Toe Clips??

It so is. I went clipless when I bought a bike that came with SPDs. I'd read all kinds of horror stories here and I just thought "Bugger that - I am not going to let myself fall!" I took all the good advice I had seen here and practiced a little in my hallway before going for a spin around the very quiet streets in my imediate neighbourhood. I am yet to fall because I haven't unclipped in time. (I have, however, found some much stupider ways to come off: cornering at speed on pavers covered in gravelly bits in the dark, for instance... :p)

Do What Is Works For You.

Or Make It Work For You By Practice.

Be Safe.

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Originally Posted by tlkiwi

It so is. I went clipless when I bought a bike that came with SPDs. I'd read all kinds of horror stories here and I just thought "Bugger that - I am not going to let myself fall!" I took all the good advice I had seen here and practiced a little in my hallway before going for a spin around the very quiet streets in my imediate neighbourhood. I am yet to fall because I haven't unclipped in time. (I have, however, found some much stupider ways to come off: cornering at speed on pavers covered in gravelly bits in the dark, for instance... :p)

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That's actually a good way to come off... How did you manage to fall WHILE moving at speed and NOT get hurt enough to use a :( emoticon instead of a :p THAT's what I have to figure out... the art of falling... in case it happens again.

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Originally Posted by Hammer

That's actually a good way to come off... How did you manage to fall WHILE moving at speed and NOT get hurt enough to use a :( emoticon instead of a :p THAT's what I have to figure out... the art of falling... in case it happens again.

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Tuck and roll. Stick whatever you can as close to your core as you can, especially your neck. Do not try to stop the fall with your hands (broken wrists guaranteed). Maximize the surface that touches the ground (ex: arm instead of elbow).

This being said, falling is not fun, but it makes me feel like a kid who can still play. As long as nothing's broken too badly, falling once in a while makes a good story to tell and makes me feel alive. I could stay at home and do nothing and try nothing outside of my comfort zone and I wouldn't fall, but then I would :( instead of :p . Dunno what the Neo-Zelander thinks about this though, I just speak for myself here!

As far as the :p not :( goes, this Neo Zealander is just young and stupid still, I guess. ;) I would have remebered the gravelly bits were in that spot if I'd thought about it, but I was having fun leaning my bike as far over as I could on the corners and totally overdid it on that one; it wasn't so much that I was going fast as just too fast for that situation. It was much more "duh!" than "ow!" (and I had a sweet bruise on my forearm/elbow to show off). Grog's right - falling has a perverse enjoyablity in it's feel-alive factor. (Or I'm just a bit odd. :D)