GaryPitts

I need to learn to do this. It would have been a perfect opportunity.

GaryPitts

Me, too. I also ride a motorbike and do the left foot for the same reason

Daytrip

Whew! Thanks.

I only ride in the country and my only reason for stopping is to get off the bike for some reason.

You might have problems getting going again after unclipping both feet. I don't.

Jiggle

Unclipping is just a flick of the heel. It shouldn't be a big deal, or take more than .1 seconds. I think your tension must be too high.

cyccommute 

You may have learned a lesson but you learned the wrong one. What you should have learn was not to do the same way. Starting on an uphill is a very useful lesson to learn and isn't all that hard. Start with your dominate foot in about the 2 o'clock position. Squeeze the front brake then push down on the pedal and release the brake at the same time. Depending on the steepness of the hill, you will need to find a balance between weighting the front wheel to prevent a wheelie and weighting the rear wheel to make sure you have traction. Either way, you want to be near the center of the bike as you ride up the hill. I also find that attempting to pull your nose down to the stem helps keep the front wheel on the ground. You don't actually want to touch your nose to the stem but it should feel like you are trying to while your arms are keeping you from doing it.

It's hard to tell but it looks like you are trying to touch the ground without moving off the saddle (your camera position doesn't change). When you unclip, move forward off the saddle to put your foot on the ground and lean to the side that is unclipped.

Actually, I've been at this long enough that I don't unclip at all most of the time. I can't trackstand for hours but I can for several seconds up to a couple of minutes. When I do unclip, I unclip one side only. I, however, unclip the right side. If you are going to fall, it's better to be leaning away from traffic as you fall then into it. Unclipping the left side automatically forces you to lean into traffic, not away from it.

That said, I am equally proficient with both feet. Years of off-road riding tends to teach you how to unclip on either side without really thinking about it. I would suggest...and this is heresy in the 41...that you get a mountain bike. You'll learn more about bike handling skills in one afternoon than thousands of hours of road riding.

bikerjp

I'm right handed so I unclip just the left. Makes sense if you think about it.

GaryPitts

All the way loose. Now, my mental tension may be too high

GaryPitts

My problem is that clipping in that 2nd foot is something that takes a little time. And it's worse on the SPD pedals I just got vs. the SPD SLs I was used to. After a week with the SPDs, it can still take me 5 or 10 seconds to find the right spot to lock in. I suspect that will get better with more practice. With the SPD SLs if I don't get a little lucky and hit it just right, my foot slips off the pedal instead of being able to push it down when it's not clipped in. The SPDs are better in that regard, if I don't clip in I can still press the pedal and keep things going. With the SPD SLs and my cf soles, my foot just slips off and I can't get any traction to pedal. If that makes any sense...

kleng

I think in the video, you need to anticipate more, you should have clipped out much further and stopped on the verge rather than rolling into the entrance way.
Also transition off the saddle and put the foot down, it looks like, as some others have pointed out that you don't seem to have got off the saddle, there is less chance of balancing on the tip toes.
You also turned to the opposite side for some reason, which would have shifted the weight to the right, try to turn into the unclipped side

Rootman

I unclip BOTH as I am a klutz and have fallen 3 times. Damn near fell while unclipped a few times too.

THSdrummer

I only unclip my right side. It's rather comical when I unclip just my left side and try to stop, seeing as I've programmed myself to lean pretty heavily right to ensure I don't fall. I unclipped both feet once, but the left clipped back in by the time I was stopping and setting my right foot down... To be honest, I'm not sure how people do it.

david58

When first riding clipless, it took a lot of thought and unclipping both feet. You always fall in the direction of the clipped foot....

These days, after 3 years of clipless, I usually unclip one foot, but I couldn't trust myself to do that in the beginning. Funny, too - I used to think my mtb friends were nuts to ride clipped in. I simply can't imagine riding NOT clipped in these days, on my road, CX, or mtb.

Digitalfiend

I always unclip my left when anticipating a stop; that way if I do start to fall, it's more likely to be away from traffic than into it. When I know I'm going to stop, I just shift off the saddle and put my leg down.

One thing that has worked for me is to unclip at the 12 o'clock position instead of at 6. That way you have the clipped in leg pushing down at 6 o'clock for balance and you can unclip the other foot but leave it on the pedal. If you end up not needing to stop (e.g. crossing at an uncontrolled intersection), as you push down on the pedal with the unclipped foot, it will automatically clip back in, otherwise you can take the foot off the pedal and stop. I'm using SPD-SL, so this might not work as well with other platforms. At least this way you aren't struggling to unclip at the last second and can be ready to get clipped back in in a split second.

