Only once. It was near the end of a long ride, my legs and feet were cramping and I'd stopped to massage my feet. I got back on the bike and my weary brain couldn't figure out which way to lean with one foot clipped in, so I leaned toward the clipped foot

D'OH!

Only on day one of SPDs. Fell over on the sidewalk into a bush. At a stop light. Good thing I wasn't in the road. Then later on when staying with friends who were walking. Went to slow, stalled, fell over.

Now on looks I surprisingly haven't failed. I thought I would've. Lots harder than SPDs to undo, which I like.

I'm guessing (would need another poll to be sure) that anyone who makes it a full year without falling has a pretty good chance of never falling. Once you got it, it becomes as natural as breathing, and the only way to mess it up after that is to do something silly.

Had a few very close calls, but like the early years, was able to pull out just in time.

3 times

1. Climbing at about 5mph. Bumped the curb and went to zero and couldn't accelerate back up. Plop.

2. Climbing at about 5mph. Hit a gravel patch. Tried to get out of it but couldn't move. Ouch.

3. Riding home fried after a hard group ride. Unclipped on one side, but tipped to the wrong side and too wrecked to do anything about it.

I had a nasty bruise on my thigh after 1 & after 2

1&2 SPD I think, or Speedplay Zeros
3. Speedplay light action

Nope. SPD-SL, SPD, Look KEO

Fell for the first time on clipless pedals trying my new Speedplays in my living room around 1999.

Was trying to unclip by twisting my foot out but it was not working, could not get either one to
release and over I went. Just got them and my new shoes from my LBS, they had installed the
cleats incorrectly. They had interchanged them, left cleat on right shoe and right on the left shoe.
With the cleats mounted this way you have to twist in instead of out.

I mounted them correctly and have been happy, no more falls, they release real fast.

I still have the scars from the chain ring to prove it.

Everyone I know who hasn't used clipless is sure they will fall as they struggle in vain to unclip, and they'll die.
Everyone I know who has used clipless for long has never done that, but they have all fallen because they utterly forgot to even try to unclip. And then they got up and it wasn't a big deal.

For a very long time, I was the guy who hadn't fallen due to clipless, until one day I was mounting my bike by clipping into the one pedal that happened to be at the bottom of the stroke, then jauntily swinging the other leg over... as I remembered I had the fixed gear that day. No clipless system I'm aware of is easy to get out of when you are only halfway on the bike with all your weight on the clipped in foot and falling to that side.

I've used SPD, SpeedPlay and CrankBrothers. The latter two I found easuier to get out of, but again, getting out has never been the problem, only remembering you want to. You have to decide you want to rather than just moving your foot off a platform.

Clips and (tightened) straps strike me as considerably harder to get out of than clipless. I suppose platforms would save one a fall or two, but for anyone that does remotely enough cycling to consider clipless, if they try clipless they stop considering platforms a reasonable option.

I've fallen three times on the road I believe. Once because I looked back and stopped because my camera batteries fell out. Looking back caused me to tip over the wrong way.

The other time I was biking with a friend who was going really slow up a hill as was I and I fell over because I couldn't keep my balance. That was before I got really good at track standing.

I know there is a third time, but I cannot remember.

I've fallen many many times while mountain biking. Though I'm using road pedals and shoes on my mountain bike so I'm guessing that doesn't really help.

I'm pretty sure I only fell once because of clipless pedals, and it was at the first intersection I encountered on my first ride with them. Crank Bros. Candy pedals on a hybrid.

I fell my first time the other day.. was slowing down at a stop sign cause a car was going, and forgot to put my foot down, and ther I go down in slo-mo, luckily the cars had passed by then. It was a good learning experience,

I believe there are two kinds of cyclists who use clipless pedals: The ones who have fallen and fess up, and the ones who lie and say they haven't.

Haven't fallen over because of clipless pedals, and I will usually unclip at the last second.

This... has saved me a few times.



[goes off to make burnt offering to cycling gods...]

When I first started with clipless I fell because I unclipped and leaned the wrong way. About a week later I did the same thing but managed to snatch my right foot out in time. After a few weeks it was no longer an issue. I don't really track stand well but I can come to a complete stop at stop sign without unclipping because I know I can get out quickly if I need.

I think that most of the people that have never fallen just learned how (some quicker than others) to get out quick before they ever found themselves in a spot where they had to get out quick.

It took me 3 weeks and 300 miles to have my first (and only) clipless induced fall.

I never found clipless pedals daunting. I've been riding them since they first appeared 20 years ago. Can't ever recall falling over in them. Maybe because I come from a skiing background and I'm used to release bindings. Or maybe it's just because I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

After a long (for me) 2 hour ride, Got back to the car, and just forgot everything in the world..... Fell over beside the car. When I hit the ground, both feet came unclipped.

A little late.

You have faulty beliefs.

So 57 people so far are lying?

I know I'm not lying...

so that makes you incorrect.

If you're calling me a liar, you're hurting my feelings, and I'm reporting you to the Mods.

I have fallen 4 times spread over 20 years. Each time I was rolling up to a red light stop and for some reason I space out and completely forget to clipout. By the time I realized the need to clip out I was falling over and it was too late to recover. I think the same thing happened to me once with clips and straps.

But how do we know you're not lying?

First time I fell... oh that was quite a moment... it was a week or so after I got them, and I was coming to the traffic light. I had unclipped my right foot but was still clipped into my left. I was reaching out for the crosswalk signal button on the traffic light post... on my left. Was reaching, reaching.... and then I felt myself moving faster, and in the downward direction. And then I was on the ground. The buckle on my shoe was a little busted in that I could still tighten my strap, but to get it *really* tight like I could on my right shoe, it couldn't hold it tight enough. Got it replaced for $10. Left brifter bent inwards, but got it pushed back out. Couple scratches on the bike, but hey, it happens.

For some reason I want to say that I fell a second time, but from my bike log it appears that I haven't.

EDIT: Oh now I remember. Prior to the aforementioned fall, I did, in fact, fall, on my >>hybrid<< Specialized Sirrus with the original toe straps. They were doing construction on the road such that there was a 2 inch height gap between the tarmac and the sidewalk.... and I thought that I had come to a point where they were even... but they weren't. I wasn't turning at an angle hard enough to get onto the sidewalk, so it was about 2 seconds of *hears tire rubbing on the higher sidewalk* // *thinking "ah crap..." * // fell on my right side HARD with my right knee poking out trying to get my right foot out as well as my right hand to stop the fall. Road rash all over my right lower leg and bits of gravel shoved into my hand. This was at 8AM on a Saturday, and most of my friends were asleep. With my hand and leg bleeding, I said f it and just biked back home (it was like, 5 miles)...

And THAT, kids, is why you don't ride on roads under construction. I think?