clipless pedal question

I'm a relative noob when it comes to clipless pedals. I've been riding with them for about 4 months and thus far have not had many problems. I've only fallen once but I've had a few close calls on some really steep hills and it's made me nervous about approaching steep hills on my rides. In some cases I've tried going up these hills only clipped in on one side but this doesn't work that great for most hills because anything strenous it's pretty likely that I'll click in on the second side while trying to get up the hill.

I'm just curious if there's any good solution to this problem other than become a strong hill climber (which would also be a good thing). Does anyone ride with the "campus" type pedals which are clip on one side, platform on the other? Any other thoughts?

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Originally Posted by noombs

I'm just curious if there's any good solution to this problem other than become a strong hill climber (which would also be a good thing). Does anyone ride with the "campus" type pedals which are clip on one side, platform on the other? Any other thoughts?

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Those pedals are great if there are some times when you want to wear biking shoes and other times when you just want to wear sneakers. I thought that they would be good for times when I wimped out of wanting to be clipped in while still wearing bike shoes... that I would just unclip and put my feet on the platform side. Well, I learned that it is *really* easy to accidentally clip back in, and that causes way many more falls than just clipping in, because you aren't thinking about having to unclip. Now if I wear bike shoes I clip in... no better way to learn than just going for it!

The trouble is that climbing hills is when you need to be clipped in the most.

First, have you learned to anticipate your shifts? You may be running out of gears earlier than you need to if you aren't pedaling smoothly all the way up the hill. Shift one gear at a time, use a cadence monitor and try to keep your cadence above 70 or so until you're in your lowest gear.

Learning to spin smoothly is part of it, too. If you're clipped in on one side and not the other, that guarantees that you're going to be working differently with one leg, which will put you off-balance. One-legged pedaling drills on flat roads or on the trainer will help with this, as will cadence drills such as pedaling as fast as you can in a low gear on a downhill.

Standing to climb will give you extra power, but it does use extra energy as well, so when you do it, make sure that you're either standing all the way until the next crest or false flat, or that you have a lower gear or two to shift into when you sit back down.

And ... most of us do occasionally run into a hill that we just. can't. ride. If it happens to you often in your area, and better shifting technique isn't helping, then you might want to look into lower gears. Cassettes aren't too expensive. But we also all need to know when our cadence is so low that we're in danger of tipping over, and unclip before that happens. If we have to walk, we walk. No biggie. :)

I second what oak leaf says about hills and shifting down and tend to think that the only way to ride hills is to ride hills until you get an automatic feel for when and how far down you should shift.

Regarding double sided pedals- Personally I love them, but then I am a distance endurance rider ratherr than a speed rider and when you are doing day after day of 80-100 miles, it's nice to have the option of moving my feet around and finding different pressure points. I don't know if that is the same for MTB clips however as opposed to SPD clips so that might be factor for choosing or not choosing double sided pedals.

marni

Maybe you could try training on hills that are less steep, if there are good ones in your area, until you feel more confident about going up the ones that make you nervous about the pedals.

Just a thought.

Are you shifting down or are you trying to muscle up the inclines in a gear that is so high that you hit a wall, the pedals stop spinning and you start to fall over?
We saw a lady do this last weekend.