I rode normal clips for years before going clipless, So no I have never fell because of clipless, Now clipped that is another story.

Clipless are so much easyer to get out of even in a panic situation compared to clipped.

I disagree. Either you've fallen or you haven't. Why bother lying about something so insignificant?

Road bike, never.

MTN bike, 5-6 times. My favorite, riding my bike back to the car after breaking my collar bone jumping a log. I walked the bike about 50', then thought, "Heck, I can ride". Came to the parking area, stopped, did not un-clip and guess which side I fell on! The doc in the emergency room was impressed.

You have way too much faith in mankind. Why tell the truth about something so insignificant when the truth makes you look less skilled?

fell a few times on my MTB with shimano 520s
not really to be blamed on the pedal though
I have not fallen on the road (yet)

I learned to ride clipless on an MTB when I was living in Vermont. My friend coached me and we spent five minutes while he was holding me or I was propping myself against the truck. Then I just clipped in and unclipped while in the parking lot and haven't had an eposide.

My son wanted a clipless pedal once he can fit in a size 1 and he raced BMX, that when he just turned 7. . He is a natural, just clipped in and went. He can trackstand though. I think popel ingrained it too much that you will fall and nobody adjusts the tension.

I just got clipless pedals about 3 weeks ago. I've never fallen while clipped in. I find it pretty easy to get my foot out when I stop, and I hit TONS of red lights/other stops in NYC.

Took me a couple of weeks after I put them on... but I eventually fell. Always at stop lights.

The second time was at about 4am coming home from work dead tired, and I just laid in the middle of the road laughing for a while.

I fell. Hard. Okay, I didn't fall, but I really wished I did considering what happened.

I was on my way back home at the tail end of a 25 mile ride , and I pulled up to a stop light. I unclipped the left foot out of my Time RSX pedals, and put my left foot down waiting for the light to turn green . As I was waiting, a truck entered my 'comfort zone' or the 1 foot bubble around my bike. Instinctively, I moved my left foot inward to avoid it gettiing run over. This caused me to shift my weight over to the right side, promptly standing the bike back upright with my right foot still clipped in. I was tipping over to the right side, and I didn't want to fall over to that side, there was a curb at about rib height and I probably would've fractured one or two if I had landed on it. I panicked.

What happened next was as far from graceful as possible. I jerked and jerked (because your brain doesn't think 'TWIST!!' ) and eventually I yanked my foot out of the cleat. Unfortunately the force necessary to accomplish this also yanked me out of the saddle and forward, and I ended up landing square on the crossbar (I'll let your imaginations figure out what part of me landed on the crossbar). To add insult to injury, once my feet finally came down underneath me, they came down with such force that I broke one of my brand new cleats and scuffed the CF on my new Specialized BG Comp shoes. To make matters worse, that stoplight hadn't turned green yet, so I was forced to sit there like an idiot while the entire intersection pointed and laughed at my misfortune. I'm sure it's on a Youtube video somewhere.

And top it all of , that intersection still left me 5 more miles of hilly riding before I got home, which left me PLENTY of time to think just how STUPID that was.

So author, does THAT count as falling ?

No, but it sounded funny!

Have never fallen while using clipless (spd's) but have come close and have fallen while using them but not because of them (riding the mtb).

that made my day becasue from the username i'm assuming you are a military person. one of my most humiliating falls was at a traffic light and next to me was a truck load of soldiers. i fell away from the truck into the bushes on the side of the road. guess how smpathetic the truck load of soldiers watching this were? they all wet themselves laughing and pointing and shouting out their approval of my comedy act!

i suspect half the NOs also claim average speeds of 30 mph

And the other half have never fallen. Even as kids.

I doubt many kids are riding clipless...

My six year-old is still on clips and straps.

hey umd, coming to any conclusions with your survey yet?

I fell during my first ride with clipless in a large vacant parking lot across the street from my house. It was a state government building and it was empty on the weekend...lucky for me. It only took me that one fall to learn how to clip out quickly. I have, so far, managed to avoid the embarrassment of falling down in traffic though...not that I haven't fallen since. I once fell riding into Manayunk during the US Pro Championships in Philly when I clipped the back wheel of the guy in front of me, so I was a doofus twice in a span of 5 seconds.

I have been using spd pedals since I began riding clipless back in 2005 and have thought of going to Look pedals but I like walking like a normal person when i get off of the bike.

Cheers,

Brian J.

I've only been riding for about 3 months. 2 of those months I've been clipless on my road bike--I haven't fallen yet. These posts make me paranoid though. I'm also nowhere close to 30mph without a huge honkin' downhill

My mountain bike--platform pedals---I'd need a wheelchair if I went clipless on it at this point. I've owned it about 2 months.

It sure seemed hilarious for everyone who WASNT me, that's for sure.

Ah good ol karma , right ? Yes, I am currently in the Marine Corps. I know I don't have a bio yet, but I'll work on one soon. Sorry to hear that the soldiers didn't come to your aid. I'd like to say if you had been seriously hurt they would've, but I'm not psychic. I'd hope so though.

Trust me buddy, they were laughing at your bicycle shorts before you ever fell. How do I know ? Because every morning I ride into work, they're either snickering at me in mine, or keep giving me second glances. So either they're making fun of me, or Don't Ask Don't Tell is much more of a failed project than previously thought.

Like many others, I already had plenty of experience with the old style cleats so switching over was not such a big deal. I had already done my cleat falls back in the day. Clipless are just so much easier to get out of that falling doesn't seem like a great probability (I will probably regret typing that, no doubt).

I do confess though that sometimes I still have trouble getting INTO them rather than getting out. That can look pretty stupid as well.

And although I never had the old style clips, I believe that being able to trackstanding makes a big difference.

If you ever fell with clipless, Don't Go To Europe.

i say we move half the NOs to YES and then re-name this thread UMD gets