Well, I finally toppled over... but it wasn't in clipless pedals, however I think it was because of clipless pedals.

I was messing around on my fixed bike in my friend's driveway. Trying to do trackstands on the bottom of the pedals (not in the straps)... started to lose balance, but instead of just lifting my foot off, my dumb ass tried to twist my foot out like on my road bike's clipless pedals and my shoe got snagged on the edge of the pedal. I went straight down.. at least I know now that it doesn't hurt too much. I'm most bummed that the brand new bar tape I put on 3 days ago got a tear in it.

Yeah I went down a few times when I first went clipless (after 30 years with clips-and-straps). Even now, a couple years later, my panic reflex is still to pull up and back, rather then twisting, so I use the bike with toe clips for around-town rides, and the bike with clipless pedals for longer, not-in-town rides.

In spite of what many have stated, it does not happen to everyone - you are not doomed to falling over if you use clipless pedals.

I hooked my SPD pedals to my Trek 6500 and within a few hours I had the clipping down pat. The first few hours however... were painful. And embarrassing... and I was alone.

I haven't been in any tight situations yet, but I feel confident I'll be able to handle them accordingly. If nothing else I'll just blame my shoe, throw it somewhere safe where I can pick it up later and pretend it never happened!

Wow, if I was reading this as someone who was not using clipless, I would *never* have started using clipless!

Multiple painful encounters? Multiple falls in a week?

Everyone I know with the exception of 1 particular person who has learned to use clipless hasn't gone through all of this at all. They got clipless pedals and shoes, started off with a few slow rides where they didn't push it until they got used to clipping in and out, and never suffered any of this "serious pain". Most of them (including myself) had exactly 1 fall - they came up to an intersection, slowed to a stop, didn't quite unclip in time, and slowly toppled over bruising nothing but their ego. :-) No series of pain, no multiple falls, etc.

The 1 and only person I know who's had multiple falls is just sort of reckless. He threw his new pedals and shoes on the bike, rode off full speed, and never took any time to try to learn the clip in / clip out thing. He's had multiple falls, one was rather painful (though he's never broken any bones or anything serious like that, to be fair). It was kind of funny actually, another friend of ours rides dirt bikes, and this guy wanted to go with him and our friend was like "Noooooooooo way man. You'll kill yourself! You're not the kinda guy who's going to learn to ride the bike before doing something stupid!" lol.

You absolutely have to take the time to ride cautiously and learn to clip in/out of clipless pedals automatically before you start riding hard again. But if you do, you shouldn't suffer more than a single bruise to your ego one time when you come to a stop and don't quite unclip in time. But - that's it. No multiple falls, painful experiences, etc. On average.

Ocassionally, I will almost topple over when I somehow get unbalanced. Keep at it and you will eventually get it.

So far I've fallen over twice.

First time was at the LBS. I swung by on one of my practice rides to do some browsing and maybe get a water bottle or something. I coasted down the sidewalk and was going to lean against the wall and clip out.

As I was about to full stop I shifted my weight right to lean against said wall.

Too bad I came to a stop *exactly* at the doorway.... which is set back from the wall about 4 feet.

Boooompfh.

Lucky for me the store was closed.

Time two was on another practice ride on my new bike. I caught a red a hundred yards out and came to a slow approach hoping it would turn. While I was semi-track standing, as I was counter steering to keep balance my cranks were level... and my forward toe clipped my wheel.

Luckily the chain was on the big ring and that hit the curb and took most of the fall. I got a quarter sized strawberry on my right knee.

None since then.... yet.