I was riding home tonight on my recently converted Raleigh. I took a fairly sharp left turn when my pedal got caught on the ground and sent me flying and tumbling. I normally ride a Langster with 170 cranks but clipless. Should I change out the cranks or pedals on my Grand Prix or just learn not to be an idiot? It all happened really fast. Before I even realized what happened, about five people were encircling me. I was waiting for one to poke me with a stick. Luckily my backpack took the brunt of the fall. So any advice?

I'm glad no one stole your wallet.

You could go for shorter crank arms on the conversion....165-ish. Or pedals with a skinnier, lower profile.

Cheapest solution is to lean less and turn more. At least you know the threshold now.

That frame expects you to coast through turns. It happens. Just be careful. Don't take turns so sharply or quickly. 5 mm isn't going to make a drastic difference.

Its called pedal strike and anyone who has been riding for a sufficient amount of time knows what it is and knows that it'll mess you up good.
If you've got money to blow on a shorter crank, go for it, but its an expensive way to only very slightly help the problem. Best thing you can do is to keep your incident in mind and watch your turns, as Im sure you already are.

A pedal strike. Yeah, I like that. So it's kinda an initiation thing? That's what you're saying? Well, I guess I'm part of the club. I'll for sure be more conscious of it in the future...especially until the pain in my left shoulders goes away. I'm thinking I'll keep that bike SS and go inside pedal up on sharp turns.

I just recently started riding fixed, and have been pretty cautious about my turns (my cranks are 171mm, which is weird), but I just know that the pedal strike is out there, waiting, like jaws by a crowded beach.

I flipped my hub the first time about a week ago and that situation weighed heavy on my brain. I like taking low, sweeping turns. Between that and having to use foot restraints I flopped it back to SS. I'm too old to be hitting pavement anymore. Been there, done that.

When I ride fixed, the thought of pedal strike is so ingrained in my head (luckily it's never happened), that I always take turns less aggressively then on my road bike - which I bank like mad. So there's no doubt the experience will give you the same mindset, which should alter your behavior.

On the clearance side of things... I find that the pedal makes a major difference... as mentioned above, a shorter crank helps a bit - but if you save 5mm on the crank, it might not make as much a difference as getting a short track pedal - so I would look at your pedal first. Lead your bike over with the crank arm down and see how much bank you have - then put a track pedal on and see the difference.