Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Crash-taking a left turn, clipped the left pedal...

....and landed on my right side. I guess I had my left leg fully extended, my left foot at '6 o'clock', got pitched up, over and down on my right side. Nice raspberries on my right knee and elbow, rip in my shirt, and some scrapes on my hands. Otherwise, no damage to me or bike that I can tell.

So, lesson learned....inside foot needs to be "UP" on a turn (feels odd to me for some reason).

OUCH!

I crashed just like that last summer. It is why I wear a helmet now.

What happened was, my left pedal hit a curb and I went over the right side of the bike. I was going head first so I had to twist my body in the air to land on my side instead of my head. I ended up twisting my back and hurting my left shoulder, hand and elbow. If I was wearing a helmet, I wouldn't have worried so much about hitting my head and I could have fallen more naturally.

It is hard to describe but I know a helmet would have allowed me to fall in a way that I probably wouldn't have been hurt as bad. I wear a helmet to not only protect my head but to protect the rest of me from having to fall weird.

I learned that lesson, too, but with less pain than you've had. Glad to hear you're mostly uninjured, and the bike is sound. Hope you recover fully and quickly.

You experienced what is known as a "pedal strike." Not much fun as you discovered.

I had one in my last triathlon. Thankfully I kept the bike upright and had no damage other than grinding off a section of my pedal and having to launder my shorts.

How would you save a pedal strike?

Is the natural position for your inside pedal on a turn "12 oclock", or "3/9" oclock"? Neither feels natural to me.

I guess I have 36 years of bad habit to break, because I never want to do that again. It hurt.

How would you save a pedal strike?

Is the natural position for your inside pedal on a turn "12 oclock", or "3/9" oclock"? Neither feels natural to me.

I guess I have 36 years of bad habit to break, because I never want to do that again. It hurt.

@@@

Ground a bit off my new pedal yesterday on the Peters Canyon Wash Trail while turning onto the Venta Spur Trail. No endo. Thump. Grind. Wobble. I learned that the side you are leaning into on the turn should have the pedal at the top for clearance. Not reverse. I tried it the other way <g>.

Ive done it also I'm sad to say...I was being stupid , and impatient not wanting to wait for a SUV to pass so I decided to shoot the gap, twitched right and then powered into a hard left..Next thing I know my ass is going up and right...came down hard but never wrecked. The SUV was hard on the brakes and I was to embarrassed to even look and apologise..I grew up with the rules that you 12 o'clock the side your turning into and 3/9 o'clock for tracks, curbs, bumps..

Corner with your pedals flat.

Riding fixed taught me how to deal with pedal strike, because inevitably it will happen when you're learning to ride a fixed gear on the street.

1) Don't lock up. Too often the initial reaction to any bad noise, bump, etc. on the bike is to lock your body position and brace for impact. If you let yourself flow through it, you can often avoid the fall.

2) Lighten up. Hop up with the bike as it's being vaulted from the pedal strike. When you hear the gut wrenching "SKRAK!" of metal on concrete, get "light". Rise off the seat and let the bike roll up under you. It's like hitting a bad section of root-heaves on an MUP: Sometimes the only choice is to ride it out as best you can.

3) Hold your line. Unless you're riding lock-legged to the inside of your turn, it's unlikely a pedal strike is going to fling you to the outside of the turn. Most often for me, it puts the back end of the bike slightly out of alignment with my current vector. When the bike comes back down and you're loosened up, it will re-align itself under you with minimal effort to keep your balance.

Thanks for the tips. It was the first spill I've had, so it was all slow-motion and "holy crud....". I do need to ride lighter, however. Back to core work for that...

Incidentally, the bike landed mostly between my legs, and my rear wheel came out of true....what are the chances of this kind of spill bending the rim?

Thanks for the tips. It was the first spill I've had, so it was all slow-motion and "holy crud....". I do need to ride lighter, however. Back to core work for that...

Incidentally, the bike landed mostly between my legs, and my rear wheel came out of true....what are the chances of this kind of spill bending the rim?

If you really fight against it, or got launched and the wheel came down while you were still sailing toward the outside of the turn, then there's a higher possibility of bending/breaking things.
If it just sort of hopped you up and back down, you probably put more torque on the wheels tossing the bike back and forth under yourself in a hard sprint.

....and landed on my right side. I guess I had my left leg fully extended, my left foot at '6 o'clock', got pitched up, over and down on my right side. Nice raspberries on my right knee and elbow, rip in my shirt, and some scrapes on my hands. Otherwise, no damage to me or bike that I can tell.

So, lesson learned....inside foot needs to be "UP" on a turn (feels odd to me for some reason).

OUCH!

This thread scares me...

I haven't had an incident with the 205mm cranks.

Yet...

Clydesdales need proportional sized cranks because we'll destroy our knees with the silly little clown cranks that the tiny people use at the wattages taller and stronger riders produce.

However, longer proportional cranks without a custom frame with a higher bottom bracket is NOT a good combination. :eek:

So here's the question, how many of you pedal hard while cornering aggressively? I'm thinking my days of trying to time pedaling through corners are over...

I only pedal through corners on my fixed gear because I have to. Otherwise, I coast through steep-lean corners with my outside pedal at the 6 o'clock position.

I've got less to worry about with pedal strike though: CX frames have a higher bb clearance than a standard road frame, and with a 36" inseam (pants; never measured my 'cycling inseam') I've never felt the need for anything longer than an off-the-peg 175mm crank.