I was on my third ride using SPD pedals yesterday. I locked in my right, pushed off to get some speed, and attempted to get my left side locked in. I guess I need more practice because I guess I needed more speed/time to engage my left foot. As I did get it locked in, the bike stopped and I toppled over unable to get me feet down.
I guess I'm lucky in that except for a really nasty bruise on the outside front of my left calf which I'm thinking landed first, I did ok with some small bruises on my hands and quad. My calf welted up immediatly so I put the bike back on the rack, and drove home with my icy cold drink being held on the welt. When I arrived home, I put the bike away and iced my calk down for several hours.
I thought it would be much worse today but I'm generally ok except for the calf which has some swelling and light bruising. Guess I'll take a few days off.

Big question is if I should continue to use SPD. I was wondering if pedals which have the platforms and SPD side would be better to learn with.

Hopefully, I won't wind up on YOUTUBE with the caption "OLD FATGUY FALLS OFF BIKE."

Everyone falls over, so yes, continue using the SPD's.

You might want to loosen the clips so you can easily pop your feet in and out until you get used to riding with them.

Since your right shoe was clipped in, you can push/pull the right side pedal to propel the bike while you are working on the left shoe. Of course the left will be rotating, making the hook up slightly more difficult, but you will be able to maintain forward motion.

I practiced in the garage for about an hour clipping and unclipping. I still fell over twice in the first couple of weeks. I eventually got used to it and now it is a natural habit even under pressure to unclip quickly. Don't give up on them just practice, practice, practice.

You stopped riding because of a fall, and there had been no compound fractures or concussion?


I don't understand that at all...

Something to consider ( Learn About Bikes with Rivendell Bicycle Works ) Get back on your bike and ride with what ever you are comfortable with.

That's why I still ride toeclips and straps, which I adopted at age 18.

Perfect time to practice your one-legged pedaling drills.

Keep using your new pedals and shoes, soon enough you'll wonder how you ever did without them.
Set the release tension to the minimum, increase it when you feel you need to(I still have pedals set that way 10+ year later.)
Start with one foot clipped in, but don't try to clip in the other foot until your moving, and steady. You can push on the unclipped pedal without being clipped in by putting your foot on the pedal with the cleat in front of the pedal, i.e. the arch of your foot will be on the pedal.
Practice unclipping both feet. everybody has a dominant foot that they unclip first, practice using the other one. And practice unclipping both at the same time.
Practice riding slow with both feet unclipped, a good skill for riding in heavy traffic.

Welcome to Club TOMBAY!

And BTW, this will only happen when your stopped, or almost stopped, so don't fear the clipless.

Yes, it's a good thing to get hurt when you ride your bike. THAT will happen a lot with clipless pedals.

Carry on.........

I fell over three times when starting with clipless. Always in front of numerous people. Other than the ego, it is hard to get meaningfully hurt, since the falls are at 0 mph. Bruises are irrelevant.

When starting off, you may want to try pedaling a couple of strokes with your unclipped foot resting on the pedal, just to get a little speed up, before clipping in.

People who use click pedals are silly racer boy wannabes.

People who don't use click pedals are cowardly Luddites and Universal Atmospheric Perturbation deniers.

Nothing else to see here. Move along.

Don't start off over-geared. If you're cruising along, and have to stop, try downshifting a few cogs so it's easier to gain momentum when you start out again. As jyl said, you can pedal on the unclipped foot for a few cycles in an easy gear if you do that first.

And ignore the crusader.

Most people have the Arnie Johnson fall 2 or 3 times is learning to use clip less pedals. Then it becomes second nature. I fell three times the first three months but haven't fallen (due to using my pedals) in over 20 years.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will learn from them all. What drove me to the SPD was after slipping off the pedals the fear of tearing my Achilles' tendon. I'd rather deal with the bumps and bruises of learning to use the SPD pedals then with a serious injury.

Were there witnesses? The only time I feel more stupid than falling because I can't click out is when I fall in our pool with people watching.

