Fear, fear, fear, plain old fear to clip and unclip. Advice please!

[indigoiis]

Maye,

Forget about clipping out with the other foot completely. The other foot will always be clipped in until you are off the bike. So whether you do right or left is up to you (I recommend left, then you can use your dominant foot - the right - to be your standing-on-pedal balance and kick off leg). While you practice this, do NOT think of clipping or unclipping at all. Think of the motion

Slow,

Stand (on right)

Step out (on left.)

Practice with a flat pedal until you get the hang of slowing, standing, stepping.

Slow, Stand, Step out.

Repeat.

Once you graduate from flat pedal to clipless, you can clip back in after you sit back down on your saddle. That motion will be

Push off / Pedal, standing on downstroke.

Sit, resting unclipped foot on pedal.

Pedal one or three revolutions with the one foot still unclipped, to get you going...

Clip in.

p.s. I learned this method here. I'm not sure who taught it to me... Oak?

[missjean]

no matter how you end up riding, at least you ride!:d

+1 :-)

[Maye]

Ladies,
Today I practiced what Indigoiis suggested (THANKS!!) but both pedals with platforms after a while of practicing I decided to go for a short ride of 6 miles. Wow, OMG, I felt FREE!! The joy of riding a road bike for just pure fun and fitness was BACK!! That doesn't mean that I will give clip-less pedals up, oh no, but now I'm taking this easy and one step(pedal) at a time :-) I have to admit that the fluidness of using clip-less pedals wasn't there but for now is ok to do this in many different ways.

[indigoiis]

Yay! Small victories, big happiness.

[Maye]

Update:
I have been doing well with the double sided platforms pedals, of course But one thing for sure I have been doing is always keeping the left foot as it was clipped when stopping the bike and even doing the motion of unclipping them and also moving the handle bar to the right, in order to build muscle memory. And also doing this (recommended by Indigoiis above):


Stand (on right)

Step out (on left.)

Practice with a flat pedal until you get the hang of slowing, standing, stepping.

Slow, Stand, Step out.

Repeat.


Why? With this, I feel like I'm getting to know my road bike (Ramona) better until we are comfortable with each other :-)

[TigerMom]

I just want to thank everyone at Team Estrogen, especially the great advice of "Indigoiis" and "Crankin". I am a Newbie too. I have not ridden any bikes in 20+++ years and have now fallen in love with road biking. I am so clumsy, that I hurt myself in the trainer twice during my bike fitting.

Obviously, I have fallen 5 times in my clipless pedals, including next to a patch of grass (where I managed somehow to fall AWAY from the lawn and on to the concrete instead).

I have been practicing clipping and unclipping both sides of my feet, while leaning my bike towards the unclipped side, at least 50 times on both the clipless pedals and on platform pedals to try and build muscle memory.

So, thanks to Team Estrogen, I can easily unclip during controlled stops.

Now, my only worry is about sudden, unexpected stops for obstacles in the road or a stray dog running at me....I'm probably going to hurt myself badly on the clipless pedals. Sigh.


________________________________________________________________
2012 Specialized Amiral Elite, upgraded carbon handle bars, Jett saddle 143mm

2011 Specialized Ariel Sport,suspension post,Serfas Rx Women's Microfiber saddle

[L-Bell]

I just wanted to post a quick thank you, as I'm new (to the site and to road cycling) and have been having MAJOR clip/road bike anxiety this week. Just bought my 1st road bike, 1st clip-in shoes, and went for my 1st 20 mi ride over the weekend with friends. I had one fall, luckily onto grass (did the old "un-clip the left foot, immediately forget the right foot is still clipped in, lean to right anyway..." thing), and got a bit bruised but was otherwise fine, except for the sheer terror that came every subsequent time we stopped.

I got back on the next day for a 17 mi training ride for an upcoming charity event, this time with strangers who weren't the warm/supportive type I'd been with the previous day... it was cold, in the 40s, kind of dark, windy, started raining... The road was very rough in parts, and I found myself feeling absolutely terrified of falling, hitting a pot hole, forgetting to clip out properly and falling again... after both rides I felt so frazzled from stress, and so tense from my death-grip on the bike, that I had to sit in the car and try to decompress for a while before I felt safe to drive home.

Reading this and other threads has been such a relief, I've actually teared up a little. I'm a bit stubborn, and can be afraid of trying a new sport, so I guess to try to overcome that I decided there was no reason I shouldn't be able to hop on a new bike, learn the clips in one ride, and be just fine! I've been spinning all winter and feel great endurance-wise, but the emotional stress has really gotten to me. I wish I'd found the forums sooner. Reading about road bike anxiety, clipping issues, etc. has let me see I'm not alone and I need to relax and be easier on myself.

I'll keep practicing clipping in/out, but if it's a continuing source of anxiety, I'll accept that it won't be the end of the world to use regular pedals for a while. I'll focus on riding with people I know where I feel safer before I do my 2nd (mandatory) training ride with more strangers. PHEW. Deeeeep breaths. I can't wait to read more and see how the journey goes. Thanks again for all of the wonderful posts - I know I can't be the only new girl out there Googling "FEAR OF ROAD BIKE / FEAR OF CLIPPING IN / CYCLING ANXIETY" and ending up finding help at this site!

