Originally Posted by
cali_axela
I had a few occasions when putting significant backpedaling pressure on them to slow down, my foot came unintentionally unclipped. I think it was actually on the upstroke when pulling more than pushing, actually, that they popped out. Same exact pedals as in the picture, I believe (m520's). First time I didn't have tension up all the way, so I ratcheted them up as tight as they'd go, but still had the issue again a couple weeks later. Switched to SPD-SL pedals and have never had issues with them at all. Even ignoring the unclipping issue, the SPD-SL pedals give a much more stable feeling when backpedaling or skidding than the regular SPDs did.
The only annoyance is that walking in SPD-SL cleats totally sucks. So if you don't have problems, no need to switch them out of course... but I don't think I'm the only one who's had this problem, either. Just putting it out there, because coming unclipped when not expecting it definitely sucks more than walking in road cleats does.
I will have to agree with you here, SPD-SL is way better than SPD. I haven't had any issues unclipping with my SPD pedals when backpedaling yet, however, I'm not much of a skidder...my backpedaling is mostly just slowing down. I have forgotten I was on a fixed gear before while going down hill and was bucked by the bike, right foot unclipped, and the next thing you know I'm straddling the top tube, laying on the handlebars with one foot spinning and the other one trying to hit the ground before I biffed it.