Until you get more comfortable, loosen your pedal tension a bit. Adjusting SPDs is super easy.All you need is the right Allen wrench. Just look at the indicators on each side of the pedal and turn the wrench in the direction of the "-" sign. Once you get comfortable, make sure they're tight enough to keep your feet from disengaging too easily.

Don't feel bad, Friday night I fell over and I don't even clip in. My bike is 3" too big, and I was trying to come to a stop and preserve/protect the twins. But that's another story.

As another poster said, everyone does this once. I did it looking back over my shoulder at almost a stop looking for my wife, who had flatted a ways back. I fell in grass fortunately. My wife fell over just last week as we were stopping to help someone who needed bike assistance. She fell on asphalt and got some nasty bruises and a cut on her calf.

SPD is great. You'll get used to clipping in and unclipping and learn to love them.

Eventually, you will get used to just automatically snapping your feet off by flicking your heels out sideways.

I was wondering the same, must have been one hell of a fall.

OP, remember when you fall, always fall on the non-drive side of the bike. That way you will protect your derailleur.

You have got some good advice so I will only add the idea of getting started before clipping in...whatever that means... when I went SPD I was so paranoid that I made sure I was doing everything right and was paying extra attention to coming to a stop... ...then one day, I too joined the club of the fallen. Now I ride trike (most of the time) and have not fallen once

You again! OY.

I never indicated I stopped riding. I stopped after I fell and went home to ice my leg which had a pretty substantial welt which I wanted to ice/pressue to stop it from getting worse. I am a lefty so I fell to my left since I clip in on the right first. Derailleur saved.
Today I am much better, the swelling is almost gone and I can walk normally. Extreme flexion and abduction of my foot no longer hurts but the inward rotation of my ankle is still a bit painful. I would imagine I will be back riding Sunday at the latest, tomorrow if possible.

Again, thanks for all the advice and laughs. I'm SO glad I did not make Youtube. My sister did call me and stated " You know you made someone laugh."

Oddly, last September 7, I had a fall at close to 0 mph, which probably wouldn't have happened except I was clipped in, and I did sustain a compound fracture.

I'm still not quite sure how the fracture happened. I was making a slow tight U-turn, I didn't see the gravel in the middle of the intersection, and the bike started sliding. I had been using the SPD's for only about 3 months, I was fine at unclipping except when needing to get out quickly and unexpectedly, which, unfortunately, was happening here. I quickly tried to get my left foot out to prevent the fall but realized it wasn't happening, the fall to the left was inevitable. I thought, "Don't stick your arm out and break something." I hit the left shoulder OK. Not quite sure what happened after my left shoulder hit. The next thing I knew, my left knee slammed into the pavement, and my face was headed for the pavement. I got my left hand out to keep any part of the face from hitting pavement except a chin bump. I got up, checked everything out. The kneecap would clearly be bruised but otherwise OK, the left hand was protected by the glove from road rash, my chin wasn't bleeding and my jaw seemed fine and unbroken. I got back on the bike.

About a quarter mile down the road, I realized I couldn't straighten the right pinkie. I realized there was throbbing pain on the side of the right hand. Stopped at a stop light, it was too painful to try to remove the glove to check on the hand, so I went home to either cut off or remove slowly. Slow removal worked, but the right hand was obviously deformed and broken. I didn't notice the hole in the back of the glove and the bloody spot where the bone from the 5th metacarpal had pierced not only my skin but the glove (although the bone did go back inside the skin), but admired the glove a few days after the emergency surgery. The fracture being compound was in some ways a blessing, I got to have surgery right away instead of waiting until it could be scheduled on a weekday 2-4 days later.

10 weeks later, I was back on the bike, and now I'm riding farther than ever, in spite of the compound fracture from the fall.

I still have trouble getting unclipped when needing to get out quickly and unexpectedly, but so far, no further falls as a result. Next time I have a slow speed fall, instead of just thinking about not sticking a hand out, I'm thinking about not letting go of the handlebars.