You know...Platform pedals bite too:
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6676927-md.jpg

Those Syncros Mentals provide great traction in wet/muddy conditions, but keep your feet on them...
Syncros Mental SS Pedals:
http://www.syncros.com/images/pedal_stainless.jpg

From my experience with shimano SPD's and eggbeaters, they will disengage when you fall. But not always before something traumatic happens with you attached to your bike. They are made to disengage when you fall, but that might not always happen that quickly. When I fall, some times the bike detaches quickly and wonderfully from me, other times I'm still half connected to it, lying on the ground. (Not so fun)

Lots of people ride clipless on mountain bikes. I've gone back to flat pedals because I kept hurting myself with clipless in technical sections, your millage will vary.

If you can't get out of your pedals, they are too tight. They are actually much safer than clips/straps, because you don't have to kick your foot backwards to get out, you just move your foot out, leading with your ankle. Once you get used to leading with the back of your foot, you can clip out literally just as fast as you can with flat pedals. This is not debatable... I'll post a damn video of myself if you don't believe me.

Twist/rotate your heel outward.

Be aware that as your cleats wear, it will become more and more difficult to clip out. This is also non-negotiable, at least with Shimano. Often it's a very good idea to install new cleats.

New cleats- the easiest to get out of are the multi-release type. But the majority of riders and those with clipless experience use the single-release type, which are more secure and don't clip out inadvertantly.

How about the millions of people that use heroin? or have unprotected sex? Yeah, some don't get hurt. Some do. Some people just talk out of their ass, like you. If you want to nut up and show me in person what a great mtb pro you are, just let me know.

You realize that post was in reponse to someone else's, right?

Maybe you should wear a condom next time you ride. :rolleyes:

I make sure to wear a condom every time I shoot up. Safety first.

I'm gonna get myself some clipless pedals for an old bike and learn on that before I go drop $5k on a new bike that I want to go with clipless on next year.

clipless pedals
 

Chrali, I have been riding road bikes for quite a while. The coach at my bike shop suggested that I change over to clipless pedals because now I'm getting more involved in the sport and riding 50 km rides on Saturdays. He is clever and fits people for their bikes properly so that everything about rider and bike works well. To date, I have always used toeclips on my pedals and they are so easy. He said that if I had clipless pedals, then I would have more power on the upstroke and downstrokes by 8 - 10 %. I am not in the habit of falling off my bike and I hate pain!

So yesterday, I had to get my saddle changed over and did the clipless pedals and shoes at the same time. He put me on the wind trainer to practise and it was easy as. Then I went around the car park several times and I was doing well. Then I pulled up at the door of the shop and forgot that I didn't have my toeclips and fell off because my brain didn't make the new connection. This happened twice more that day. My knee and elbow hurt a lot.

I felt really apprehensive and tempted to get him to put the toeclips back on again. Then I remembered the hassle I had when I first had a road bike and I was getting used to the toeclips. It took about a week.

My coach wrote me out a drill and I memorised it last night, feeling frightened but determined in bed. If other people learn to use them successfully, then so can I.

This morning I went for my usual 21 km ride and followed the drill. My other skills have taken a nosedive, but are slowly coming back and I am learning to release my foot. I just have to tell my brain "in" not "out' like I did with the toe clips. It is getting easier after one day and I didn't fall this morning. When I come to a tricky part, I release my foot before the tricky bit and pput my foot on top of the pedal.

The coach wrote out this drill and it works.

1. Tip your bike to the right (assuming that you are right handed)
2. Put your right leg over the bar and raise the bike up.
3. Hold the right hand brake lever and raise the right foot with the pedal to a 1 o'clock position so that you can take off with power and lock on.
4.

Sorry, pressed the wrong button and it posted the message.

4. When you are moving, don't worry about the left pedal. When you are moving along, feel for it and lock on your left foot.
5. Look for hazards at least 10 metres ahead.
6. When you are 10 metres from where you want to stop, release your left foot.
7. Stop and leave the right foot locked on.

