Ms. Coordinated Here. Falling with Clipless Pedals

[jobob]

I'll bet nearly everyone here who uses clipless pedals has done that AT LEAST once. Uh, hello!

Good advice above. You'll get the hang of it!

[Possegal]

For me, my big issue is forgetting to be careful to not shift my body weight when I only have one foot unclipped on the ground. A slight shift in the body and down I go. Luckily, with those ones, the only thing that really gets hurt is my ego. Bruises for it as well as me, but the ego hurts the most.

[Yelsel]

Ugh, I fell once in front of an entire bus full of people. And I was just congratulating myself on not falling for about a year... then fell over twice in one day. And not on emergency stops either. Bleah.

I also unclip coming to a planned stop; I like my cleats a little farther back than the middle of the ball of my foot, so I can use the ball/toes to keep pedaling. I unclip my left pedal, and lean over while still on the saddle, with the right foot up at 1-2 o'clock ready to go. Saddle height is related to leg length... you should be able to do this(?)

I've learned that if I'm doing something that requires thought (like reading a map) that I'd better unclip both feet and hop off the saddle, otherwise at some point I'll shift weight too much and tip over on the right, very amusing for bikers that were also reading the map. I also wasn't good with sudden stops, but now I can get my foot out and down before stopping, even if it seems pretty close.

I am saving up to get Speedplay pedals for my roadbike, but in the meantime I have Shimano pedals, and I got the cleats that will come out at a variety of angles. I have Crank Brother mallet pedals on my 'cross and mountain fair / bad weather commuters -- good with and without clipless shoes -- and initially had the cleats set up with minimum float, which meant that I had to rotate less to get them out of the clips.

Just out of curiosity -- how many people drive sticks? I am wondering if people put their left foot down more often if they are used to putting the clutch in with their left foot for stopping. (The real test would be asking the right-foot clutch "island" people in the UK, Japan, and down under.)

[TrekWSDmechanic]

'Zero-speed falls' are a right of passage that every clipless user experiences at least once. It happened to me just the other day, embarrassingly while I was teaching a friend how to track stand. Of course, it was down to a rock getting stuck in there (I was on the mtb), but hey ho...

Anyhoo...I'm wondering if maybe you haven't figured out which is your 'chocolate foot' yet? This is the foot that your body naturally gravitates to while you are riding. An easy way to tell is to see which foot is forward when you are going down hills and out of the saddle. It will feel more natural to have one foot forward vs. the other. This is usually the same foot that comes out of your pedal at a stop.

Perhaps your left foot is your chocolate foot. It doesn't matter if you are right or left handed, this doesn't determine which foot is dominant. I'm right handed, and my left foot is the one that's out of the pedal when I stop.

[jobob]

Anyhoo...I'm wondering if maybe you haven't figured out which is your 'chocolate foot' yet? This is the foot that your body naturally gravitates too while you are riding.

Why is it called that?

[TrekWSDmechanic]

Well it comes from the German use of the word 'schokoladenbein', which literally translates to 'chocolate leg', but in context means 'favored leg'. I think it was probably Hans Rey who is credited for taking it to the bike world.

It probably sounds like I'm making this up, but I'm not.

[DDH]

I think we have all fallen at least once. I didn't have an audience when I fell, but I'm here to tell you it's still very embarrassing cause you think everyone in the neighborhood saw you.
Mine was pulling up to the mail box trying to be cool on my bike and thinking I would just pull up beside it and use the mailbox to brace myself and then peddle away and never unclip. UH!!!! I missed the mailbox! LOL Word of advice, you can't unclip when you are in a panic. LOL
I just plum fell over. Jumped up from the ground and looked around to see if anyone was outside to see me, and then the feelings of "you big dummy" came over me.

[MamboGirl]

Why is it called that?

Well it comes from the German use of the word 'schokoladenbein', which literally translates to 'chocolate leg', but in context means 'favored leg'. I think it was probably Hans Rey who is credited for taking it to the bike world.

