Originally Posted by
Bikey Mikey
I think my issue is that I can unclip much easier and realiably twisting my heal inward towards the bike whereas I keep hearing that you have to unclip with heel going out away from the bike. When I had the tombay, I was trying to unclip with twisting the heel out,. I mentioned this to the LBS guy who was a racer in his youth and he stated that heel toward the bike is the only way he does it--heel out hurts his knee. Also, with the float, there is less to reach the unclipping going in--there is much more distance to reach the unclipping point going outward.
On most pedals, the direction in which your heel moves shouldn't matter. If you don't know how yourself, I'd ask your shop to decrease the pedal tension for you for a while until you get used to it. Truth be told, if you're not doing tough hills, light tension's fine all around, although if you are doing hills and your tension is too loose, your cleat could unexpectedly come out of the pedal. Even in that case, your worse risk is a low-speed fall.
Personally, I always prefer twisting away from the bike, as that avoids any possibility of coming in contact with anything on your bike. When I was renting a road bike in Florida and didn't bring my own pedals and used their SPDs, the pedal tension was too tight until I adjusted it. The only way to unclip for a bit was toward the bike and I unexpectedly broke a spoke after having difficulty twisting out. Not a huge deal, but a pain nonetheless. If that way works best for you, there's no real harm in it, just be a bit careful.