Went clipless today.... first fall tonight

[ilima]

Another advantage to unclipping with the right foot is that most roads are canted for drainage and you'll often naturally fall to the right. When I first started and unclipped to the left, I would often find myself leaning right. I still mostly unclip with my left foot, but am better about balancing correctly. Only time I unclip with my right foot is if I am going to set my foot on the curb.

[Southside Sally]

I feel your pain, literally! I did the very same thing on my first ride on my first road bike.

When I finally got up the nerve to get back on the back (several months later) I rode it in my yard, clipping, unclipping, stopping and starting. I also ot into the habit of unclipping only on the right. I have put about 600 miles on this bike since April and haven't fallen once.

Keep practicing!

[JTchaser]

Talk to anybody that rides with clips and they all have their stories of falling. I remember years back one of my healthnut friends coming for coffee with scrapes all over her arms, face, and legs. She explained the injuries were from falling off her bike and almost getting ran over by a car and being so embarassed because of the large group of riders they were riding with at the time and how ticked she was at her hubby for making her use these stupid clip things! Never made sense to me because she couldn't ride the rest of the weekend and sat in the hotel while they all rode.

Fast-forward about 8 years, and now I've begun to ride and experienced a few falls, without serious injury, just merely some "war wounds." I talked to my friend's husband after about 2 falls because of my clips and recalled the story of her fall all those years ago...he was mortified at my perception of his abuse in the story and he explained it was completely his fault because he forgot to tell her she had to unclip ahead of time. He just looked at my hubby and wisely said, "Remind her to unclip ahead of time, especially when she's tired."

Sure enough, when we're close to home and I'm growing weary, my hubby will remind me to unclip when coming to the stoplights, and I'm thankful for those reminders sometime...but it's becoming more natural and more just part of the whole riding thing. Don't let it get ya' down...you will fall, everybody does! Personally, I got a really cute pair of shoes out of my hubby after one of my last falls because he felt sorry for me!