Also when clipping in with SPD-SL, it's more of a slide in, push down motion rather than stepping down onto the mechanism.

bikerjp

Those of you unclipping BOTH feet, how exactly do you do this? Both feet hanging off the pedals and you jump off the saddle or what? Or do you rest your unclipped shoe on the pedal and stand on it while unclipping and putting the other foot down? What happens if you slip off the pedal? Or is your saddle so low you can sit on it and touch the ground?

The only way I can unclip both is to unclip one, stop, put foot down, unclip other.

+1

fstshrk

It happens. I usually unclip my right side and unclip the left only when I have my right foot firmly on the ground. I also make a habit of leaning the bike slightly towards the right so that I don't get pulled to left and fall (kind of like your scenario).

For stopping and starting uphill (sometimes unavoidable) make sure you get the bike in an easier gear before you stop. I also learned that doing one leg drills on the trainer helps with getting started uphill tremendously since you have more power to get the bike rolling. Once the speed is around 3-4 mph, i can then safely clip the other foot. I also notice that some pedals (e.g. Look Keo 2 Max) are easier to clip into then others. I switched from the Keo classic to Keo 2 Max and find the Max easier to clip into.

Beaker

Pretty sure it doesn't matter which foot you choose, but get into the habit of using the same foot, and more importantly, leaning the bike in the direction of your unclipped foot. You want that to just become an unconscious act.

TommyBing

Unclip every time, both feet.

I usually put both feet on the chainstays, straddle the top tube, hold my seat post with my right hand, and come to a controlled stop using my left hand as normal for steering and braking, but then using my mouth to control the rear brakes. For some folks they find this a bit awkward, but I think you should give it a try. Remember, feet on the chainstays makes all the difference.

StephenH

No, I always unclip on the right side, and keep the left foot clipped in. If I'm stopping next to a curb, I put my right foot on the curb.
Ditto on the tandem, stoker stays clipped in, I unclip on the right, have to land the right foot farther out.
And yes, it is possible to restart on an uphill. One thing is that you need to keep those pedals going whether your foot clips in or not, it may take two or three revolutions of the pedals before you get it clipped in. If it's a short slope, like at a crossroads where one road is higher, try to stop at either the bottom or top of the slope instead of on the slope. And of course, it depends on how steep, and whether you had presence of mind to downshift before you stopped. If it's gravel, it's highly variable, I've been on some loose stuff that was like trying to ride in peanut butter, and that's a problem. On something like a sloped parking lot, just get started going crosswise to the slope, then angle back uphill when you're clipped in and downshifted.
Having done lots of slow riding on platform pedals may help, learning to ride a unicycle may help.

rpenmanparker 

Never unclip both sides as you need to be able to restart in a hurry in case of an unexpected event. And which foot you unclip is NOT situational. Best advice I can give is to unclip the same side every single time no matter what. This builds the proper muscle memory so you always know how to balance and you will become rock solid on your dismount. On that subject do not ever try to stay on the saddle and just reach for the ground with your toes. That is very unstable. (Sure a lot of you will tell me how proficient you are at that, but we are talking about someone having a little difficulty.) Use your still clipped in foot to push off the saddle and come forward on the top tube as you put your free foot down to the ground. This is the most stable way to dismount. Also the most powerful way to restart (remember what you said about starting on uphills) is to lift yourself back onto the saddle with your clipped-in foot as you use your weight to start that pedal moving. The only problem with always unclipping the same foot is that you may lose skill to dismount on the other side in case of some unforeseen circumstance or problem with the bike (broken pedal on the unusual side), injury, etc. But it is a low probability problem and worth it to have the assured skill on the preferred side.

rpenmanparker 

Do you mean some people actually do the other? Of course you unclip at 12:00. The bent knee gives you much more leverage to twist the ankle and unclip. Like a long handled wrench or bending your elbow to unscrew the stuck top on a jar. It is called torque! Twisting the leg at 6:00 required the whole leg to turn all the way up to the hip, and the leverage is poor. Not good.

Digitalfiend

I see it a lot with riders who seem to be new to clipless. As they pull up to stop signs or lights they try and twist out with the leg down and, since most of them have seats too high, they get all unbalanced and wobbly...or just can't twist out and fall over.

cxwrench

How often are you seeing "pro" racers unclipping both feet? They do the same thing we "normal" riders do...some unclip w/ the left, some w/ the right. Most w/ the left as no "pro" wants to be seen w/ the dreaded Cat5 tattoo.

FPSDavid

Unclip left, lean left, right foot still clipped in.

GlenBandit

PatrickGSR94

I know it sounds ridiculous to need a video on "how to stop", but I wasn't doing it this way before about a year ago, and now I always do it this way. Left crank arm pointing down, right side up, unclip right foot, move forward off saddle while right foot dangles, stop, then drop right foot down to the ground. Left foot still on pedal and clipped in. Then I press down on the left pedal first to get going again.

These 2 videos both show it well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyatgZ6mQPk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pexggcTo3Xs