[Maye]

L-Bell,
Welcome to Team Estrogen Forums!! I'm Maye, the original poster who created this thread. I totally understand your dilemma since I was so afraid of the platform to clip-less conversion that I almost gave up road biking completely. I hated the feeling of my heart pounding and fear of riding the bike, it was frustrating. In this forum I found a great support system/group that told me that I don't have to use the clip-less pedals until I'm ready and gave the me the advice and techniques that were right for me and that I was looking for. Which I'm very THANKFUL!! In my opinion, road biking is very overwhelming (for me) at the beginning. A lot of things to learn. For example: bike handling, traffic laws, security and safety, how to change a flat, how to shift plus clip-less pedals, phew!! For me that was WAY too much. So after a lot of money spent on pedals (3 pair of Shimano's, one pair of SpeedPlay lights and one of the CrankBrothers one that I returned...sigh...have to sell some, I know) I decided to take it easy and that's when I found these pedals (see picture below). These are the Shimano's PD M-324 clip less/clip pedals. They are mountain bike pedals, I know :-) In my opinion these are the best pedals for somebody learning to clip/unclip. I used the platform side for around 100 miles to get to know the bike and to learn other important things about road bikes. For the last 20 miles I have been using the clip-less side (yay!) and I feel that this are perfect for me and my level of experience at this moment. I unclip when I know that I'm going to encounter people, cars, intersections, strollers, stop signs or other situations that I know I will feel nervous. I'm using mountain bike shoes with recessed cleats which makes easy to use the platform side as well. So no slippery cleats in the shoes when over the platforms or walking , which used to add another level of uneasiness to this whole ordeal. I'm probably an 80% confident with these pedals and I will keep practicing and riding until I feel that I can make the change to a more sophisticated clip-less system. But at my own pace and ONLY when I'm ready. In the meantime, I will keep riding

[L-Bell]

Just a belated thanks for the info, Maye - those look like a great convertible option. I did some practice on my own, in my neighborhood and on a nice newly paved parking lot, and am feeling MUCH better about the clips.

[Catrin]

Just a belated thanks for the info, Maye - those look like a great convertible option. I did some practice on my own, in my neighborhood and on a nice newly paved parking lot, and am feeling MUCH better about the clips.

Glad you are feeling better about the clips Bell! It has to become part of your muscle memory and that does take practice.

Regarding the convertible SPD pedals. My experience could be unusual, but I rode these for a few months last year and have quite mixed feelings about that. The clip side were fine, and were indeed the only SPD pedals I've not had problems getting in/out of.

The platform side however...I strongly disliked. They are metal, of course, and I found that my feet just wouldn't stay on the bear claw design - and that was with regular shoes. If I tried to go back and forth between sides on the same ride with my bike shoes with clips it was even worse as there was nothing there for the harder soles of my bike shoes to get a good purchase on. I moved from these pedals back to a good quality BMX pedal and my feet stay on those.

Eventually I put Speedplay Frogs on the bike I use for road riding and they are perfect for me. My knees love them (far better than SPD), and have never had a problem getting in/out of them outside of one time that I did something very stupid - but that was rider error

I still ride BMX pedals for mountain biking.

[prinessbeca]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this thread. I too am learning clipless, and I've fallen (tipped over) more than a few times in the past couple weeks. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to loosen the spring thingies tomorrow morning, and go out there and practice practice practice my unclipping with the advise here. <3

[Maye]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this thread. I too am learning clipless, and I've fallen (tipped over) more than a few times in the past couple weeks. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to loosen the spring thingies tomorrow morning, and go out there and practice practice practice my unclipping with the advise here. <3

Hi Becca and welcome to TE!
I'm getting better by the mile!! And yes, here you are going to find GREAT and valuable information. The forum members here, ROCK!

[Maye]

The platform side however...I strongly disliked. They are metal, of course, and I found that my feet just wouldn't stay on the bear claw design - and that was with regular shoes. If I tried to go back and forth between sides on the same ride with my bike shoes with clips it was even worse as there was nothing there for the harder soles of my bike shoes to get a good purchase on. I moved from these pedals back to a good quality BMX pedal and my feet stay on those.

Hi Catrin! Thanks for always sharing your experiences with us in this thread. I had a little bit of problems with the platform side when I used regular tennis shoes. Once I changed to the Mavic Scorpio MTB shoes, I had more grip on the platform. As you, I'm planning to change pedals once I have more experience with my road bike.

[Maye]

Just a belated thanks for the info, Maye - those look like a great convertible option. I did some practice on my own, in my neighborhood and on a nice newly paved parking lot, and am feeling MUCH better about the clips.

Glad you are feeling better now. Let us know how it goes since I'm learning from everybody's experience here

[Catrin]

Hi Catrin! Thanks for always sharing your experiences with us in this thread. I had a little bit of problems with the platform side when I used regular tennis shoes. Once I changed to the Mavic Scorpio MTB shoes, I had more grip on the platform. As you, I'm planning to change pedals once I have more experience with my road bike.

I just learned how to ride a bike 2 years ago for my 50th birthday and learned most things the hard way If my experiences can possibly help someone then I am happy to share them - even the more embarrassing incidents. I will be kind and won't share my initial failed attempt to start clipping in