new to clipless - what not to do! (long)

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Originally Posted by uforgot

Ah, your story takes me back! We've all been there. Doesn't sound like you were hurt other than bruising (I remember that too). It's just so terribly embarrassing. Wait until you fall over from standing still. Just remember to make sure that the bike lands on top of you. .

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I got my clipless pedals on Monday and the LBS first put me on a trainer to teach me how to clip and unclip and then took me out back to ride my bike. I did great! I loved them!

That afternoon I went riding with my hubby. I was so nervous and tense. I felt myself locking my arms, clenching my jaw, just waiting to fall. All was well and then I stopped to loosen one of my shoes and when I went to start back up, I fell.

I had I read all of the emails about falling and different situations and all I could remember was "make sure your bike lands on top of you". LOL! My husband didn't laugh, but he was amused. I didn't catch myself with my wrist, but rolled and lifted my bike in the air with my legs so it wouldn't be damaged. I had a slight abrasion on the leg that hit the pavement and the gears hit my other leg so I have a few cuts. All in all it didn't really hurt. I am glad I got it out of the way.

The owner of the LBS said there are two kinds of riders. Those who have fallen and those who are going to fall. <grin>

I really love the power and efficiency behind the clipless pedals. Now I have to work on starting from a stand still.

Kat

Psyclepath bought my Mountain bike shoes & gave me my first clipless lesson Saturday- not too bad having a brother that is an LCI instructor! I mad sveral loops before my first fall- unclipped on the right then leaned left & rolled over- a little road rash & a couple bruises but not too bad!

It's still pretty scary though!

Clipless! I fell the FIRST RIDE on my FIRST BIKE and now it sits, in my rec room, on a trainer because I am afraid to ride it outside. I keep telling myself that I"m going to just "do it", but I haven't.
After reading this thread, I realized that I am being so stupid. I am taking off the clipless and putting regular old pedals back on and I am getting back on the real road.
I would rather ride than sit inside, I would rather ride and emerged relatively unscathed, and not killed!
I'd rather ride than worry about not riding.
Are the pedals I use really going to make THAT much difference?

Whenever I see these clipless threads I think about my first time. I had been riding with toe clips for about a year and really wanted to ride clipless. I did what most folks do and went with MTB shoes and SPD pedals. We went out to do an easy ride on the Silver Comet Trail. We rode for 25 miles and I was clipping, unclipping like I had been doing it all my life. I was pumped!! There's a lot of street crossings on the trail, so there were a lot of stops/starts.

We are about 10 miles from where we parked and wanted to stop at a cool little creek to rest a moment. This rest area was LOADED with cyclists because it's so cool and shady. Unclipped left foot, put it down on the ground and leaned to the RIGHT... the bike started rolling and went straight into the creek with me still clipped to it. My left foot went into the creek bed up to my ankles in mud. On the way down into the creek my legs scraped down these jagged rocks until they were raw hamburger. I am totally p*ssed... cursing and yelling all the way down. I look up and there are no less than 10 cyclists standing up on the trail looking down at me. They pulled me out. I cleaned up my wounds as best as I could and rode my bike the 10 miles back to the car.

For the next 2 months, I went back to wearing my tennis shoes riding. Then one day, I decided I was going back to clipless. Unbelievably, I haven't fallen since :) ...

If you want to ride clipless, just don't be a quitter. You may fall sometimes, but practice makes perfect!

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Originally Posted by IGGY

Clipless! I fell the FIRST RIDE on my FIRST BIKE and now it sits, in my rec room, on a trainer because I am afraid to ride it outside. I keep telling myself that I"m going to just "do it", but I haven't.
After reading this thread, I realized that I am being so stupid. I am taking off the clipless and putting regular old pedals back on and I am getting back on the real road.

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Put your regular pedals on and ride!!! Once you get used to your bike you might want to give the clipless another shot, but it doesn't matter if you never even try them again. It's no fun being afraid to ride your bike, so do what you need to to get comfortable and gain some confidence!

I'll admit that I've been going back and forth - wearing my MTB shoes and clipping in when I'm on bike paths, and regular sneakers when I hit the trails. Last weekend I tried downhill MTBing for the first time and even switched my pedals back to real platforms (my other ones are clips on one side and platform on the other, but the platform is small and slippery). I'm not giving up on clipless, but I'm pretty new to MTBing and clipping in (and out!) is just one thing too many to worry about when everything else is so new too.

Maybe some people would just go for it, but I don't like being scared when I'm riding. Biking is supposed to be fun, and things like clipless pedals are supposed to be an asset, not something to stress out over. So keep it fun!

