Is It Time To Become A Bad Cyclist?

I do I do! I cycle up and down my road outside house doing it. Thought I had got it down but then I get distracted and it all goes out my head and my left foot starts flailing about like a twat.

In my defence it's been about a week since throwing away the clips and straps

Not that I threw them away. They are in the shed

Well it sounds like you've mastered avoiding the slow sideways fall of shame so you're nearly there.

When I first tried clips & straps in traffinc I ended up on the bonnet of a furious motorist's car at a red light on the Kings Road . All I remember is pushing myself back upright & pedalling off like a nutter through the red light as his curses faded away! I got used to them eventually.

My first clipless pedals were Time ones & ended up doing the slow "oh no I'm not going to hold it" sideways thing a few times before I got the hang of it, first time in front of a packed cafe at the top of Box Hill when I tried to pull away in too big a gear & then somewhere at traffic lights on Portsmouth Road somewhere near Tooting.

Just embrace it as a rite of passage!