I finally decided to purchase those biking shoes with those cleats that will attach firmly to my trike pedals. Presumably, I can cycle more efficiently as I would be developing power on the backstroke (versus the upstroke on upright bicycles) as well.
So, when we went into MEC and purchased new biking shoes for me, I was really looking forward to seeing just how much more efficiently I could pedal.
Well...I haven't quite got that far yet.
Long stupid story short, the cleat on my left shoe tore off when I was trying to slide it out of the slot on the pedal exactly the way the instructions said. It turned out the bolts on the cleats themselves were about 1/8" too short and so were not physically holding the cleat itself in place.
Now came our trek to find slightly longer bolts and, well, we did find a pair that would fit and grip the cleat. The tops of the bolts were not flush but we didn't think that would make too huge a difference...
...it did make a difference! So, the shoes were repaired here; with bolts that fit properly and would grip correctly. However, the cleats would not seat correctly on the pedal. That meant Adam having to file down the rounded tops of the bolts. Now, they fit properly, can be seated in the pedals correctly and all that is left for me to do is to practice clicking them into place properly and removing them without tearing the cleats out, destroying the shoes or otherwise making it nearly impossible to engage and disengage the shoes.
Adam doesn't like the shoes but I like them. You can't walk around on them. The bottoms are hard plastic with no tread and walking on the shoes will wear out the bolts...the same ones that we had problems with.
As I become accustomed to engaging and disengaging the shoes, I will feel a lot more comfortable wearing them on longer trike trips.
btw, the weather forecast for this upcoming weekend is calling for +24C...
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