shoe lacing

system · September 20, 1995, 8:21pm

wrg@unirsvl.rsvl.unisys.com (Bill Gilbertson) writes:

>One issue that hasn’t been mentioned in this discussion is the risk of injury
>from cottered cranks. The cotter pin has a propensity to reach out and grab the
>loop of your shoe lace…Your shoe lace is then wrapped around the axle several
>times until it jambs…If your laces are in good condition you fall knee first
>with your foot stuck to the pedal. Especially painful on a big wheel. I now
>almost exclusively wear shoes with velcro to tuck the laces under.

Velcro is a nice touch but what I do is simply tuck the bows between the tongue
of the shoe and the crossed-over laces resting on top of them. Takes a minute
extra but it has saved me many times. Incidentally it keeps the bow knots from
working loose during a long day.

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Dennis Kathrens | “Hey, where’s your other wheel?” |
|d. kathrens@genie.com | WHAT other wheel ? |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------|

system · September 21, 1995, 4:33pm

Re: shoe lacing

d.kathrens@genie.geis.com wrote:
> wrg@unirsvl.rsvl.unisys.com (Bill Gilbertson) writes:
>
>>One issue that hasn’t been mentioned in this discussion is the risk of
>>injury from cottered cranks. The cotter pin has a propensity to reach out
>>and grab the loop of your shoe lace…Your shoe lace is then wrapped around
>>the axle several times until it jambs…If your laces are in good condition
>>you fall knee first with your foot stuck to the pedal. Especially painful on
>>a big wheel. I now almost exclusively wear shoes with velcro to tuck the
>>laces under.
>

This happened to me (twice) in college 11yrs ago on my 5.5ft giraffe. In the
more memorable of the two instances, it was as I was riding across a street.
There’s a car half a block off, and I feel the lace tightening up. When I could
no longer pedal, I fell forward (with my foot tied to the pedal) landing on the
free foot and rolling with the fall. Then of course, I had to hop the rest of
the way across the intersection on the free foot while the unicyle remained tied
to my other foot. I wasn’t hurt, but I sure wish I’d seen the reaction of the
driver of the car. I’d love to have that episode on videotape! It had to be
hilarious to watch.

Jerry Jerry_A_Kreifels@ccm.fm.intel.com “My opinions, not my employer’s.”

system · September 21, 1995, 1:20am

Re: shoe lacing

d.kathrens@genie.geis.com wrote:
> Velcro is a nice touch but what I do is simply tuck the bows between the
> tongue of the shoe and the crossed-over laces resting on top of them. Takes a
> minute extra but it has saved me many times. Incidentally it keeps the bow
> knots from working loose during a long day.

I’ve got my laces caught a number of times - not on the cotter pin (the uni’s
got cotterless cranks) but on the pedal. Luckily I managed to land safely on
my free foot with a unicycle tethered to my other. These days I do exactly
what Dennis does - tucking the loops under the lacing and I’ve not had any
trouble since.

Regards, Mark.