Road Cycling - You Just Bought Your First Set Of Clipless Pedals And Fell. Or Did You?

Is it inevitable? Does everyone fall when they use clipless pedals? Share your first story if you fell and how it happened.

I've never used clipless but just ordered a set with my new bike.

Am I definitely going to fall?

Ahh yes, I've heard of some success stories, however I fell twice expirementing with my pedals. Both were when I was approaching a stop sign. The best was my first fall as I was slowing down for a sign (I had to stop, the other road was busy and didn't have to stop) I clipped out on my right foot to get practice and then put my weight to my left side, where I usually clip out, without thinking. Well there weren't too many people who saw but I tipped pretty fast. I was almost to a stop at that point but still fairly funny. So the lesson is, never try anything new, always use the same foot to clip out.

[Reposted from another post]

Some people claim to have never fallen but it's rare. I mean even with platforms, people fall. For the most part, barring such situations as I mentioned above, once you've had enough experience with clipless pedals, you will rarely (if ever) find yourself still locked in after a fall. It starts becoming second nature to unclip in the middle of an accident. I learned clipless while MTBing rather than road biking since I spent most of my time until the last few years mainly on MTBs. I have as you yourself been involved in some pretty nasty spills. Everytime, I've picked myself back up off the ground, I have to stop and try to remember how my feet automagically did the right thing and disengaged themselves from the pedals. And almost everytime, I can't recall how that actually happened but yet it does happen. Pretty soon all you have to do is trust your instincts in how to operate your pedals. What's that saying?

Q: How do you bring a caterpiller to a crashing halt?
A: Ask it in which order it moves its legs.

The thing is that most people get into clipless pedals after they have been riding for awhile. Their normal way of getting out of the pedals is a different motion then clicking out of clipless. So they coast into a stop sign, forget that they are in clipless, go to put their foot down and OOPS, their weight then shifts and even if they click out, they go over. I suppose some people have made the transition without falling but I don't know anyone who has. It seems to be that one needs a bit of a hard object lesson or two before one successfully makes the shift.

I just thought of this.. Great idea..

Ok so I want all of you do to a little homework assignment... a warm-up if you will...

I want you to goto the busiest intersection you can find, and wait til you see a pack hot girls ( or guys ).
If there are no girls then do it in the rain.. Anyhoo..

So get right up to the stopsign, and we'll assume theres about 20 cars waiting to go. Throw yourself over and let yourself fall down. Great. If my predictions are correct, this'll break the curse. :)

When I started on the clipless pedals I had absolutely no problems - I took them out for a quick ride to get used to them and then rode as normal. I definitely thought about all the warnings people had given me - maybe that kept me safe.

About a year later my bike was stolen - I was bikeless for a a few months. I got clipless on my new bike and fell at the first set of traffic lights. Go figure.

Have fun.

I haven't fallen at traffic lights yet *touch wood*.

The first clipless I had were on my mountain bike - Shimano M515. I had a few moments with them while I got used to the unclipping motion, but from memory only fell over once. I was being a bit too cautious one day and riding too slowly, worrying about being clipped in. Came up to a bump in the trail and didn't have enough speed to go over it. Bike stalled, I fell, friends and wife laughed... and so did I! Haven't fallen since... I think learning on the MTB helped me develop some good 'automagic' unclipping skills (great word, Khuon!).

Just remember to engage your brain when you slow down to stop. Pretty soon it becomes a very natural process.

so far i have no fallen with my clipless pedals. I usually unclip when i am nearing an intersection where i might have to stop. i usually just put my foot back on the pedal without cliping in so that if the light turns green i just go and it will clip in or if i have to stop all i have to do is just lift my foot off. so the answer to your question is no you will not definitely fall.....as long as you are careful.

No. You are not fated to fall. A bobble or two, perhaps, but not a fall. I've been on clipless for a year and have had a few embarrassing "kick the left leg out to support the body before I fall because my right foot is still clipped in" incidents, but I have never hit the ground with anything other than my foot.

How I did this: Spend one whole day clipping in, snapping out, clipping in, snapping out, etc. Do 100x or more. The next day, ride slower and practice the same thing. Train your mind to snap the ankle out instead of pulling the foot back. While riding, try to quickly snap out and see if your mind knows how to do it. I practiced this several times and found that my right leg always wanted to stay in. Then I practiced the right 2x as much as the left. To this day, I still pop out/pop back in every so often to test my reactions. In an emergency situation, I might still fall, but I haven't yet and I think it's because I approached clipless pedals as a VERY useful but potentially dangerous upgrade to my bike...

