thunder_jj

Before I start my story, let me just say that I've lurked around here long enough to realize that when you first use your clipless pedals your going to fall. Now with that being said let me tell you about my first fall in said pedals. The Memorial Day Weekend, at least where I live ,means cycling. There are various events throughout the weekend all leading up to the big event on Monday, the Kentucky Derby of Cycling.. the Tour of Somerville. I was riding around early this morning just getting used to my new pedals, you know practicing taking my foot out etc, when I realized that one of the weekend events, the Hills of Somerset is going past the main street of my home town. I was riding around and I spotted a police officer on a motorcycle. I ride up to him and you guessed it couldn't get my foot out in time. I mean, here is the officer just staring at me as I go down right next to him. Not that wasn't bad enough, now on the way down I manage to bust my Blackburn mirror. I just picked up the mirror, he looks at me, and without smiling he asks me if I'm ok.. How embarrasing... With mirror in hand I make some small talk with him for awhile about the race and then leave. I just rode away laughing.... I guess I should of practiced more....

kergin

I beat you: I crashed on my clipless for the first time... in my driveway.

thunder_jj

Ok driveway is early on in the ride, but at least there were, hopefully, not too many around when you did it. Prior to falling I almost fell at a stop light, but caught myself at the last minute. But I managed to land on my tail bone with the end of my saddle. I didn't hurt too bad then, but now getting up and out of a chair is not a pretty sight.

mollusk

OK, I'm going to thumb my nose at the cycling Gods. After riding since the 1970's with toeclips (and never falling) I finally went clipless in mid-December 2005 on one of my bikes. After 2500 miles on that bike I still have not fallen. I'm calling BS on the notion that you must fall if riding clipless. (If I fall tomorrow I will be back to post about it and offer my humble apologies to the cycling Gods.)

spunky

I'll ante up. The first time I fell, I was practicing in the hall, tipped over, whipped my foot out as I was losing balance and somehow managed to get my toe into the front wheel between the spokes. I had to take the wheel into the shop and have it trued. Looking back, it's amazing I was able to learn how to ride rollers.

EatMyDust

I fell too, right outside of my house when I was getting ready to ride. I put one foot in and fell on that side.
I was riding with toe clips and was about to fall 2 times, each time got my foot out in time. Does not work with clipless unless u practiced before.

InVisib0L

That's pretty funny. I had my share of falls in front of people. I just try not looking at them. I wonder what the cop thought... hehe.

jeff_o

first time i fell on clipless was in our living room... on marble floor... *ouch* one hand was on the wall and the other was on the bars... then i unconsciously pushed the wall unable to clip out my foot and kabam.

cjbruin

+1

Fell a few times with the old toe staps back in the 80's but I' just can't understand why everyone says that you are going to fall with clipless...they really are easy.

Brandy

Okay...it may not be a requirement to fall when you first go clipless, but it happens to a lot of us. I've had two falls...first one was on a bike path when I tried to negotiate a turn. The last time I went down at a stoplight on my way back from riding the beach path. I was unclipped on the right and turned around to look at my back tire which I suspected had a slow leak. Next thing I know I was on the ground.

My husband (who doesn't ride) thought it was absolutely hilarious that I fell while at a complete stop. He asked me how many people saw me and I estimated that there were about fifteen cars there. The funny thing is that I wasn't really that embarassed. I figure that a) if they're cyclists seeing me go down...they understand and b) if they're not cyclists then they have no understanding of what it's like to just get started on a road bike and negotiate the whole unclipping and clipping in learning curve so they can just KMA

the beef

The first time I clipped in, I was proud of myself. Then I went five feet and promptly fell (into the grass); my friends cracked up.

Since that first ride though, I've had no problems. Like they say, clipping in and out has become second nature. Nothing to it.

