Change my vote

i say umd is still wrong

Of course he is. Because... no matter how good and adept as you may be in clipless, there is one universal law.... "SH*T HAPPENS".

Nah. I'm sure there are people more coordinated than I. I hadn't fallen till this am.

Damn new cleats!*




(*Yes, that's my official excuse)

hey, umd.

Twice. Once in the parking lot at Curry Village in Yosemite and the other day in front of the tire shop that was installing tires on my car. The first was with spd and the recent one was spd-sl. In both cases, it was a mental lapse..a split second of not paying attention. My fault, not the pedals.

The point is, would you have fallen with conventional platform pedals with no foot retention? Could you say, "If I were using regular pedals, I would've caught myself."?

How can I be wrong? It was a poll.

Holy crap, 182 people lied about this already!

The hotter they are the more pathetically you fall down.

It's especially hard on a fixed gear. Tried that once, spent 5 minutes getting my foot into the pedal.

Now, clipless on a fixed gear: A gift from God.

You make me sad.

Today. I was getting out of the gate by my place and had my right foot clipped. I almost got clipped by a car and dodged right... First scratch on my new baby... It gives her character.

fail

I have only been riding for a little more than two months, and yesterday was my first day with clipless pedals, and I did fall. I was using speedplays. I remembered to unclip each time I stopped - I actually fell trying to get in. I had the right foot clipped in and was trying to get the left one to clip and was concentrating too on hard on that and wasnt paying attention to my speed and I fell over to my right. No injuries, but it did hurt quite a bit.

The first week or so, its really a revolutionary change. Falling a couple times initially is normal. Practice before you hit the road , so that you fall in controlled conditions. When you get used to it, it will be totally automatic. You'll unclick without a second thought.

I've fallen because I was exhausted mentally or physically and couldn't get my foot out period. I've fallen because some jerk cut me off when I was coming to a stop and I tipped over on the clipped in side. Same happened trying to avoid a speeding car at an intersection under heavy braking. I've fallen because I lost traction.

But I don't think I've really ever fallen because of the pedals themselves.

Voted yes though because I think these apply in the spirit of the poll question.

Yes

Yes

Maybe... did you fall when you were stopped or still moving? Would it have mattered if you were not clipped in?

No

I fell one time because I was following too close at a very low speed and the rider ahead stopped, and once because I clipped in and started riding in loose gravel, which stopped me before I started.

Yep...twice....once taken out by another fallen rider ( obviously following too close and had target fixation!) and another time taken out by an old lady....I swear she pushed me into a shrubbery....she refused to get of MY footpath.

I have found that keeping the clips lubricated makes un-clipping easier.

Cheers Roger

I use Speedplay Zeros and have gone over twice.

First time was back in the spring, about 120 miles into a 140-mile ride. Unclipped left at a traffic light... put my left foot down and slooooooowly shifted my weight to the right. Started tipping & fell over on a couple other riders stopped at the light. Slowest fall ever.

Other time was a couple days ago - second time riding rollers. Drifted left, things got sketchy and I was down in a flash, to the left (only had potential support on my right).

Can't blame the pedals or cleats - it was user error both times.

So does my successful unclipping while moving negate one of the times I fell while stopped?

Yes, and of course I unclipped as well but it didn't stop me from falling