clipless pedals and hiting the deck

dave friend

well as part of my constant desire to improve my cycling, yesterday i fitted clipless pedals and spent about 30min practising cliping in and out on my trainer - which seemed easy enough. but when we needed milk in our house i thought it would be a good idea to try out the pedals by nipping to shop about 100 yrds up the road - it wasnt!! before making it 5 yards id hit the deck, all the time of fitting the pedals i was worrying about being unable to unclip as id heard so many stories when it was cliping in that seemed so hard.
clipping in for the return journey was easier (downhill). now because of this i've put off (for the meantime) riding with the uni club for winter as i feel iv got to learn how to ride my bike again
obviously it will get easier with time but i was wondering whether its always alot harder clipping in when starting on a hill? and how long was 'with time' for you clipless lot
cheers
dave

(sorry if im putting anyone clipless cycling)

feel

If you clip one foot before you start i wouldn't worry too much about clipping the other foot in immediately - just do it as and when you have sufficient speed/momentum. If you get your foot above the pedal in the right place it tends to naturally clip in as you press on the downstroke. I. am sure this will eventually come very easy for you.

It is still anticipating unclipping that i would worry about.

newburb_1968

I would agree with Feel.
Clip in with one foot first and pull away, once reaching a comfortable pace and it is safe then clip the other foot in.
I too have only just changed to clipless pedels and was quite worried about the same scenario. (Clipping and unclipping).
My thought pattern is that it is like driving a car.

Clipping In:
> drive off with one foot clipped in, is like 1st gear. (You can quite easly peddle wth one foot for around 10-15yds).
> Clip other foot in when it is safe, clear and enough not to rev your engine out. Go to 2nd gear.

When Unclipping.
> You always apply the brakes at safe distance, therefore you slow down and think about unclipping much earlier. (You don't hit your brakes at the last knockings).
> You find at traffic lights, junctions, etc. you try not too stop but going slow/safe enough to approach to enable acceleration, once it is safe to do so.
> If you have to stop your already unclipped, exactly like a car within a safe distance. (It becomes second nature).
> When in heavy slow traffic just be aware and unclip one foot. (I bit like covering your break/clutch)

After a few rides (and I mean a few rides) this will become the norm and you will reap the benefits of these pedles. I would recommend you stick with them you also become a better and safer rider also.
Regards
Barry

peanut

also it goes without saying make sure you are in a suitably low gear before pulling away up any sot of incline.

Before I leave my house I always check everything on the bike then lift the saddle spin the cranks and change into my lowest sprocket. With practice you can clip in the second foot almost immediatly but it won't hurt to cycle 10-20 yds before clipping in the other

Cajun

I too make sure that I'm not in too high of a gear starting off...making sure that the front gear is the 40t, and the rear cog is at least a 19t or 21t...plus I always unclip one foot about 10 yards before my stop... don't be discouraged, we've all experienced the "Flop 'n Stop Dismount'. FWIW: I got away from SPD pedals and went to the Speedplay X2 system..my big mistake with the SPDs, was using 2-sided pedals....whenever I had problems with clipping in/out, there always was the problem of correcting one side and disturbing the other side....not to mention the unwanted unclipping moments, usually when I wanted to stand & mash...

alfablue

I will echo much of what has been said, don't worry (or try too hard) clipping the second foot in - IF your cleats are properly aligned it will go in anyway after a few pedal strokes, as the cleat will be naturally above the pedal. I would say though that double sided are better, then the pedal is the right way up however it falls, one less variable to worry about. Make sure the tension is set to minimum until you become confidenyt, this will allow speedy clipping in and out with minimum effort.

dennisn

One really good thing to remember is not to twist your heel inward(toward the bike)
when unclipping. This can cause your heel to get caught in the spokes. Could ruin your
whole day.

Dennis Noward

Felix-da-house-mouse

15yrds with one foot in??? you can cycle for 100's of mtrs if not a some miles with the one foot. climp in 1 then get the bike moving then let the 2nd join it and off u go. worst thing to do is panic. and its harder on up hill especially if its 20% up hill hmmm there has been a few sware words there having to stop for whateva reason

alfablue

Felix-da-house-mouse wrote:

15yrds with one foot in??? you can cycle for 100's of mtrs if not a some miles with the one foot. climp in 1 then get the bike moving then let the 2nd join it and off u go. worst thing to do is panic. and its harder on up hill especially if its 20% up hill hmmm there has been a few sware words there having to stop for whateva reason

I actually go to the shops in street shoes using my spd pedals so don't clip in at all for such trips - no problem at all.

redddraggon

dennisn wrote:

One really good thing to remember is not to twist your heel inward(toward the bike)
when unclipping. This can cause your heel to get caught in the spokes. Could ruin your
whole day.

Dennis Noward

Hmm, when I put why feet together they naturally formed quite a wide V shape, so to use SPDs comfortably I have to twist out my feet as far they go to get them to not hit the cranks. Therefore I can only twist my feet inwards and I've not had a problem.

dave friend

cheers for the help, i look forward to seeing/feeling the advantages rather thanj nursing the disadvantages and trying to hide the embarasment!

cheers
dave

TomF

15yrds with one foot in??? you can cycle for 100's of mtrs if not a some miles with the one foot.

