07.17.08
My New Cleats
So as I just stated in my previous post, I lost the Lake cleats I had for my pedals. I left them in a cab of all places–a CAB!!! Drunk!! Now I am all about riding, but I am also advocating that if you can’t put the booze down, then certainly get your drunk ass in a cab. Just don’t be as stupid as me and leave a dope pair of cleats in the backseat…
Anyway, I went to my local bike store and got some new cleats. Boy what an experience that was. I don’t remember if I had mentioned that I am not really a big fan of my local bike store, R&A Cycles, but I didn’t have time to go all the way down to my favorite bike store in Bay Ridge and then get all the way back up here and beyond to Manhattan to get to work. So to R&A I went.
First off, what really gets me is the fact that they do not acknowledge you when you walk in. And then when they do, they ask you what you need and every time someone stated they wanted to buy a new bike, the salesman asked how much they were willing to spend. I guess that’s a valid question, but somehow they way they asked and how they asked kind of got under my skin. It was like if you didn’t say high enough, you were at the bottom of the waiting list.
So the salesman I got was this guy that had been working there for years and he was one of the reasons I don’t like this store. So when he came to help me I was like, “Damn!!” So then he proceeds to talk and talk and talk away, mostly about himself and how good he used to ride and I had on my “I’m not interested” face and so he brought over some other guy that needed help and had him wait near us so he could keep running his mouth to someone. So he fitted me for the shoes, put the cleats on (for an extra charge) and then what really got me was when he asked me, “Are you willing to spend more money?” And I was like, “For what?” And then he says, “For some pedals for the shoes.” I nearly lost it. This whole time during the sale I was telling him I lost my shoes and needed new ones and described what kind of pedals I had, and rather than actually listen to what I had said instead of talking about himself the whole time and what famous cyclists he knew, he failed to connect to me, his customer. I sternly told him that I already had pedals and brouhgt him to my bike to show him. He was like “Oh…”
Now even worse than this, he then tells me that the shoes may not fit the pedals. I hit the roof. I explained to him that I happened to be in the store the day before, showed the guys what kind of pedals I have and they said getting the shoes would be no problem. (Funny enough there was a guy in there the day before that also spoke at about eighty miles an hour and I also felt he didn’t listen to what I was saying. So I dealt with the cute salesman who was really nice too.) He bends down to look at the pedals and I have a yellow circle with some kind of squiggly black symbol in the middle of it. The shoes he sold me were Shimano. He said that I’d need the Shimano pedals because each company has their own fit for the cleats. He said he didn’t have his glasses on and had me read what was printed very small on the part of the pedal that screws into the crank. It said Shimano. I was relieved. But then I realised that the symbol I just described on my pedal was the same symbol on the packaging the cleats came in. I was astounded that he didn’t recognize the logo–yellow circle with black squiggly line in the middle. That’s when I realised this guy was so full of shit it was coming out of his ears.
Anyway, I learned a little something from this ordeal. That I have something called SPD pedals. They are also called platform pedals. They are mainly used for mountain biking and also from what I hear, fast downhill riding. Sweeet. They look like this:
And you can actually notice the Shimano logo I was talking about. That dummy in the store couldn’t even recognize the logo.
Anyway, if you also notice, the size of the pedal is larger than the average clipless pedals that usually look like this:
I wanted the platform pedals in the event that I for some reason have to ride without my cleats, or perhaps in a really good mood and lend my bike to someone for a ride–albeit a very short one. That’d be like asking a woman to take her newborn baby away from her. However, I am willing to at some point try out the smaller racing pedal to check out the action.
The shoes are pretty sweet too. They have a much stiffer sole than the previous Lakes I had for a better, more correct foot position when pedaling, but also a hard rubber that is soft enough to walk around in when need be on the hard city streets. I still haven’t gotten the courage (or the money) to get the carbonite soles that are totally inflexible and are too slippery for regular walking. But apparently they are the best for pedaling. I guess sometime in the future I shall see….