Chrali, this is working and I'm getting it. In time, I think that the movement will be automatic like the toeclips. It's just a matter of getting used to the new movement and your brain needs time to adjust.

I have talked to many experienced cyclists here in Western Australia where I live and these are people who have ridden for years. They all say that when they began to use the clipless pedals, they all fell between 3 - 6 times and then they didn't fall any more than one would using any other system.

So Chrali, hang in there. Try the formula that my coach gave me. I memorised it and it really does work.

All the best.

WTF is wrong with people lately. i applaud you new users for using the search function, but look at the dates of the original post. do you really think this guy is waiting for your response 5 years after the the thread was started?

Nothing is wrong.

There is nothing worse than having a bad time with new equipment. I am sure that other people in 2010 are also getting clipless pedals for the first time and just might want to read things that might help. You never know. You might be expert in the clipless department but maybe there are new people who might find this forum as I did and the information might just help them.

Anyway, why are you on here and reading these posts if they are so old?

I'm going to post so I can see 10 years from now if my preferences have changed.

I ride clipless and platforms. Prefer platforms but struggle with climbs so use clipless most of the time.

I like beer and fast woman and mountain bikes.

Hopefully the mods won't lock this gem.

I read it from begining to end, even had some Pete F quotes.

Working 12hr night shifts may have something to do with that.

lol

Dood, someone else can read it and use the help! Maybe?

.....or someone could start a new thread that didn't have e-dust on it.

i have thought about clipless pedals also, but i like my pedals with straps that are loose enought to pull right out and my foot never gets caught, yet my feet aren't flooping around and slipping off

I actually thought about doing this the other day, to ask if they were worse than road clipless pedals, but didn't because then somebody would complain about people not using the search function. Just my $.02

Yep. Responding to the OP of a 3+ year old post is ridiculous but posting to a thread with a lot of good info isn't if the topic still relevant. In my case, I got here because of a search and basically there are a lot of great posts to the question I was wondering about...is there a point where terrain gets too technical for clipless? The short answer is "no, but ride with what you're comfortable" and there are a lot of good arguments for both sides.

I'm checking in to see how scelia's leg healed up.
Invisible? Whitish discoloration? It's important that I know. Pics?

I've gotten "stuck" during a crash more than once. Either I ended up pinned or the cleats end up releasing. I would estimate that they've saved me more bumps than they've caused. Dislocated feet are atypical. However, it's worth noting that with some SPD style pedals you can adjust the release tension. If you have them cranked down, it makes such an injury more likely.

I have bunch of scars from my flat pedals. Color of the scar depends on the depth of the gash you have on your leg, mine ranges from deep purple(really deep cuts) to barely visible white discoloration.

I got to tell you this though...When I used to ride fire roads only I used clipless pedals but when I started do very technical single track I went back to flats because of the idea of getting stuck on my bike while I was coming on some down gnarly rock garden scared the crap out of me and ironically most of my injuries or scars happened because of the flats because no matter how hard I pressed on those pedals somehow they would slip and put a gash on my shins or back of my legs. So about a month I decided to give clipless pedals another shot, first couple rides were bit scary but once I got use to them I had so much more control over the bike it's crazy. I actually went and bought a pair of wellgos with one side flat and one side clipless and I'm telling you I won't be going back to flats ever again. Ok I'll use the flat side of my pedals when I take my bike to the beach. :D
And I almost forgot since I put the clipless pedals I haven't had a scratch, in fact I had two pretty good spills one yesterday and one today both times my feet came off just fine.:thumb:

I agree, that's what I meant in my first post. This thread has a lot of good info imo, but I didn't notice that the post that dug up this thread was directed at the OP.

First rule of flats. The less likely you are to slip them, the more damage they'll do when you do slip 'em.

I figure I'm flirting with disaster.
http://www.quantumrip.com/images/sx_bmx6.jpg