Quote Originally Posted by indysteel View Post
Out of curiosity, have you thought about just ditching the clipless pedals for the time being and using platforms/BMX? I'm not using clipless at the moment and likely won't for a while. Granted, I'm not doing much where clipless would really be of help at the moment either.
Yes, I considered staying with platforms & am not ruling out going back to them. The problem is that my skills are advanced enough that I'm taking some pretty bumpy obstacles like rock gardens on moderate hills, small ledges, etc. (These aren't the obstacles that are causing me to crash, btw.) My feet are already bouncing around on the platforms. My instructor & awesome-bike-shop-dude-who-mountain-bikes are about the same size as I am, which is pretty small. (OK the bike-shop-dude is a few inches taller but we probably weigh about the same.) Based on their experience, they're both concerned that my feet will bounce off of the pedals as I begin taking even bumpier obstacles. Having a foot bounce off of a pedal in the middle of a very steep & technical rock garden could cause an even worse crash than not being able to get out of clipless pedals on the rare occasion that I actually have some reaction time.

In truth, the idea of mountain biking in clipless pedals has my nerves on edge. I've given it a lot of thought, though, & have come to the following conclusions:
  • It seems that most crashes happen so fast that I'm on the way down before I have time to consider what to do with my feet. That means that I would probably be unable to prevent a crash even if I could get my feet out of the pedals before I hit the ground. That's sure been the case with the platforms so far.
  • I wonder if we attribute too many crashes to clipless pedals because one of the last sensations that we remember before hitting the ground is that our feet were tugging at the bike. Again, it would seem that by that time, it would be too late to prevent the crash by getting our feet loose.
  • It seems that most of the falls that can legitimately be attributed to clipless pedals are the slow speed falls or tip-overs where we actually had some reaction time but couldn't get our feet loose. These slow speed falls are usually pretty harmless.
  • I do have big concerns about being more seriously injured in a crash if I hit the ground with my feet still attached to the bike. I choose SPD's with multi-directional release cleats for my mountain bike for this reason. I've already tipped over a few times with these pedals & my feet came loose the moment I hit the ground. I can't say as much for the Frogs that I love on my road bike & the Candies that I couldn't make friends with.


So all of this makes perfect sense in my head but fear still strikes my heart when I think of taking my SPD's on the trail. I'll probably carry my platforms with me on the first few trail rides so that I can change out in the middle of the ride if I think it will keep me safer.

I'm also seriously considering getting a remote control seat post. The post would allow me to lower the seat a bit & ride unclipped over or around some obstacles. It would also be awesome to be able to lower the seat when starting out on both downhills & uphills. The remote control would allow me to quickly raise my seat to the best riding height for uphills once I got going. The posts are pretty expensive though...like $300.