It probably sounds like I'm making this up, but I'm not.

Here's a response from a German friend, who is in Germany:
Schokoladen-Bein is a private word-combination. It is nothing formal. It is the first time I ever heard it.

You say here e.g. "meine Schokoladenseite" i.e. "my chocolate side" (of my character. So it's more in an abstract way used.

[MamboGirl]

Anyhoo...I'm wondering if maybe you haven't figured out which is your 'chocolate foot' yet? This is the foot that your body naturally gravitates to while you are riding. An easy way to tell is to see which foot is forward when you are going down hills and out of the saddle. It will feel more natural to have one foot forward vs. the other. This is usually the same foot that comes out of your pedal at a stop.

Perhaps your left foot is your chocolate foot. It doesn't matter if you are right or left handed, this doesn't determine which foot is dominant. I'm right handed, and my left foot is the one that's out of the pedal when I stop.

I think you are right - my left foot is my "chocolate" foot. I think that with the normal pedals, I would stand on my right pedal to move out of the seat just prior to stopping. Hard to remember because I never thought about it. I'm left handed, and I like to stand on the left side of my bike.

[KnottedYet]

Anyhoo...I'm wondering if maybe you haven't figured out which is your 'chocolate foot' yet? This is the foot that your body naturally gravitates to while you are riding. An easy way to tell is to see which foot is forward when you are going down hills and out of the saddle. It will feel more natural to have one foot forward vs. the other. This is usually the same foot that comes out of your pedal at a stop.

Nope, I'm just the opposite. Left foot likes to be forward, and right foot likes to clip out first (and always has, even back in the dark ages before you were born and all we had were cages). Never heard it called "chocolate foot" in all my years of riding. Nice name.

Left foot and left hand like to be in charge of the bike. I'm left-handed, too. Right hand will get the water bottle and right foot will reach for the ground.

[tctrek]

I've had three zero mph falls and always with an audience of other riders. How embarrassing. My worst one was the first day I was riding clipless. After riding about 25 miles, crossing many side streets where we had to stop, clip out and clip back in, I was thinking I was on top of the world. 25 miles clipless without a single incident! Yay me! Then we pulled up beside a nice cool creek where there were about 10 riders stopped for a little rest and social time. We pulled up, I unclipped (I do the left side first). Leaned to the right with right foot still clipped in and skated right into the creek. Up to my knees in water up to my ankles in creek mud. It was humiliating.

Zero mph falls are what happens when you lose focus just a little. Gets ya every time.

[MamboGirl]

Ugh, I fell once in front of an entire bus full of people. And I was just congratulating myself on not falling for about a year... then fell over twice in one day. And not on emergency stops either. Bleah.

I also unclip coming to a planned stop; I like my cleats a little farther back than the middle of the ball of my foot, so I can use the ball/toes to keep pedaling. I unclip my left pedal, and lean over while still on the saddle, with the right foot up at 1-2 o'clock ready to go. Saddle height is related to leg length... you should be able to do this(?)

I've learned that if I'm doing something that requires thought (like reading a map) that I'd better unclip both feet and hop off the saddle, otherwise at some point I'll shift weight too much and tip over on the right, very amusing for bikers that were also reading the map. I also wasn't good with sudden stops, but now I can get my foot out and down before stopping, even if it seems pretty close.

I am saving up to get Speedplay pedals for my roadbike, but in the meantime I have Shimano pedals, and I got the cleats that will come out at a variety of angles. I have Crank Brother mallet pedals on my 'cross and mountain fair / bad weather commuters -- good with and without clipless shoes -- and initially had the cleats set up with minimum float, which meant that I had to rotate less to get them out of the clips.

Just out of curiosity -- how many people drive sticks? I am wondering if people put their left foot down more often if they are used to putting the clutch in with their left foot for stopping. (The real test would be asking the right-foot clutch "island" people in the UK, Japan, and down under.)

