Another beautiful ride RUINED by )(&*&%$ CLIPLESS PEDALS!!!

oldhousedr

Don't know if your putting pedals on road or mountain bike but we bought my wife SPD-SL and set them at 3-4/10. Had her practice clipping in and out on my trainer for 1/2 hour. Has had very little difficulty clipping in and out with only 1 fall this season.

Hope this helps.

p38lightning

When riding in clipless pedals, one has to plan your stops. One has to be aware and ready well prior to stopping

I respectfully submit that this is never an option in an emergency situation.
It is then that you have to get your foot down Right NOW!

Falls will still continue though, and the embarrasment level never seems to diminish. The cuts and abrasions do though.

At least up to this point the cuts and abrasions have.

You are forthright and balanced in what you say, but I continue to question whether it is worth the risk for a casual recreational street rider. I fully acknowledge the necessity of clipless pedals for the competitive rider. My main reservation is not what happened to juf2m so much in not taking her foot out at a stop, but the need to put your foot down while riding to prevent a crash. Lance got lucky in the last tour when a rider went down in front of him and he had to go off road to avoid a crash. He got his foot out just in time to save himself on the dirt. That is Lance, not the rest of us.

TrekDedicated

You need some sun on those legs!

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tcklyde

Your pedals didn't ruin your ride, you did. Make an effort to learn clipless pedals or stop complaining. It's your fault you fell, not the pedals.

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juf2m

Aren't you CHARMING. And a fundraiser too, just like me! Hope you aren't that way with your donors...

Anyway, thanks for the wonderful advice, that never would have occurred to me! xoxoxoxo

cydewaze

Sweet! You just won me $5. I bet Jess we'd get a troll in this thread, and I was about to fork over the cash until you showed up.

I owe you one man.

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juf2m

That is true, by the end of the summer they will look very different!

rolfdevinci

LOL.......picture this.....

Daddy out riding with son. Son is only 4 and has training wheels. Daddy is leading son down sidewalk very slowly....barely keeping enough speed to keep upright.

Son`s training wheel climbs the side of grass bank so rear wheel spins freely above ground. Son hollars like a banshee cause he ain`t moving nowhere. Daddy peers over shoulder then attempts to make a real tight u turn carrying no speed.

CRASH!

Daddy is unable to unclip from Ritchie spd`s in time and finds himself pinned - still clipped in - under Schwinn mountain bike. Son is still spinning like Lance, going nowhere, but now laughing like a banshee cause daddy "made a funny".

Daddy lands on elbow and hip and is writhing like a snake trying to unclip when older couple stop their walk to offer help......and that I am blocking the sidewalk.

Nothing more painful than hurting your pride.

BTW - true story.

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juf2m

LMAO!! Now that is hilarious!! Very well described.

Fizzy23

Can you say stiches!!! 8-(


That looks like about 8 huh?

king4wd

A couple of tips for dealing with clipless pedals.

1) Everybody falls. Every last one of us has come to a stop and started lurching like mad as we slowly fell over. All you can do is laugh it off. Much like the buttered bread theory you will almost always go down with an audience. I don't know why, it just is that way.
2) Wellgo makes pedals for almost everybody (including nashbar, K2 and ritchey). One quirk with them I found is that the cleat has to be especially tight on the shoe. If it gets loose for any reason, it becomes much harder to clip out.
3) With some pedals such as SPDs one can clip out twisting either toe or heel out. With look type cleats best results come from clipping out heel first with slight backward pressure.
One other note. As a purely recreational cyclist I know you can't always plan your clipouts. However that little trepidation of not being able to confidently unclip has given me the extra motivation to make it up many hills I might have given up on.

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Hypnospin

Mr. T and I both have our release set at the absolute highest release setting, and never have any problem either.

so now the blame has never been so clear.

"one crack from my staff if you do not understand, one if you do" Zen Teaching

chevo1412

I had a few 'anxious' moments until I learnt it is far easier to swing your heel in towards the frame. I use the left side. Plus try to plan your stops.

-={T}Bone=-

How about crashing, when your stopped at a stop light, with many cars around you, and your foot is touching the ground?!?

That was me about 3 years ago. It had just rained a little and I was on my way home. I felt good. I stopped at a traffic light and put my foot down as normal. A few seconds later, I just fell over.

No wind hit me, my foot didn't slip ( I don't think )...as I was lying on the ground, I thought, what an idiot! I never laughed harder in my life. One of the cars next to me asked if I was alright. Of course I was.

That was the best crash I ever had. Unfortunately, not my only one.

Crashed hard taking a right-hand turn at 30 miles an hour in San Diego's Balboa Park. Middle of the day, tons of people around. There was sand in the turn. I was banged up pretty badly. Have bad scars to show for it. People always asking me what I got them from.

The sad part of that was, with all the people that saw me go down, not one came over to ask if I was OK. After almost a minute of lying on the ground, I got myself up, sprayed water on my wounds to get some of the dirt out, checked my bike, and rode another 20 miles home in severe pain.

When I got home, my girlfriend drove me to the hospital where they scrubbed my wounds!

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