This past Wednesday my friends and I went riding. I had, I think, my strongest ride yet. My legs were feeling pretty good and I made it up all the tough climbs without having to walk. However, I had a series of problems that I think I am going to have to address sooner rather than later.

The first problem was my shoes. The conditions were a little damp and my soles got slick. Even though I've been riding in slush and ice and snow all winter this was the first week where I had a lot of problems keeping my feet on the pedals. This difficulty caused me to crash at one point while going down a particularly tricky descent (with some stairs dug into the side of the hill). I landed softly but the briers really cut me up. Thus, I'm considering buying some mountain biking shoes and new pedals. You may wonder why I haven't done this before and the answer is simple - freedom.

Mountain biking shoes and pedals means my feet will be locked into the bike when I'm riding. I'm a bit nervous about how that means I won't be able to throw my leg out real fast to save myself when necessary.

The second problem my bike has is that my chain has trouble staying in gear. When I pedaling hard uphill the bike slips in and out of gear and I lose a lot of momentum which makes me work a lot harder to climb. If I'm on a really tricky single track trail this slip usually causes my bike to come to a complete stop and I'm forced to hike my bike until the next bit of level ground. This also causes my feet to fall of the pedals and the pedal to swing wildly around and to slam, viciously, into my shin which hurts like hell.

On Monday I'm going to be taking my bike in to have the cables on it replaced which may help the bike with shifting problems. I also have to get a new crank assembly (the toothy gears near the pedals) because my center gear is pretty worn out and I can't replace just one with my setup because the three are riveted together. Whatever I replace it with will have a bolt system but it will cost at least $50.

The shoe/pedal upgrade is going to cost me at least $100. I think it is going to be closer to $150 since the shoes I found are well reviewed but cost $80 and the pedals are another $65.

As nervous as I am about the pedal idea I think, in the long run, it will be safer and far better for my rides in general just considering the better energy transfer I'll get while pedaling.

In the future my next big upgrade will be wheels and brakes - I'll be getting disc brakes so I'm probably looking a couple hundred dollars of expense when I make that move - so it may be many months away even though I'd really like the better brakes. I would get the brakes now but I have to buy different wheels that will actually work with the brakes and that inflates the expense.

The companies that sell this gear must make a mint - its a more expensive sport, in terms of gear, than golfing!

#MountainBiking