TromboneAl

After a ride with a friend, which switched bikes. I immediately noticed how much easier it was to unclip from his pedals. So I was sure that he was going to crash when he tried to clip out of mine. But he didn't.

Timothy

I made my first clipless commute yesterday.
After putting on the pedals and going around the block the night before I was feeling very confident.
No problem this is easy.
I made the 10 miles to downtown Seattle without incident.
Got off work, getting ready for the first red-light, I unclip early and coast to the light. As soon as I stop I hear a "click" and I knew I was screwed. A few panicked flails. Too late. Fell to my left like a pile of s&!t.
It was 5:05 PM in Downtown Seattle. Needless to say there were many witnesses.
Definitely a big bruise to the ego!

Tcchap

It will happen. What the previous poster said. I didn't have any problems at all until I rode with a friend the first time. It was a beautiful early spring day and we were in an urban area, I wanted to make sure my buddy knew the upcoming intersection was not a 4 way stop. I went right over. There were some folks sitting around on their stoops and these kids thought that was the funniest thing they ever saw. I promised them that on the way back through I would flip over the top of my handlebars.

dgalati

My first fall was right in front of my house. I came in from a quick 15km spin to test them out. Approached my walkway, unclipped my right foot first, then while trying to get the left out I applied pressure back to my right, and bam, straight into the bushes I went.

Recently though I just switched from speedplays to Time RXS pedals. I'm having trouble clicking in consistantly and find myself constantly with my cleat pushing down on the wrong side of the pedal. Sometimes I can get clipped in right away, other times it takes me 20 - 30 yards PLUS me looking down before I can finally get in.

Any tips?

Icyrice

I just try to get it to the proper side, then grind my foot around til im clipped, haha!

I wish i was lucky enough to have bushes to fall on...

dgalati

So you look down as soon as you start moving? I'm used to speedplays and just getting in by the feel of my foot.

Icyrice

Yeah, usually.

If its a busy intersection, then i just bike-limp my way across until im comfortable enough to look down.

I have cheap road shoes (Shimano Ro63) and they have goofy little toe pads that make it so i can never tell if its the cleat catching the pedal or those stupid toe thingers.

andrewluke

This is my favorite part over my old 105 pedals. Oddly enough though, I think one side of my left pedal is easier to clip into because sometimes, I just can't get it to go. Once I flip it over it goes right in.

trek2.3bike

No. It will. I'm averaging 1 tumble per year. Sometimes it's my fault (distracted), sometimes it's due to someone else's inconsistent act (failure to yield requiring you to stop unexpectedly), sometimes it just happens (unclip left, lean right).

Atol

I thought I was clipped in, stood on the pedal and almost landed on my nuts.

Icyrice

This is the worst...I feel your pain...

MangoPumpkin 

Went to stand after a stop to cross a street quickly and clip broke loose. Don't have nuts but my eyes watered.

barefootangel

These stories make me a tad bit worried. I just bought my first pair of clipless peddles and have not had the chance to switch them out yet.

CHAS

Did an endo in a pace line pileup while using Look pedals in '91. Found myself sitting on the road with one foot 90degrees to my leg.
First hospital was going to fuse the ankle. Got a friend to take me to another where it took 9 pins a plate and a bar to "fix" the ankle.
Sometime it quits working and I limp around for a day.

genejockey 

I've never fallen because I couldn't UNclip, in 15 years. (touch wood) Every time I've ALMOST fallen when stopping, I managed to clip out and get a foot down.

No, my fall came the second or third time out, trying to clip IN. I rolled out of my driveway, going about 3 mph, looking down at the pedal trying to roll it over just right to clip in, when suddenly something loomed up in front of my tire - the curb on the other side of the street. BANG! PLOP! There I am on the ground still attached to the bike by the other pedal.

Luckily, nobody saw that.

Icyrice

Still through all the falling, totally worth it, trust me.

wyrobs

I've had a few tumbles cause I poped out one side and leaned to the other but i think my biggest horror story might have been a couple weeks ago, about 20 miles out, I was looking back for cars cause something like a stick was out in the road. I turned around to see that this stick was actually a diamond back snake about a foot from leg. this is the second time it happened (first was just a black snake) but I'd take a 1000+ tumbles stopping over getting a snake bite while stuck in a pedal...

ricohman

First off in nearly 30 years....
Clipped in as I was just about to climb a small grade out of a parking lot.
Decided I was going to stop to lock my truck. I clipped out of the left and for some reason I couldn't get out of the right... and that's the way I fell.
Luckily I broke the entire fall with my elbow, which is sore, bloody and swollen.
And my RD now has some rash.
I bet a guy upside down with a Roubaix above him looks pretty stupid. At least I remembered to keep my head up and saved my helmet.

ricohman

I started with Christophe toe clips in 1982. I think I fell once back then on a muddy road.
Then nothing until yesterday. Bam! On my ass at zero speed. I woke up this morning still pissed off.

Trek6500

I bought my LOOK Arc's in 1991, and knock on wood, haven't had a fall yet. Toe clips I have. But I do understand your point about the slippery cleats.

Trek6500

Those toe clips are the reason I went with my LOOK's.

Keith99

I'm negative 1 or more for falls becasue of riding clipless on the road. I had a couple of huge advantages. I had gone clipless on my MTN bike first and I used spd pedals, where yuo rotate the heal out to clip out. The exact same motion yuo use for many downhill skis (like mine). One could say I got my learning falls on skis, by the time I was clipless on a bike it was a natural motion.

Minus one (or more) two different ways. The trivial one was a ride where at a light the girl next to me riding clipless, clippld out her right foot and was leaning left, slowly started to topple over in my direction. No problem it takes a bit to knock over 220 lbs plus.

The more serious way I am at least minur 1 is because I can remember 3 incidents where if I were riding platforms I would almost surely have touched a foot and gone down. The most dramatic was decending Sepulveda Pass when they had done recent roadwork. Many patches about 6 x 20 feet. I went over one at an angle and it was far from flush, abotu a 1" lip. I barely kept control and then hit the next one. I thought I was toast, I had not recovered enough control for a second lip. That one was flush. The rest of the way down I was at least 5 mph slower and very careful to only make 90 degree crossings. In this instance I am positive if I was not locked in I would have dabbed a foot and almost surely gone down.

A couiple of weeks later at a ride start I found out that about an hur later the LA Wheelman came throughthe same road and one of the ladies in the group went down and suffered a broken collarbone and ruptured spleen.

I'll keep my clipless.

TriEngineer

let's think about forget to clip out and falling as simply forgetting to undo your seatbelt while getting out of the car at a parking lot. We've all done that, it's embarrassing but not overly dangerous...
Dangerous, or horror, stories are likened to you driving your car into a lake and the car is sinking, and your seatbelt is stuck. Someone please find me such a situation? You needing to relieve yourself and your pedals won't come undone?

Homebrew01

Fixed
Raise your hand if you're old school and had shoes with leather soles and you had to use those little tacks to nail the cleat to the bottom of the shoe.

madpogue 

Well, I'd raise my brother's hand, if I knew where he could be found these days. He had this ^^^^^ kind of shoes/cleats when he introduced me to a (then) new sink for my money known as "cycling".