Update/first report on Clik'R's--Good News/Bad News
 

I put the new Clik'R shoes, cleats, pedals on yesterday and rode around for 1/2 hour. Still have the cast on, so I took it VERY easy. Here's my report:

1. The unclipping is stupid-easy, as advertised. I'm 99% certain that in any kind of crash or fall, my feet would come out of the pedals. I'd be wildly surprised if they didn't. I can unclip from any position of the crank arm and can even unclip both feet simultaneously.

2. The clipping in is a little harder than I thought. Not that there's any real effort involved, but I found myself tapping and dabbing trying to get the cleat and binding to mate. Probably will get the hang of that soon.

3. I set the pedal bindings to their lightest setting. I immediately noticed that there was a LOUD "CLICK" sound happening whenever I bounced over a rough spot in the road. At first I thought WTF happened to my bike (haven't ridden it since the fall)? Then I realized it was the pedals. Maybe tightening the adjustment will make it go away.

4. I realized that even though clipping out is now basically not a problem, that it is not THE problem. What I mean is that I'm not certain that if I got into a panic stop situation and got clipped out easily that I would still prevent falling! It's a balance thing and a bike-handling thing. I realized that I might even fall if I were on flats because of something like starting to fall to one side and putting the opposite foot down...that kind of thing--if that makes sense.

Bottom line--I'm glad I have these and they will be useful for sure. But all the other things apply and are MORE important. I think if my balance and bike skills improved the Speedplays wouldn't present a problem.

STP

Thanks for the information !!

I hope they work out for you! Heal quick and enjoy your riding.

Great to hear - hopefully these work out for you.

I guess I'm late to this thread, but I also got the Click'R shoes (CT41) and pedals (400) and I'm liking them a lot so far. It is very easy to get out (56 cleats) and I often find myself clipping in by what feels like by accident. I was just putting my foot on the pedal and I found it's clipped. I have to pull up sometimes since I'm incredulous. I've only had one close call where I forgot to click out and was suddenly surprised my foot was stuck but I was able to get my foot out before I fell over and save myself.

I don't know if this would help others new to this, but I made it a habit to try to always approach intersections with the left foot down, right foot high and unclip the right foot. It got me into a pattern so I can repeat it every time. That time I forgot to do it was the one time I almost fell. My left foot was down, didn't unclip the right, and found myself falling to the left. My right foot managed to slid out/unclipped and I was able to save myself using that foot.

Lots of good info in this thread. I too am looking into cleats which I've never even dreamed of using before. When I ran across the Click'R system on Shimano's website I was instantly intrigued. From the reviews on Amazon on the CT41 shoes I think those are the ones I'm going to try out along with the 420 pedals (I like the idea of having a platform on one side so I can use regular shoes if I feel like wearing my running shoes).

Thought of something else I forget to say that might help.

When kicking out, or uncliping. DO IT when you peddles are moving, as it it harder if the crank have stopped rotating. FYI

Try this tip, and I hope it help you. After riding clipless for year thing become natural, and we do thing with out thinking because of mussel memory.

Sorry about your injury and hope you recover soon. I applaud you for getting back in the "saddle" and keep trying the clipless pedals. I switched to clipless last year and never looked back. I've had 2 zero mph falls. Once was a panic stop and I just didn't come out of the pedals. The second time, my brain was somewhere else and well, I just fell over, LOL. I didn't break anything, just my pride and some road rash where I got scraped.

Anyway, you mention that you have Frogs. Have you given them a go? I run Frogs on all my "road" bikes. I don't care what the roadies think. I wear Shimano touring shoes even on my Madone. I get looks, but who cares? I keep up just fine. I can even walk in my shoes. I find the frogs easier to get in an out of than the road version of the speed plays.

We just got my husband a road bike and I refuse to get him in clipless pedals. He doesn't want to do it and I don't want to force him to it. I would feel horrible if he fell and injured himself. He just wants to ride and not think about it. He does just fine on the flat pedals and if he's happy, that suits me just fine. Maybe you should stick to flats so that you don't get injured. Remember biking should be fun and not injure yourself :-).

I'm glad to hear it all went well. BE CAREFUL.

I realize this is a little early with your testing, but do you ever do standing hill climbs? Stand up with accelerating through an intersection?

I've got standard SPDs that I did buy used... perhaps I should eventually just buy new ones, but I have to crank them down pretty tight, otherwise I tend to occasionally yank the cleats out.

Of course, for learning, practising, and HEALING, keep them loose.

It did take a while before I got the clicking in to almost without thinking... at least for foot positioning.