Now, here's hoping I don't fall today :D

I have not fallen, which is probably more remarkable, since I'm a big guy (230 lbs.). I did what Carl recommends: practice getting in and out of your pedals. You'll have to think about it the first few times you ride, but after that it should become very natural.

Is it inevitable? Does everyone fall when they use clipless pedals? Share your first story if you fell and how it happened.

I've never used clipless but just ordered a set with my new bike.

Am I definitely going to fall?

First year using clipless I fell while making u turn on a narrow street. Got too slow and down I went.

Second year I was out doing a ride and noticed I couldn't clip in. Stopped to check my cleats and noticed I had lost one of the 2 screws that hold the cleat. Being brilliant I figured all I had to do was make the other screw real tight and that would hold the cleat in place. NOT! Next time I went to unclip all the cleat did was go in a circle around the remaining screw. Down I went. I had to take my shoe of to detach my self from the bike as there was no way the shoe was coming off the pedal. Boy was that embarrasing, cars stopped at the light got to see this idiot fallen over stuck to his bike. Needless to say I check that my cleats are tight before every ride and I carry an extra cleat and couple of screws along with my supplies.

CRSO I see you are in Manhattan. Just make sure you practice clipping in and out before you hit the city streets. If you can make it to Staten Island check out sibike.org. Our club does some nice rides on and off Staten Island.
Good Luck

First year using clipless I fell while making u turn on a narrow street. Got too slow and down I went.

Second year I was out doing a ride and noticed I couldn't clip in. Stopped to check my cleats and noticed I had lost one of the 2 screws that hold the cleat. Being brilliant I figured all I had to do was make the other screw real tight and that would hold the cleat in place. NOT! Next time I went to unclip all the cleat did was go in a circle around the remaining screw. Down I went. I had to take my shoe of to detach my self from the bike as there was no way the shoe was coming off the pedal. Boy was that embarrasing, cars stopped at the light got to see this idiot fallen over stuck to his bike. Needless to say I check that my cleats are tight before every ride and I carry an extra cleat and couple of screws along with my supplies.

CRSO I see you are in Manhattan. Just make sure you practice clipping in and out before you hit the city streets. If you can make it to Staten Island check out sibike.org. Our club does some nice rides on and off Staten Island.
Good Luck

Some good stories here... I'll do a lot of practice. I got the bike mainly for the Central Park loop. I'll look into Staten Island. I have a few co-workers that live there. Thanks.

I fell today. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I took a "tuning" ride today in Central Park. My mind was fully on getting the gears in sync. Sure enough, after adjusting my front der, my chain fell off. Gliding to a stop, I was concentrating on getting the chain back on.

Over I went. I felt like a fool. Thank god nobody was around.

Is it inevitable? Does everyone fall when they use clipless pedals? Share your first story if you fell and how it happened.

I've never used clipless but just ordered a set with my new bike.

Am I definitely going to fall?

It depends on the kind you have. If you have the multi-release kind you can get out of the clip faster with any sort of motion. (sort of like a ski binding). I've fallen due to ice ect. but not because of the cleat. And when I do fall, I'm out of the cleat before the bike hits.

It depends on the kind you have. If you have the multi-release kind you can get out of the clip faster with any sort of motion. (sort of like a ski binding). I've fallen due to ice ect. but not because of the cleat. And when I do fall, I'm out of the cleat before the bike hits.

I did fall

I did fall

Heh I fell last month coming back from prospect park. I unclipped, did everything right, but when I went to plant foot on the ground, I stepped on the pedal by accident and clipped right back in.

I just got my first pair of clipless in the mail yesterday (Look 247) and all these stories sound encouraging...I guess I better just get on my bike and lean and fall to one side to just get it over with ;) ...going this weekend to my LBS to buy some shoes (thinking of Shimano entry model, cant remember PN, 073 or something)....wish me luck :)

It's cheating if you purposely fall on a soft surface.

Oh, yeah. That's cheating alright. You'll fall even harder if you do that.

I fell today. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I took a "tuning" ride today in Central Park. My mind was fully on getting the gears in sync. Sure enough, after adjusting my front der, my chain fell off. Gliding to a stop, I was concentrating on getting the chain back on.

