Kertrek

I'm having a heck of a time pulling my heel away from the bike to disengage from the pedal. I can easily unclip when I twist my heel toward the bike. This is day 2 of using clipless pedals. Is it optimal twisting your heel away from the bike to disengage? How can I develop more ankle flexibility so I can disengage from the pedal by twisting my heels outward?

redfooj

Recenter your cleats. U prob have more float inboard than outboard

OldTryGuy

Practice, practice and more practice.....after making sure the cleats are set properly.

Un-clipping inward is a one of those......Don't do that! warning followed by an.....I told you not to do that!!.......comment after a mishap occurs.

rpenmanparker 

There will be one spot on the "clock" circle where you can twist your ankle outward better than any other. Find that spot and use it for unclipping. Twisting inward isn't a problem at 6 or 12 o'clock. You just don't ever want to do it at 3 or 9. Might as well figure out how to unclip outward.

datlas 

I have always unclipped heel inwards. It's never been a problem or issue.

dvdslw

The whole process is a bit unnatural to begin with so it takes some time to get confident un-clipping but you can play around with the cleat position to ease the process. Here's something to try, assuming you're using a Shimano or Look type pedals with more than 0 degree float, take your left shoe and flip it upside down with the cleat facing you then loosen the cleat enough to where it will rotate, twist it counter clockwise as far as you can, and snug it down. Do the same for the right shoe but twist clockwise instead before tightening. If done correctly your cleats should be pointed in toward the bike while standing with your feet straight. At this point get clipped in on the bike and there should be resistance when you rotate your feet outwards but no resistance rotating in which should help. You might need to tweak it a bit from there to have your feet pointed correctly while riding but its a good starting point. I rotated mine all the way and they have remained there since day one.

rpenmanparker 

If you are using pedals and cleats that combine to have a high level of float, you might think about going down in float. For example, Look makes cleats with three levels of float, 0, 5, and 10 degrees. I can't unclip the red (10 degree) cleats. I just have to turn them too far to reach the resistance point. I like the gray cleats with 5 degrees of float. So if you are using a high float cleat or cleat-pedal combination, try a lower one. You will still have float to both sides (unlike with some of the advice above), but less, so unclipping will be easier. And you won't risk screwing up your knees from a bad foot angle.

dvdslw

My advice above had him starting at the extreme and tweaking it from there to have a proper foot position while riding but less rotation outward needed to un-clip, reducing float nets the same result. In another thread the op stated he bought some Shimano Pedals so he should have the yellow cleats with 6 degree float, if he wants to spend $25 there's the blue cleats that have 2 degree's and red's with 0. The 6 degree float of the yellow cleats and my rotation method has been good to my knee's so far.

jrossbeck

Try pointing your toe slightly downward while rotating out, that should give you a bit more range of motion and leverage.

TimothyH

These are two very good posts.

For me the sweet spot is when the pedal is on the up-stroke. A little pressure on the pedal from the opposite foot helps.

rpenmanparker 

Sure, I didn't mean your method wouldn't be good if carefully applied like you have done. I just wanted him to know that less float to start with but symmetrical would be a good solution to his problem. Those of us who harken back to the bad old days with no float at all know just how badly screwed up our knees would get if we didn't get the cleat angle just right. Newbies today probably don't have a clue about that. So I don't know that you can depend upon OP applying your method responsibly (no offense to the OP) given that he might not even know how bad the misalignment problem can sometimes be. Hence my advice to lower the float but still keep it centered for safety.

onuraybar

I just started cycling and using clip in pedals as well. I chose pretty forgiving adjustable tension pedals that have a good amount of float, to the point that if you wanted to you could snap out of the pedals a number of ways but I was advised by my LBS to always go heel outward from the bike-to just train my muscle memory to get used to it. Sure enough on my second ride to break in my bike, I got stuck in my pedals, freaked out and at the last minute while tipping over (literally midway) I somehow snapped my right foot outward, caught myself and grabbed my bike with my left hand and swung it up-saving it from a nice encounter with pavement.

SSRI

Same here, tho I am more conscious about heel touching the seat tube now.

69chevy

Loosen the clip tension.

My 11 year old couldn't unclip outwards at first. I loosened the tension, and now he does it with no problem.

Pendergast

I think people who are duck-footed have more trouble clipping out. Just standing, my feet point outwards considerably. Walking, running, or pedaling, my feet point pretty much straight ahead. I have trouble rotating my heel outward enough to release from clipless pedals easily. My solution is to begin my release just as my foot goes over the top of the pedal stroke and let the motion of the crank assist.

StanSeven

Are you using shoes/cleats with float?

rmfnla

Me too; my knees prefer it that way.

Also never had any problem (or issue)...

Kertrek

I have a slight duck-foot gait as well. Not anything like Charlie Chaplin though, and hardly anyone notices. I turned the left cleat counter-clockwise a bit, and the right cleat clockwise a bit. I made the 7 mile trip to work comfortably.
...And maybe the unclipping will develop the muscles to give me a straighter gait.

dvdslw

Good deal, pretty soon it'll just be 2nd nature.

rmfnla

I got my first clipless pedals in 1993. I sat on my bike and leaned against a wall and clipped in and out 100 times each side to build muscle memory.

Never had a problem and wouldn't use anything else...

a1penguin

Another heel inward. Always. I unclip with the foot at 12 oclock. I've never had a problem.

Cyril 

I started unclipping inward; eventually started unclipping outward at the urging of my friends.
I find no difference if you unclip on the non-drive side.
Unclipping on the drive side presents a potential hazard.