FarAwayBoy

Okay, I admit it.
I always thought pedal strike was kind of a non-issue.
Not a big enough worry to be concerned with.
Today on my way home, I leaned tight into a turn so I could turn around on a narrow residential street. As I came around in the right direction I felt my pedal catch on the ground, and I got thrown off. Unfortunately the bike was still connected to my opposite foot so I flew about ten feet and the bike came down on top of me. It's undamaged and, beyond a bit of road rash, so am I.
But now I have learned the dangers of pedal strike.

deadforkinglast

Even though it sucks, you have to strike your pedals once or twice, or else you'll never know just what the limit is when cornering hard. I've struck a few times, usually when I've been riding my road bike a lot (the nice thing about freewheels is that you corner HARD), but have managed to stay on the bike all but one time. I definitely just about crapped my pants every time, though.

oeuf

I've never had the pleasure of experiencing pedal strike, but sometimes I do lean over pretty far. Every now and then on those turns I look down as the pedal reaches its most downward point and think to myself 'oh ****, i'm gonna get thrown', but thankfully it never happens. Good to hear you came out relatively ok.

FarAwayBoy

Yeah.
At first I thought it was just adrenaline, but I got all the way home and chilled out and I'm definately not hurt too bad.
I agree that you have to hit to learn how far over you can go.

na975

oy vey.

jasonmansey

i dont think ive EVER hit a corner hard enough to slam since ive been riding tarck.

when i used to ride ss i used to make a point of seeing how hard i could corner... im going to make a point of testing the limits because of this thread.

windup capybara

my pedals are worn away at the corners from the places i've struck them, but i haven't got down - yet.

blankgen

I've scraped my pedals but never gone down. I can't wait to get a bike with a higher bottom bracket and ditch my conversion.

BTW, are you guys scraping/striking on conversions or track bikes?

ryanlovesyou

Same here. There are a couple turns on the campus bike path that are way too much fun to take fast, but I've never eaten it luckily. For what its worth, I'm riding a Pista. I used to hit my pedals ALL the time when I had a beater conversion.

trelhak

I've touched down a couple of times, but never on my 'proper' track bike.

The keys is are 1.) proper bottom bracket height 2.) proper crank arm length 3.) proper pedal Q factor

With a proper track (or even semi-tarck) bike's bottom bracket, 165mm crank arms, and narrow track pedals, you should lose the front end way before you ever touch down.

gharding

I've never gone down from it. I did strike going around a corner fast.. made my bike skip to the side.. almost into a truck. And there are also these weird bulges in the city streets that I've hit a couple times.

jdms mvp

i've never had pedal strike or toe overlap...go figure...

Withnil

I've struck a couple times but never in a big way. I'm actually thinking I could manage 170mm cranks.

Anyone gone from 165 up to 170? I would love a little more torque.

Elderberry

I ride 170's on my Trek conversion and haven't experienced anything more than minor striking. I rode a friend's bike which had 165's and it felt quite cramped. I have long legs.

Gyeswho

I pedal striked when I had my first fixed, which was a conversion. I took a slow U turn on an incline and fell over. What "deadforking" said is true because you'll never learn your limit.

Eventually you'll want to learn how to skid whip turns/drift them so that way you won't have to turn so sharply on some turns. It keeps you from pedaling through some turns and having your pedals touch. Of course you gotta get used to the balancing of doing that though (practicing hockey stops will help you get the balance of doing that).

deadforkinglast

I often feel the metal clamps on my toe straps touch the ground lightly in corners on my conversion, which is always the warning signal to chill out a little bit, but that's an 80's Trek sport bike with 700c wheels, even though it was built for 27-inch, which lowers the already low bottom bracket about 4mm further. I also rock 170mm cranks on that, because that's what was in the used parts bin when I built it.

I have yet to strike on my track bike.

powerband

I've pedal struck once but didn't go down. Now I do what I do on the motorcycle at the track going around turns: I lean my body off the bike. Since the feet are clipped in, I lean my upper body as far as I can off the bike into the turn; this effectively moves the combined center of gravity (bike and rider) into the turn without the bike having to lean as far. This allows me to take the turns faster without excessively leaning the bike, avoiding the dreaded pedal strike.

mavimao

I had a pedal strike once, but I managed to catch my balance and didn't fall off. It's a good lesson to learn because now I am careful not to lean in too far.

Rusty Piton

I once crashed hard because of a pedal strike. Broke my fork and roadrashed my side like hell.

40x14

What is a semi tark bike? Is that like a tractor trailer bike?

I've scraped pedals more times than I can shake a stick at, and it's never caused a crash (yet... fingers crossed). It's happened to me on high-zoot road bikes, my commuter bike, and conversion bikes, while making u-turns, pedaling through corners, racing, whatever. Usually it happens a few times with a new bike until I learn how far I can take it. My current roadie is terrible, I am so disappointed to not be able to pedal through fast turns anymore.

On my real track bike it is pretty hard but not impossible to get the pedal to touch down. It happened once on purpose when I first got it, and was trying to learn how far it would go making figure 8s on a basketball court. Good cleated bike shoes with decent pedals help a lot. Good road/track pedals stick out less than bmx, mountain, or (gasp!) platform pedals, and are less likely to scrape.

True track bikes have high bottom bracket, as has been pointed out. This makes an enormous difference.

xARExJAYx

Actually...I just broke my hand, ripped open my chin thus exposing muscle tissue, and endured some other random bits of road rash because of pedal strike. A low bottom bracket and 170 crank arms will ruin your day...

Easily my worst fall.

doomkin

Never actually pedal struck before but I have managed to turn hard enough to loose traction along the sidewall of my tires and simply hit the ground. Not fun either time but not serious either. I do believe I've got pretty short crank arms though.

cizzlak

if youre quick enough, you can throw your weight around and hop the back wheel back in line (like how you do in a skip stop) and retain your balance as soon as you realize you just struck. that takes a bit of awareness and faith in your skills though. i run 170mm arms on a high bb frame though so it is a rare event indeed.

bryanhayn

Damn, that sucks man. I hope you're alright. Luckily I've never been a victim of the deadly pedal strike. 165mm Suginos + Crank Bros. clipless = so far so good.

throwintail

On a conversion with bmx pedals i once had a pedal strike that forced me into a 15-20 foot sideways skid when a car cut me off with a surprise left turn. The chain jumped off and jammed the rear wheel.
Not once have i struck on my track bike with track or clipless pedals.