electronsi00

So my first road bike. .and also.. my first clipping pedals.

My feet are clipped, I'm getting used to the pedals.. Then.. I decide to come to a stop and get off my bike. I FORGET TO CLIP OFF MY PEDALS. Down I go, falling on my left side with my brand new bike!

2 minutes later, same situation! Please tell me others also made this mistake when first using clip pedals? HAHA!

jwbnyc

Welcome to the forum.

You are not alone by a long shot.

Clip out well before coming to a stop.

It gets better with practice.

Bone Head

+1

Been There, Done That. Consider it a right of passage. Almost everyone transitioning to clipless has the dreaded 'Zero mph' fall.

ilmooz

It usually happens when you have an audience to enjoy the show. Hopefully your incident was at least private.

Welcome to the forums!

RonH

It happens to everyone. You have to re-train your brain --> hmm, thinking about stopping, unclip the foot I want to put down, brake, stop, done.

daven1986

you don't think that you can stop without putting your foot down, the problem is you forget to rotate your foot. So you try to slide it off the pedal and end up losing your balance.

AndrewP

It happens most often when you have to make a sudden unexpected stop. You dont have to unclip before you stop, you just have to learn to twist you foot to put you foot down. In the days of toe-clips you had to learn to pull you foot up and back. Having toe clips on one bike and clipless on another bike is really difficult.

jack002

<-- heres a unicyclist thats fairly well coordinated thats done that several times. It takes time to learn to unclip. Don't sweat it. Once you get it in your head you'll find youself 'unclipping' from things like chairs and cars, etc.

Tom Stormcrowe

I only know one person that hasn't done a clipless zero speed fall, and that's my wife. Then again, she rides a recumbent trike. I've had it happen a couple of times. Once when I first got them after using toe clips and straps for nearly 30 years, and the second was while showing off and transitioning to riding backwards on my fixed gear from a trackstand and screwed up.

SlimAgainSoon

It's a rite of passage. But ... twice in two minutes ... you must be studying for the cycling priesthood.

cooker

Twice the first week, and almost once more the first time after a layoff.

Lanceoldstrong

I am the self professed world champion dork at falling over becuase I didn't unclip. I must have fallen at least a dozen times before I really got it down. Once I cracked 2 ribs. I couldn't sleep on that side for 4 months but I was only off the bike for 4 days. Every little bump or pebble was a teeth gritter on those sore ribs.

I confess the above so you'll feel better. It is unlikely you can be as bad as I was at first. Now it is totally unconcious.

My wife never fell once either. Is it a female advantage?

Sixty Fiver

I have never had a zero speed fall... while running clipless pedals.

It's been close though.

klondike300

Yes, yes you are. Now take yourself to Foo for the proper written and verbal abuse.

mustang1

I have NEVER fallen down from my clipless pedals. Or atleast that what I vowed. The funny thing is for the first 3 months I *didn't* fall down. Then I became careless and fell 9 times over the following 3 months. But I haven't fallen since (due ot the pedals anyway).

scoami

Happened to me at a busy intersection, so I'm sure a lot of people had a good story to tell when they got home. I usually unclip my right foot when I stop, but at this intersection there's a curb on the left side (one of those traffic islands). I decided to unclip my left foot to rest on the curb, but the message was lost somewhere between my brain and my foot. This was my first and only time I've done this. Like others have said, unclip well in advance of stopping.

Suzie Green

The solution is to get up and yell at the bike, like it was totally his fault! LOL...welcome to the gang!

gene99

My big moment came in the Five Boro Bike Tour in NYC. We had to stop at one point b/c of congestion ahead, and as I fell left I started a chain reaction of about a dozen people. Oops.

Kevin182

I take my dog with me so I have to watch for traffic and make sure she is not going to dart out. So, here comes a car and I get ready to call the dog back and get her under control. As I watch the dog and car and clip out on the right side..I get off balance to the left and down I go. What do you think the guy in the car thought as he passed?

aidy

my count is on 6 or 7
i get out of balance and fall to the wrong side with one foot unclipped fairly often but I usually manage to save myself from falling
still looks ridiculous though

naevus

a friend's dad (in his mid-fifties) came with us on his first try of new clipless pedals. when he fell at the first set of lights, the people in the car behind thought he'd had a heart attack!

bcordy

The only time I've ever fallen was 180 miles in the Seattle to Portland ride. I wasn't even tired or anything, I just pulled up to get water, and... down I went. I was in the middle of telling a story to like 10 of my buddies... There were a ton of people watching so that made it embarrassing, but I've never shot up off the ground so fast before.

Extort

Every purchase of clipless pedals comes with three free falls...

I always tell clipless newbies to go to a flat park with grass so they don't hurt themselves when they fall.

LostViking

They are all just saying this to make you feel better. Yes, you are the only one to have ever made that mistake!

Once the weather improves, I'm going out on my first clip-less adventure...maybe I'll post pictures of the battle wounds!

Why don't women have as many problems with clipless as us guys?
Because women can multi-task, we cavemen aren't very good at that!

comfort biker

I don't know what everyone is talking about. I think they are just trying to make yo ufeel better, electron. I have never made that rookie mistake....lol!

Welcome to the club!