Mountain Biking pedals/clips

So I took my bike in to deal with a problem that's irked me to no end. I could NOT get out of my pedals. No matter how hard I twisted and turned, once locked in, it was almost a guarantee that I was going to fall since I couldn't get my feet down. If I went in accidently, I spend the next few minutes frantically pedaling and pausing while I tried to twist out. Eventually I'll get it with a supreme effort, but it shouldn't be hard at all. I can pop in and out of my road bike's clips without even thinking about it, so what's going on? I tried adjusting everything every which way, loosening the pedals to as easy as they can go, moving and realigning the cleat on my shoe... I was out of ideas so I went begging to the bike shop.

It turned out that it was a combination of the type of pedal I had with the type of shoe I was wearing. The pedal has a cage around it so I can ride without clipping in, but still have a place to put my foot instead of balancing on the tiny little clip. I figured this was a good thing as I'm still adjusting to mountain biking and would sometimes not want to be clipped in during particularly hairy sections. My shoe has tread so I have traction for the inevitable parts of getting off and walking up big nasty hills. This seemed like a great idea as my road bike shoes would slip and slide in the mud or dirt and it'd make the hills seem twice as long.

Anyway, the mechanic put my shoe on the pedal and had me hold the shoe and move it, you could feel the friction. It was the combination of the tread with the cage where the tread was in contact with the cage and putting upward pressure on the clip, in effect making it impossible for me to get out without pressing down while twisting. Go figure I could only get out when I stood on it at the bottom of a pedal stroke.

The mechanic shaved down a section of the tread (still leaving me plenty to work with) and had me go try things out. I was deliriously happy! I could get in and out like it was nothing, it was as I knew it should be, but had almost given up on. I'm sooo happy. DH is happy too as he's been having the same problem and now we know how to fix it.

I can't wait to go riding and try it out!