Agreed. I passed a guy in this year's Etape. He had on leg only, and was climbing the mountains perfectly well. Chapeau! is what everyone said to him.

Oh, as for clipping in and out - within a few days you'll be used to it and wondering how you ever rode a bike without them.

dennisn

redddraggon wrote:

dennisn wrote:

One really good thing to remember is not to twist your heel inward(toward the bike)
when unclipping. This can cause your heel to get caught in the spokes. Could ruin your
whole day.

Dennis Noward

Hmm, when I put why feet together they naturally formed quite a wide V shape, so to use SPDs comfortably I have to twist out my feet as far they go to get them to not hit the cranks. Therefore I can only twist my feet inwards and I've not had a problem.

Glad it works for you. I only twisted my heel inward once and that was enough for me.
Hit the spokes and damn near locked up the rear wheel. Not to mention peeling a bit of
flesh off my ankle.

Dennis Noward

MB Robster

redddraggon wrote:

Hmm, when I put why feet together they naturally formed quite a wide V shape, so to use SPDs comfortably I have to twist out my feet as far they go to get them to not hit the cranks. Therefore I can only twist my feet inwards and I've not had a problem.

I've got some Time Atac's that I've moved from my MTB to my road bike for the moment and they're much better than the SPDs for people who get sore knees or have their feet at a wider angle as they allow more "float", i.e. the maximum angle that you can have your toes pointing away from dead-ahead before you pop out the cleats. They work for me and I'd definitely recommend pair.

Anonymous

Hiting? Am I hitiing now? Let me knoe wen Im hiting? I'm tring to hit.

peanut

Felix-da-house-mouse wrote:

15yrds with one foot in??? you can cycle for 100's of mtrs if not a some miles with the one foot. climp in 1 then get the bike moving then let the 2nd join it and off u go. worst thing to do is panic. and its harder on up hill especially if its 20% up hill hmmm there has been a few sware words there having to stop for whateva reason

not sure that I would agree with this advice for a novice though Felix. Experienced riders maybe but why would anyone want to cycle 100's yds unclipped ? ?
If you press hard on the pedal to get some speed up and your shoe suddenly skates off the pedal; you will definitly wobble badly and possibly come off the bike if you are not careful. I would definitely not recommend that in traffic . :shock:

I have to say that if I was starting off on a hill I would make it easy on myself and start off facing downhill, cip in and then turn uphill unless road conditions didn't allow it due to road width or heavy traffic.but thats my preference.

RufusA

One thing to be wary of is accidentally clipping in again.

I've unclipped prior to a junction, and rested my foot on the pedal for a moment without thinking only for the @*!% thing to clip in again just as I'm coming to a hault.

Not a single clipless "moment" to date, but one or two where I've had to unclip in haste!

Rufus.

Pretre

I definitely had a few "issues" using clipless at first - it's VERY easy to forget how to unclip when you're in fast-moving situation (junctions, etc.) & then down you go (which hurts & is REALLY embarrassing & potentially very dangerous), so my advice would be to not use the pedals anywhere there's traffic until you've had a bit of practice - try the local park, so at least if/when you fall it will be onto grass & not tarmac!
The other issue is that if you're using road, rather than MTB, shoes they have no grip so if you miss the clip (which you will, at first) then the shoe slips off the pedal & you smack your shin on the pedal, which hurts a lot, & you come to a complete halt - another great fun thing to do at busy junctions! MTB shoes have grips, so you're feet may at least stay on the pedal if you miss the clip.

Steve I

I haven't read the whole thread, so at the risk of repeating what someone else said; Have you set the pedal tension up very light to start with? I say this because I recently had a go on my brother's bike, he'd just fitted spd's, and I could barely get clipped in he had the tension that high. Unclipping was even harder. He was completely oblivious to this, thinking it was the norm, and he couldn't understand why he kept falling due to not being able to unclip in time.

Rich Hcp

I set my Shimano 105 s as loose as they could go at the start.

Now I'm more used to them I have tightened them up a few clicks.

You do get used to them

rwintle

My biggest lesson was learning which foot to unclip first when stopping. I'm right footed so I THOUGHT that it would be best to unclip my right foot.

Sadly, this turned out not to be the case. You tend to start off with your leading foot, so this is the one that I keep clipped in. And, because of this, when I stop my brain has programmed itself to put the left foot on the ground - so that my right foot is ready to go again.

Once I got this I was fine. Had to think about it for about a week but doesn't take long to get used to.

THEN I went proper mountain biking for the first time - borrowed a friends Stump Jumper and swapped my pedals onto it. Had a hilarious 3-man pile up in the forest and as I picked myself up I thought "Hang on, how did I unclip?". Seems sometimes this just happens without the brain doing anything!

I also use "caged" pedals because I have bigish feet and it gives me a bigger area to push on, but this has the added benefit that a trip to the shops in normal shoes is easier than with uncaged pedals.

Hope this helps.

R