Originally Posted by CrossChain
A cyclist who pretends he or she won't fall is living in an angelic realm of self denial. No one wants to fall. No one plans to fall on any given ride. But it probably will happen eventually. To avoid being hit by a cement truck, just do circles in your driveway...but then, what fun is that. Ski on the bunny hill and you probably won't crash, unless a bunny jinks in front of you.
DG......falls brought on by clipless pedals are most frequently "fall-overs". I've fallen down the steps of my house more than I've fallen over from clipless pedals. Personally, I don't think hurting yourself seriously due to clipless pedals is sufficiently likely to avoid using them. You have more chance of getting seriously smushed by a cement truck. In which case, don't ride. But I bet you'll keep riding, right?
I'm not THAT worried about the inevitable fall. What's given me the headache about all this is feeling overwhelmed by what should (to my uneducated brain) be pretty simple. Without any experience in clipless, I need to decide which pedal, how tight to adjust it, whether I'll be walking during a ride, and so on. I guess I was hoping that would be a pretty easy path to start down.
Frankly, spending $80 on a pair of pedals that I may not like, that may not be the best choice but only in hindsight, and so on just bugs me. There should be Beginner Clipless pedals -- not the best, but the best for newbies who can then, as they gain experience, know from that experience what is the best solution for their style of riding.
I'm probably making no sense to people who already ride clipless and think "What's the big deal?" but when I approach a counter (or look in a catalogue) at the endless array of pedals, I feel like the Russian managers who were brought to the USA for a training seminar some years back, and were taken to their first western grocery store, and were simply overwhelmed and stunned at all the choices.
Frankly the model I'm leaning toward is simply the one the guy in the store recommended. He probably recommended it because it costs more than the cheapest one in there, how would I know any better?
I keep thinking that a simple metal platform would be so much easier.
And I haven't had coffee yet this morning, so I'm probably a little grouchy!