Ride 19 of 31

From my house I know of a good undulating and not too trafficy 10 mile road loop so a quick blast round this on the new crosscheck seemed in order once the rain had stopped. I decided to ride with the SPD/flat combo pedals I mentioned a few posts back and not being confident enough to be on a new bike and in my cleats I just had my skate shoes on. These are a great footwear choice on my mountain bike but they turned out to be horrid on the glossy surface that seemed to materialise on the flat side of the new pedals in the eternal damp that is the British summer. After 5 or so miles I was feeling less wary of my slidey feet as I hadn't come to any harm and then I reached the first real incline of the ride. I'm not going to big it up and call it a hill, it's just an upward slope of road, I changed down a bit, I haven't yet needed to use the "granny ring" on the new bike and so thought I might as well change right down and just make sure all was well with the gears. Unfamiliarity with the bike struck I made that stupid mistake of changing up not down, well I know I said it's not a hill, but it's not a "big ring" situation either and I basically ground to a standstill. I hopped off, lifted back wheel off the ground, a quick click and pedal spin and the right gear ring was engaged. I then tried to launch myself again, uphill, slippy shoes, pah, forget it, it just couldn't happen, so I had to push. The indignity of this pushing wouldn't have been so bad had I not been wearing my (courtesy of Minx) Twin Six, Queen of the Mountains shirt, I hung my head in shame as I pushed. I was of course rewarded soon after with a fab downhill that I don't mind admitting caused me to let my fingers hover on the brake levers all the way. Home reached safely with the announcement that I need new pedals, husband seemed less than interested and carried on making a sponge cake.

Vikki