[QUOTE=irrealised;435518]Put your regular pedals on and ride!!! Once you get used to your bike you might want to give the clipless another shot, but it doesn't matter if you never even try them again. It's no fun being afraid to ride your bike, so do what you need to to get comfortable and gain some confidence!

I agree! My LBS talked me into buying SPDs to go with my new road bike, even though I hadn't ridden on the road in years and wanted to start with ordinary pedals. Of course I fell off a few times trying to use them, got too afraid to try again, and left the bike sitting unused in our spare room for a year and a half. Eventually, thanks to the encouragement of friends, I put some regular pedals on and off I went. It only took a few weeks of riding and I had enough confidence to try out the SPDs again (after practicing using them in a few spin classes). Once I was used to the bike they were fine!

I've just swapped to some Look Keo's and am going through a little learning curve again, but nowhere near as steep as the initial switch to clipless. Get used to the bike, then see how you feel!

I only fell once with my clipless, and that was because someone else fell on me. Never had any problems with my clipless pedals. I just anticipate and unclick whenever I see danger. :cool:

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Originally Posted by papaver

I only fell once with my clipless, and that was because someone else fell on me. Never had any problems with my clipless pedals. I just anticipate and unclick whenever I see danger. :cool:

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oops . . . i've been on the other side of that one. i've been ok with clipless, but i unclip probably well before i actually need to, just to be safe. i had an incident though where i panicked and didn't unclip and ran smack into another rider. we were riding with an older man (in his 70's) and came to a cul-de-sac. he was pointing out a beautiful house (with a family in the front yard..). i looked over at it, but didn't notice he had STOPPED to admire. when i looked up, seconds before impact, i tried to stop myself by putting my feet on the ground, completely forgetting i was clipped in. so, being a completely rational person, i started screaming at the top of my lungs. try the brakes? not me. keep screaming? absolutely.

the family rushed over to help us up. luckily, we were both ok . . . except my pride :p

I'm new to biking (or new since high school that is) and clipless pedals, we got the Speedplay Zero pedals/cleats for our road bikes. I've been out on the road with them 3 times so far, and yesterday was my worst falling day but also my longest ride.

The first fall was the worst and it was mostly mental, the other falls were just learning (I'm not all that well balanced to start with) and I find the anticipation of a fall is worse than the act of falling. I've started to learn to get my pride up off the ground as fast as I can get my body off the ground LOL. I know I don't have much falling left in my system and I immediately saw benefit from riding with the Speedplays verses just me in my tennis shoes with regular pedals.

Took my new Lemond out for its maiden voyage on Thursday eve to "learn" to use the spd's my husband talked me into buying (since we had the pedals at home all we needed were the cleats). I completely agree about the fear of the fall being worse than the actual event. That said, I now have about five choice bruises and abrasions ... ouch! The clipless pedals and cleats came off and platforms with toe clips went on. Went on a ride with the local club today and did fine, although I wasn't prepared for how slippery the bottoms of the shoes would be, and therefore harder to stop.

I'd like to try clipless again sometime not to far down the road, but I am thinking about Speedplays. Just could not get the hang of finding the clip-in spot on the spd's, and, of course, how to get out of them fast enough!

On a brighter note, this is my first road bike (had been riding a Trek fx 7.2 hybrid) and I was really pleased at how much faster I was able to go.

I use this pair of SPD pedals on my road bike, which also has the platform on one side:
http://www.exustar.com/image/pedal/pm811-s.jpg

I first rode on these pedals with regular sneakers and learned how to get on the platform side. When I was confident enough, I started to try cycling shoes.
Just need to practice what to do when you don't want to clip in.
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7395/img0146b.jpg

If I put my unclipped shoe on the wrong side (depending on the situation, either not to clip or to clip), I just continue to pedal slowly meanwhile maneuver to get my unclipped shoe on the right side.

I only have one emergency so far. But that's because I didn't know what the car in front of me would do -- ahead or back (he actually wanted to make a u-turn). I was very close to the back of the car and then I realized that he didn't continue to drive (nor he put up some signal). I was lucky to get off my left foot quick enough or I would fell. This is a lesson I learned: If not sure, unclip one foot first.

IGGY - I wholeheartedly agree with irrealised - it shouldn't be so stressful to ride; just fun. After a really bad first day with clipless on a new mountain bike in 1995, I swore them off for 10 years (due to a terrible fear of falling) but still had lots of fun and got much better at biking anyway. I finally tried clipless again 2 years ago and have been generally fine, despite some trepidation and a few tip-overs. Don't be bothered by peer pressure; it's totally fine to ride the way you feel most comfortable. I found the mini-clips to be the most effective alternative (easy in/out; some stability & power). Check these out: http://www.amazon.com/Eleven81-Mini-.../dp/B001D4S9QO