Over I went. I felt like a fool. Thank god nobody was around.

haven't tried this while actually riding, but it works damn well when bikes are up in the stand: chain falls off to the inside (off the smallest ring), shift the FD up to the middle or big ring and keep pedalling. chain falls off to the outside (off the big ring), shift the FD to the middle or inner ring and keep pedalling. it should put the chain right back on. it might not work in the second scenario with STIs, because the derailleur's motion is more jerky than with DTs or grip shifters...but it's still worth a shot. i'll be damned if i actually remember to do this next time i throw my chain though...

haven't tried this while actually riding, but it works damn well when bikes are up in the stand: chain falls off to the inside (off the smallest ring), shift the FD up to the middle or big ring and keep pedalling. chain falls off to the outside (off the big ring), shift the FD to the middle or inner ring and keep pedalling. it should put the chain right back on. it might not work in the second scenario with STIs, because the derailleur's motion is more jerky than with DTs or grip shifters...but it's still worth a shot. i'll be damned if i actually remember to do this next time i throw my chain though...

That's what I was "concentrating" on before I stopped. Didn't work. ;)

oooh... man, if/when something goes wrong with my bike, first thing i do is unclip. every time. unless i'm on a track bike, in which case i'm going down with the ship.

oooh, you have a brooklyn....ooooh......the park is the "hardtail/trials/freeride" one, right? my friend has one of those, and he also has a 24" BMW cruiser...nice rides both of them.

oooh... man, if/when something goes wrong with my bike, first thing i do is unclip. every time. unless i'm on a track bike, in which case i'm going down with the ship.

oooh, you have a brooklyn....ooooh......the park is the "hardtail/trials/freeride" one, right? my friend has one of those, and he also has a 24" BMW cruiser...nice rides both of them.

He's got a cruiser BMX? They stopped making that a while ago. Nice find... The park is the freeride bike.
http://img70.photobucket.com/albums/v214/CRSO57/IMG_0316.jpg

I got my first road bike and set of clipless pedals last summer. It doesn't matter how much I'm concentrating - I seem to tip over about every 133 miles. It's never at any type of speed, I get a bruise or two, and it's always embarrassing.

my friend's park is the older version, with the square plate dropouts, and i believe it's meant for a much shorter fork. (he uses it for trials, so it's probably got some old GT rigid MTB fork on it right now).

The first time I used my clipless pedals I had a fantastic ride. Had no problems at any of the slow downs or stops, didn't feel like I was going to fall over - nothing but a great experience.

Then I finished the ride with 4 buddies at the bottom of my driveway, only to get my foot stick in the pedal and fall right over. At least I fell left, and didn't damage the bike. I did crack my helmet though.

From the scores given to my by the guys, I had a high degree of gracefulness, but a low degree of difficulty. Overall, I think they scored me a 5.2 out of 6.

You will be fine.

I've never fallen on a ride but I've come close a few times...generally I try to anticipate the need to unclip a foot (always my left first) and get it out asap. I have tried to stay clipped in before when stopped at a rest area and the bike went down...but "knock on wood" not on the street...yet...

My luck it will happen on my 60mi diabetes ride this Sun in front of all the "pro" bikers... :rolleyes: !!!

It happened! I'm at the final signal light after riding 30 miles. The light turns red and I coasted. About 10 feet before the crosswalk I unclippted...or at least I though I unclipped. I pulled on the brakes to stop and attempted to take my foot off the pedal to put it down. Yikes, it's stuck! Down I went at a busy intersection. Lots of gawkers. I wanted to say "what are you looking at?" but I was already too embarassed. A few cuts and scrapes on my elbow and knees. Worse...my new bike took on a few scratches too. I'm really p1ssed at myself.

I have never fallen, the key is to release your feet early. There were times when I nearly fell over, but I have to thank my spider sense. lol, or should I say my superb sense of balance and agility? Hey, that's spider power too.

I had fairly little practice with my SPDs before I took them to work. Took a bunch of falls, nothing serious, even managed to snap a cleet off (busted the metal plate in the shoe and snapped it off during a fall while I couldn't clip out) and now the action is automatic. I'll run into trouble and the next thing I know my foot's on the ground and I'm thinking "how da **** did I do that". I was even able to throw a chain back on the other day with my foot (I'm lacking a front derailleur) while riding, and still managing to pass two guys on hilly terrain, so I'm faily confident with mine. Expect a few bumps or scrapes, but nothing too serious, and it's well well worth it.

I'm still recovering, however, from a fairly nasty fall yesterday scraping a platform off the ground during a test-ride. I can barely move my left arm. Dwarfs anything I've done with clipless...I'm never ****ing going back.

Is it inevitable? Does everyone fall when they use clipless pedals? Share your first story if you fell and how it happened.

I've never used clipless but just ordered a set with my new bike.

Am I definitely going to fall?

