Pedal spiking is an early season occurence for me in crits. I once spiked doing 40+ km/hr in a corner, the whole bike was airborne for a brief second but I managed to hold it. Scared the bejeezus out of me and every guy on the outside of me. By the end of the season, I (usually) have the timing down and know how tight I can make a corner. I haven't had the pleasure of doing yet while commuting, but then again, I'm not really worried about letting a gap form in front of me on corners either.

This will be the problem for the average person. If you have a protractor laying around, have someone hold the bike at the critical angle and stand across the room from it, eyeballing along the flat of the bike and line up the protractor with the floor and lean of the bike. I really can't think of an easier way to do this short of having some kind of jig made from cardboard that could be used to capture the angle quickly and then actually measured with a protractor once both hands are free again and the bike is safely propped against a wall instead of precariously leaned over.

You could even print out a protractor from the web to do this. Here's a pretty good scan of one:

http://www.dynapod.com/protractor2.jpg

I think designating fully upright as 0 degrees (as opposed to 90) is the most logical, so the higher angle you can achieve, the better off you are with regards to pedal strike. A tallbike can probably get 80 degrees by this measurement! Next up: find out what angle of lean causes a bike looses traction on clean, level pavement. This would dictate the maximum useful pedal clearance angle on flat surfaces. If you pedal strike due to hitting a curb or something, your mileage will definitely vary.

I'll measure my bike when I get home from work and probably start a thread for this in one of the main sections.

I can design a wireless clutch for you operating by a servo in the back with a wireless receiver and transmitter on the handlebar that you can take with you if you park your bike. That would eliminate the mess of having wires. :p

Well 45 degrees is pretty easy to tell cause it's the same rise as run. You can tilt your bike pretty damn far if you have the inside pedal all the way up, more than enough to lose traction on most roads.

That is a lot of bad luck. So far all my spills ended up only injurying my pride.

i just had a visit with the doc, i'm off the bike until at least june. needless to say that sucks!

You can't measure angles that accurately but if you stick a plumbline on your top tube you can do the trigonometry.

Jeezus. You guys are EVERYWHERE! ;)

Seems that self-injuries are the most common but not the lethal ones.

Aw gee, I'm sorry for you. That would bum me out, for sure. But I'm glad that you'll be back in the saddle come June - I mean, at least it's not a permanent vacation from the bike.