it. It was the opposite foot that I usually used to put down first so it's way awkward. And then got my foot out of the shoe.

Any speedplay users know what happened?

Yep.

The outer plate on the cleat lost 3 of the 4 screws that hold it together and the whole cleat was hinging on the remaining 4th screw which was also loose. The screws came out because silly me thought that the pre-applied threadlock actually contributed to the screws staying in their place. I've since learned that this is a feable attempt by speedplay to accomplish this. I looked at my other cleat and all 4 screws were also loose in it but not out.

Kids the lesson here is please put a drop of threadlock on those screws so you don't get screwed.

I also got a speech from said witness about how I should have just stayed with the LOOK pedals that I've ridden for so long.

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

Back when I was young and stupid (now I'm no longer young...) I was doing some sprint training on what I knew were very worn cleats.

I just didn't know they where so worn the right one would snap during the session. When it did I managed not to crash, instead had the right foot hit the ground just in front of the rear wheel - that then tried to run over it. Not having enough leg length to have it come out the back of the wheel I now had my weight pushing it into the road (sole up) and it was under the wheel.

I managed to wear a hole through the top of the shoe, the sock and part of my foot before slowing enough to get it out. I was very sore for a few weeks after that as it also pulled a lot of tendons in the leg groin area due to the twisting.

Since then I have looked for pedal systems that can't let me down this way. Initially I went to Diadora ErgoDrives (still my favourite ever pedal) till they went out of production, and now on Keywin.

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Success is how far you you bounce back up after being knocked down

hillclimb TT, just plain dumb, who comes up with this stuff!?

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http://www.on-the-bench.co.uk
You can't win if you don't finish. Never give up.

....thanks.....i'm doing much better with the threadlock now.

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

Did this last year on some worn out look cleats. The tip just snapped off when I was on a hard climb and I nearly took myself out along with a few others that were right behind me. Fortunately I didn't get any limbs caught in moving parts like you did though.

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

re stupid things... ermm, fell off in a particularly embarrassing slow speed manner (first crash in 40,000km), cracked 2 ribs and bust my shoulder so I can't even work out at home when off the bike.

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Gravitas est meus Hostilis
Painted Roads Cycling: http://www.paintedroads.com
Words: http://mikesimagination.wordpress.com

I used to ride with a bike a few years ago with a 'Magic Motorcyle' chainset, the one's Cannondale took over. I has a screw that holds each crank arm onto the bottom bracket, well this screw on the right hand crank has two different threads on it. One to bite into the crank arm & the other to bite into the BB. One day while on a training ride the screw unwound it's self from the BB and I was left on the side of the road with a drive side crank/chainrings hanging from my right foot. Lucky I had an allen key to fit & did not crash. Funny thing is I still have the crankset & BB assembly in my garage

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster..." - Greg Lemond

"Because technology alone is a poor substitute for experience." - Richard Sachs

those cranks are awesome...when you put threadlock on that bolt. That is the one HUGE design flaw with a crankset light years ahead.

It's some months since now, but I was too lazy to change the brake pads on my rear brake on my mtb, and as a result I crashed hard onto lots of gravel in 40 km/h an hour in a 10% descent trying to stop the damn bike with my front brake. The result was a broken hipbone and six weeks without training plus two days on hospital.

Most stupid thing i've done lately is that i started cycling. After that, i've done lot more other stupid things.

posting impaired.

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07 Pinarello Paris Carbon
06 Trek Equinox 11
05 Trek 8500
88 Schwinn Prelude Fixie
72 Schwinn Continental
www.cougarcycling.com

I built up my new Paris Carbon and was bragging to all my shimano friends how good it felt to be a new campy convert. I had a couple days off between jobs, so my friend and I were supposed to be doing a 100 mile ride. Well, about 5 miles into it, I could feel that my record chainset was feeling odd. As I was pedaling towards the nearest side street, the ultra torque bolt let loose and both my crank arms went south. I started to panic since both of my cranks were in the down and I was trying to make a corner. That had to be the weirdest feeling ever. Turns out, when I was torquing (sp?) the UT bolt, the tool I had at the shop just couldn't get enough leverage. Ruined my long ride planned since I had to hand tighten the driveside bb cup and UT bolt every mile until I made it to a shop. The worst part was that my friend got it on his cell phone video camera, a great little clip of me cursing my new campy record setup. They all got a kick out of that.

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07 Pinarello Paris Carbon
06 Trek Equinox 11
05 Trek 8500
88 Schwinn Prelude Fixie
72 Schwinn Continental
www.cougarcycling.com

if it makes you feel better the same thing happened to me. But mine simply loosened on a short ride.