Fifty Plus (50+) - Riding in another world

I got some clipless look style shoes and pedals and went for my first ride today. I was very cautious about not falling due to not unclipping. Well I look up ahead and see one of the dogs on my daily ride in the road. I immediately unclip and get off and start walking. The dog does not bite but it gets too close and might cause me to crash. After I get by its house I decide that I can clip back in and go on so I clip in my right foot and here he comes. I fall over trying to get unclipped. Now his owner comes out and accused me of antagonizing his dog. He also said that I saw you fall and the dog did not even touch you. Maybe someday something will happen to him that makes him wet his shorts and someone will return the favor and make a comment like well that tiger didn't even touch you it just jumped over your head.

I continue on my ride but I guess that I am so irritated that I was in another world. I would finish climbing a hill and notice that I was still in the large ring. I barely remember my ride except that I remember that I really enjoyed the new shoes and how the stiff soles seemed to help me pedal. Maybe this is why I would find myself in the large ring after a climb. I also enjoyed the cooling from the holes in the bottom of the shoes. My feet felt much better after the ride as compared to the rides that I was doing in sneakers.

Now back to this world. I have a simple question. The soles of the shoes are very slick and I really don't know what to do with me feet once I unclip from the pedals. I put the shoes on the pedals but they try to slip off. I know that I should have asked this question before but until I am in the middle of something I often don't know what to ask.

Depends on what pedals. I have SPD's and when I unclip- I just put the foot on the pedal without clipping in. Now with the Shimano A520's- which are single sided- I just turn the pedal over.

Not that this is a problem for me as I am so used to Clipless- that I rarely have to unclip. I have even got my trackstanding up to about 20 seconds- just enough for the lights to change so I have to unclip even less.
As you gain confidence and experience with clipless- you will find that you do the same as me and only unclip as the foot is going to the graound.

Yeah it seems to be best to only unclip the foot that you want to put down but since I am new to this I am attempting to unclip both feet before I stop. With the slick bottom shoes on the pedals, it seems a little risky to stand enough to get off the seat so I can put me feet down. I keep praying that some day I will get smart enough to do things right and not get hurt.

I don't know why I keep saying me feet. Me mind must be broken. I mean my, my,my.

Yeah it seems to be best to only unclip the foot that you want to put down but since I am new to this I am attempting to unclip both feet before I stop. With the slick bottom shoes on the pedals, it seems a little risky to stand enough to get off the seat so I can put me feet down. I keep praying that some day I will get smart enough to do things right and not get hurt.

I definitely only disengage the foot I plan to put on the pavement. Confidence will keep you out of more trouble than fear.

My first fall due to clipless was after I had unclipped and put my left foot down, on the ball of the foot, like ya do. Said foot slid forward and out from under me and I most ungraciously hit the pavement. I quickly learned you don't do that. My shoes have a rubber bit on the heel that I now make sure to put down first.

What I really want to do is put on a rubber thingey like roller skates used to have on the toes. Not only would you not slide, but imagine the push-off you could get!!

Jim P-go ahead and figure out which foot you will want to unclip first to dismount. Always use that foot to unclip first. It will become second nature over time.

After thousands of miles of riding I still unclip prior to really needing to as a precaution but most of the time I continue to pedal using the area behind my cleat on top of the pedal-but unclipped. I use Look pedals which have a larger pedal surface which helps with that. Even though the shoe soles are slick it still works just fine.

And Me Feet is fine by me!!

Hmm. From the title I figured this was going to be one of those "abducted by aliens, taken to the mother ship, and forced to ride a Huffy" kind of threads. Too bad. I would have had some cool stories to share.....

Weak link lets hear the storys. Sylvia Brown's web site says that we will get to meet the aliens in 2010.

Thanks for all the good information. I am applying it all. I have cleats with +10 and -10 degrees of float. I set the cleats as far back as they would go and I set the float on the cleats so that the float stops where my feet want to be when pedaling. This way I have no excess movement when I want to unclip to the outside. Does this seem like a good idea?