Cassadamius

My problem was not really with clipping and unclipping, as I'd just press down and keep going until I could get out. My problem was balancing, falling to the correct side. I'd unclip my right foot, slow down, then fall to the left - I fell in my apartment parking lot once or twice. I've gotten it down now. Another time, I was flying down a hill towards an intersection, trying to time my descent to the cars so I could just continue on. A guy was turning, no blinker, braking late, and I had no choice but to slow down to a complete stop. Unsuspecting, I was clipped and I bit asphalt.

kergin

Curious, but what type of clipless pedals are you all using on these bikes? I currently have a pair of OEM Shimano SPDs that came with my OCR2. I don't like them much, but SPD is what I use on my MTB, so having 1 pair of shoes saves $$. However, I've noticed that SPD can be dangerous on the road, when you have to clip in again after a light goes from red to green. Is there any noticeable difference between SPD and the Look/Shimano Road pedals in this respect?

Brandy

I'm using SPD-SL's. I have the regular SPD's on my shoes that I use for indoor cycling and given the trouble I have getting clipped in on a bike that doesn't go anywhere, I thought better of trying to use them on the road.

Tequila Joe

After riding many years with Toe Clips, going to clipless pedals was painfull. I habitually kept pulling my feet backwards to get out of the pedals instead of rotating sideways. On my 2nd ride w/ clipless I had my first fall and skinned my knee. Three days later, I fell over again and re-skinned my scabby knee. Two days after that, I re-skinned my re-skinned knee.

InVisib0L

I use Crank Brothers Quattros. I think they are harder than the SPDs.

Alan.C

Put me down as another who's never fallen because of clipless pedals. They can make falls worse, however...

I was trying a set of Time ATAC Alium pedals on the MTB on the grounds they were supposedly good if you had knee problems; all I was finding was that they were darned difficult to get out of. Then I bodged a really tight corner that was covered in wet leaves, the bike skidded out from under me, I couldn't get my feet free and I fell flat on my back into a burr bush.

Not a clever thing to do when you're wearing a fleece-backed jacket.

I got my feet out of the pedals and extricated myself from the bush only to find I had about 30 burrs stuck to me. I started to pull them off then realised I was ripping my jacket... so I decided to leave them until I got home and could cut them off.

It seemed like everyone I passed stopped to do a double-take at the sight of a burr bush on a bicycle and it was amazing how many of them were people I knew....

huytheskigod

Only fall b/c of clipless was when I was in my garage checking the cleat angle after installation. Had one hand on my car on the unclipped side and clipped in on the other. Just a little too much weight shifted to the clipped side and down I went.

ka12na

I've fallen once... and over time developed a second instinct just to unclip my right foot and put weight on my right side so I'll land on it.

When I fell.. I was going up to my friends driveway, and I was going really slow. Maybe 2mph or so, braking down to a stop. It wasn't until I was completely stopped that I started tipping over, and I couldn't clip out in time, so I just kinda fell over looking like a ****** in front of my friend sitting on his porch.

Jazzy

Reading all these stories about first clipless experience I wonder why they don't sell trainingwheels with them
Imagine a 2000$ bike with some real funky trainingwheels they could make a full sortiment, imagine the new marketing campaign... 'Now with special doublelayeralu-trainingwheels, light and strong, fitted with tubulars...'

kergin

I would only use training wheels if they had carbon or TI stays

ericgu

I did that same thing the last time I feel. Stopped at a left turn, wondering if I should hit the crossing button, turned around to look for cars, and went down.

pharmboyrx

I fell when I was test riding my bike for the first time. Needless to say I led with my body!!! Not a scratch on the bike.......Until I bought it and did the same thing a week later.

corny

Had several close shaves (even in just testing in the conservatory leaning against a wall - try the other side and nearly fall!) I soon learnt to lessen the tension to max the chance of unclipping in a fall.

A couple of unnexpected stops or turns unclipping once side have sent shivers up my spine as I slowly start to fall, but have evaded complete falling yet... time will tell!

JLauren

I've been riding clipless since September and haven't had my fall yet. Perhaps it's the very idea that I WILL fall at some point that's kept me from falling so far.

Of course, now that I've said that...