LOL - your post cracked me up. Thank you so much for sharing (I thank everyone for sharing!) It does make me feel better so many have shared my experience.
Yeah, I can't lean the bike and touch the ground while still on the saddle. The guy at the bike shop did the fitting, raised the seat up and moved it back a bit, so my legs and knees are all at the correct angles while spinning. My son (who is a bike enthusiast) told me that on a road bike I shouldn't be able to touch the ground while on the saddle. If the saddle is too low, he and the bike shop guy explained, I would eventually damage my knees. But, when sitting still at a light, I stand on my left foot, forward of the saddle, and keep my right foot on the pedal at around the 1:00 position, ready to go. I'm doing this with the clipless too. I just got to learn which side to clip out of to come to a complete stop and step down without getting confused and falling over.

[emily_in_nc]

I barely averted a clipless fall on today's ride. The screws in my right cleat (Eggbeaters) had become loose, and I didn't realize it. When I went to unclip my right foot at a stop sign, I rotated my heel out and out and out until my toes were pointed RIGHT at my frame, and I still couldn't unclip. By this time I'd slowed to nearly zero mph and had gone off into the grass on the right side of the road (thank heavens there was grass as I knew I was going down very, very soon). It all happened in slow motion, and I kept thinking "Damn, I'm gonna fall, and double damn, the guy in the car coming the other way is going to see me!"

Somehow, someway, at literally the last second, I was able to send a signal from my brain to my almost completely irrelevent left foot (I NEVER unclip on the left), unclip it, and lean my bike that way. One second later, and I would have been in the grass. I still can't believe I didn't fall!

I took my foot out of my Keen sandal on the right and figured out why I couldn't unclip: one of the two screws had fallen completely out, and the other was loose, allowing the cleat to rotate 360 degrees around on the pedal but not unclip. My DH tried a couple of tools but could not get the shoe off, and I just knew I couldn't ride having to clip out on the left all day. Fortunately, I was finally able to muscle the shoe off the pedal somehow, and we ended up putting the 2nd screw from the left cleat onto the right cleat so that I could clip out without freaking out.

I rode 43 more miles with only one screw in my left cleat and nary a problem! Disaster averted....

[MamboGirl]

I barely averted a clipless fall on today's ride. The screws in my right cleat (Eggbeaters) had become loose, and I didn't realize it. When I went to unclip my right foot at a stop sign, I rotated my heel out and out and out until my toes were pointed RIGHT at my frame, and I still couldn't unclip. By this time I'd slowed to nearly zero mph and had gone off into the grass on the right side of the road (thank heavens there was grass as I knew I was going down very, very soon). It all happened in slow motion, and I kept thinking "Damn, I'm gonna fall, and double damn, the guy in the car coming the other way is going to see me!"

Somehow, someway, at literally the last second, I was able to send a signal from my brain to my almost completely irrelevent left foot (I NEVER unclip on the left), unclip it, and lean my bike that way. One second later, and I would have been in the grass. I still can't believe I didn't fall!

I took my foot out of my Keen sandal on the right and figured out why I couldn't unclip: one of the two screws had fallen completely out, and the other was loose, allowing the cleat to rotate 360 degrees around on the pedal but not unclip. My DH tried a couple of tools but could not get the shoe off, and I just knew I couldn't ride having to clip out on the left all day. Fortunately, I was finally able to muscle the shoe off the pedal somehow, and we ended up putting the 2nd screw from the left cleat onto the right cleat so that I could clip out without freaking out.

I rode 43 more miles with only one screw in my left cleat and nary a problem! Disaster averted....

Wow Emily that is quite a story! Since you are experienced, you were able to recover quickly. I gather from this you carry some sort of tool set with you? What do you carry? I've read that it is good to get one of those multi-tool all in one things... I just have the little pack under the saddle with my patch kit and extra tube, and enough room for my cell phone, so I would need to get something small.

[MamboGirl]

Did you all get my play on words? Ms. Coordinated... miscoordinated... get it?