Some people never fall..... they are called fibbers. :p :D :p

I just got started yesterday with a new Sirrus Pro. Haven't fallen yet. I attribute this to a pair of exquisitely awkward feeling Specialized Comp shoes with exposed cleats. They feel so different that I cannot possibly forget that I am clipped in. For some reason, I find it very easy to unclip but harder to get clipped in. The best way for me is to start pedaling slowly and eventually clip in after a few tries.

I've been riding clipless pedals almost since they were introduced, about 20 years?, and I fell today. My 7 yo daughter was in front of me on a narrow sidewalk coming back from Prospect Park and hit some bushes and swerved in front of me, I was too close to stop and get my foot out. But as others have noted, after a time you learn to get your foot out as you're going down. We didn't get a scratch.

I started when I lived in Seattle, and was very nervous when I moved back to NYC. I have them on all 3 bikes I ride, Looks on my road bikes and SPD on my MTB. Over the years, I've probably fallen about 5 times, only once did I get even slightly hurt. The only place I have problems is going uphill where you don't have enough momentum to click out, but its not a big problem in NYC.

Is it inevitable? Does everyone fall when they use clipless pedals? Share your first story if you fell and how it happened.

I've never used clipless but just ordered a set with my new bike.

Am I definitely going to fall?

"Yes I did",and felt like a fool. Fortunately to the right on soft ground and tall grass to ease the pain. The LBS where I bought the shoes, pedal, and cleats, wasn't very informative on setup. The "kid" that waited on me had to run off and ask somebody the answer to my questions. The place was quite busy that day. I'll take part of the blame for not waiting and talking to someone more knowledgeable.

The bottom line was I had the tension way too tight, and was fighting with them to unclip. I thought they had to be tight to keep them clipped while riding. Wrong!!

On this particular morning I forgot about the most important part of riding clipless. Anticipation!! That and pedals not adjusted properly will take your momentum from a north-south to east-west real quick. Now my pedals are setup on the lightest spring tension and I'm not having any trouble staying clipped or unclipping.

Learn to look ahead at the situation coming up, if it looks sticky or uncomfortable unclip and play it safe. :)

i borrowed my girlfriends bike with spd's i dumped all over the place. fell like leaves in autumn When i got my bike I got speedplay frogs. I'm in and out in half a heart beat. those things are slick.

Is it inevitable? Does everyone fall when they use clipless pedals? Share your first story if you fell and how it happened.

I've never used clipless but just ordered a set with my new bike.

Am I definitely going to fall?


I have been lucky and yet to fall using clipless

I used to hate clipless, but I found, like most things, cheapo SPDs don't work as well as good ones. for someone with freakishly large feet (12) the clipless are great.

Having said that, I've fallen at lights with both clips and clipless...looks real cool.
I'm actually enjoying clipless better on my MB.

I've been riding clipless for several years, and fall a couple of times a year. Always a stupid little situation associated with a brain fart.

I have fallen at intersections, in front of stopped cars (and people laughing hysterically, I'm sure) ... while trying to coast slowly waiting for the light to change, haveing not clipped out.

Just last month I fell while putt-putting along at the Pro-Champs in Philly ... I was crossing the coarse and someone walked in my path, I stopped without hitting them, but couldn't get out in time.

The trick is to jump right up, and act like you ment to do it ...

I have never fallen, the key is to release your feet early. There were times when I nearly fell over, but I have to thank my spider sense. lol, or should I say my superb sense of balance and agility? Hey, that's spider power too.

With my new pedals, I now know what you're talking about! If the tension spring is too tight, you actually need a few seconds before coming to a complete stop to unclip! :o

Maybe you can ask your LBS to adjust the tension on the pedals. I was able to do this myself and now I don't have to release early.

Two words- multi release cleats
These things are the best.

yea I know. I've never been good at math.

I am proud to say that when I returned to road biking after, um, a few years off, I took the clipless plunge, and have never fallen. Most of my riding is country roads where one almost never makes an unplanned stop, so that probably has a lot to do with it. On a road bike, it isn't that hard to get used to - just take a few extra seconds before you stop, and mentally rehearse what you need to do. It becomes instinctive very quickly.

The MTB, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. It took several weeks and countless falls before I got the hang of off road clipless. Got a nasty chainring scrape on my leg as a memento.

Two words- multi release cleats
These things are the best.

yea I know. I've never been good at math.

Ditto. They cost the same as the regular ones and are goof proof. If the pedal is adjusted correctly there's no..."o I forgot to unclip". You unclip the second you need to. That lessens injuries if you fall due to some other factor.