In the big scheme this ain’t much. But in the annals of making lemonade outta lemons when it comes to improv’d bike repairs, it’s worth mentioning.
It all started the week before last when one side of my left pedal malfuntioned while on the way to work. Now these aren’t your normal every-day platform pedals like the kind you grew up with. Nor are they the old school road bike pedals with the straps you cinch around your shoe. These are “clipless” pedals — a bargain basement variety purchased from Nashbar.com… emphasis on bargain basement.
Whereas a higher-quality pedal would incorporate a more durable metal for the flange that the front of the cleat on the bottom of my bike shoe snaps into, these Nashbar pedals use either a hardened play-doh, or perhaps a lowest-grade alloy, and as such after not much more than 1,000 miles of punching the cleat in and pulling it out, the flange essentially snapped off like a Lee press-on nail in a Nevada cathouse rendering that side of the pedal unclippable. Talk about putting the metal to the pedal.
Normally I’d swap that fail out post hasty, but I didn’t because the other side of the pedal was still intact, that is, until yesterday when that flange broke about halfway through my morning commute, leaving me pedaling somewhat awkwardly the rest of the way in and dreading the ride home that evening.
Then just as I was about to leave the office, it dawned on me that the right pedal had both sides intact, so wouldn’t it theoretically be cool if I could dismantle the unbroken flange from one side of the right pedal and move it over to the left pedal thus restoring full clippability.
It didn’t take long for theory to become reality and I was able to pedal home with both feet firmly clamped in.
But for how long…? Hopefully only as long as it takes for the sturdier Shimano pedals to arrive.
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