I do hear/feel slight clicks when pulling up with climbing... It just tells me when I'm working hard :)

I don't know about bike handling..... I remember in Grade School, we used to practice to see who could ride the bike the slowest while keeping it between two lines. Personally I haven't ever taught myself to track stand, but I may be close... I think I can get it well below 1 MPH, at least for long enough that I can react to any situation, then I normally unclip just as the light turns green :P

It is muscle memory, and you can develop it. I have been playing the guitar for some time now, and when I was first learning to make chord shapes, I simply moved my fingers from chord to chord and pressed down, without even playing. In time my fingers learned how to make the chords, and moved to the right positions without conscious thought.

You need to train your feet to always twist out of the pedal, at any time. When you are riding, clip and unclip from your pedals from time to time, more is better. When you are coming to a stop, it is okay to unclip early. Keep practicing, and soon you will be able to get up clipped without even thinking about it. And you need to practice on both feet. More than once I have unclipped my left foot while stopping, lost my balance, and tipped over to the right, requiring me to quickly unclip my right foot to avoid a fall. But practice makes perfect.

When I began riding, clipless pedals were not main-market, and I used clips and straps. Getting into and out of the pedals required a lot of practice. First, tip the pedal around so my foot goes in, push forward to get the cleat around the ridge on the pedal, and then pull the strap tight. When coming to a stop, I had to reach down and loosen the strap, lift the cleat from the pedal, and pull my foot out. But this routine also became muscle memory, and I could do it without looking or thinking. But clips or clipless, I had my fair share of falls (and the scars to prove it) until I became used to them.

Keep on riding, and keep practicing. Reaching out with your hand in a fall might not have been as bad as you think, I have seen enough riders fall on their shoulders and then bounce their heads on the pavement. Having over the years broken both my wrist, and my head, I would rather break my fall as you did.

Most of my bikes have Shimano SPD pedals, a few are Wellgo SPD, and my mountain bike and road bike use Crankbrothers Candy and Look pedals respectively.

I suffer from neuropathy in my left leg and my foot wanders so the clipless keeps my foot in place and keeps my knee in line... clipping out is not an issue on on any of the pedals I use and my left release is generally not as tight as my right on all but the Candy pedals which are really effortless.

I usually keep my left foot clipped in and unclip my right... I don't even have to think about it as the motion has become natural after tens of thousands of km and I was pretty happy with clipless the first time I used them.

Latest update
 

This is a cut & paste from The Paceline thread on the same subject--I think the info is worthwhile posting here too. Thanks for all the great feedback so far.

Thanks. I think I'm stubborn/proud-maybe to a fault. At some point the line where it just becomes stupidity/foolishness, is crossed. My wife doesn't like it, but allows me to explore my limits. Everyone is different and I don't fault anyone's approach. I don't like to accept limitations until I'm convinced they are there. Two broken wrists does approach the limit, though and I'm hoping what I've learned will get me past these setbacks.

Apropos of all these comments, I just heard from my bike coach about getting back to work when the cast comes off (Wednesday!). I sent him a link to this thread and here is his take:

Interesting thread about all that. I will say, that ironically, much of the points/criticisms were things I had planned for our lessons that we didn't get to on the bike. While you do need to learn to click out quickly, I think that your issues relate more to confidence on the bike and knowing where/how to ride the road and MUP here in town. In an effort to be safe, you put your self in unsafe predicaments by acting like a pedestrian on a bike. As stated in several posts you need to act like a car on two wheels, or a pedestrian walking a bike.

I am not a big fan of learning to fall. It presents it's own set of problems while learning, and one false practice and you are in the same boat. I'd much rather we talked about intersections and actually worked through them and how to act like a motor vehicle on your bike. You are much safer on the road acting like a car than on the sidewalk moving at bike speeds instead of pedestrian speeds. But we can get into that. I'm not sure that being unable to unclip is really your issue, it's being unprepared that you might have to unclip.

RE my balance skills--they need to be improved a lot and I'm working on it. I was an OK athlete at the high school level, and still have some kind of mental image of those skills--fake left, fake right, step back and drain a 3-pointer!:) But I don't have a high-school body any more and I'm working on getting back my flexibility and balance to whatever extent I can at my age. Part of this program has been nutrition and I'm now down to a "svelte" 180 from 225 and that definitely helps.

As Bill Murrary says in "What About Bob,"---"baby steps." :)

STP

http://i.imgur.com/rXLv403.jpg

Another data point on the Clik'R pedals: last night I tried adjusting the bindings to their tightest setting. There are ~20 steps of adjustment from lightest to tightest. Even at their tightest, these are very easy to get out of; I CAN feel the difference, but it's pretty slight. Tightest setting also reduces, but doesn't entirely eliminate, the loud "clicks" coming from the pedals when just riding over bumps.
I wonder if "regular" SPD pedals do this and/or whether that's why they call them "Clik'R's"??? The clicks don't seem to have any effect on actually being clipped in; i.e., they are not unclipping my feet when they occur.

STP