struggling clipping in and ouit

spondonchris

hi, dont know if anyone can help, because I am at the point of binning some nice shiny crank bros acid pedals and scott mtb spd shoes I have just bought and tried.

Have been riding flats for approx 2 years, and decided to try spds and clipping in as everyone says it is a big improvement. Have been over winter hill today (rivington) and had 3 offs, all as a result of struggling with being clipped in. All 3 ended up on the floor clipped in!

I really struggled all day to get clipped in to tghe carnak bros acid pedals and never once managed to get out before falling

two questions 1) has anyone had problems with these particular pedals 2) should I give up and go back to flats?

BullFreerider

Go back to flats.

dave_hill

Can you adjust the spring tension of the mechanism on Crank Bros pedals? If so, slack them right off and only start tightening them once you get used to the action of clipping in and out.

I'm fairly sure this is where Shimano score over CB. For a start, there's less float (side-to-side movement) when you're clipped into Shimano pedals, so you don't need to make as big a movement of the foot to unclip.

Also, Shimano make two different cleats, single-release and multi-release. The single release cleats will only release by twisting your foot to one side, whereas the multi-release cleats will release if you give them a good yank in any direction.

Don't give up, keep practicing. Put your shoes on and sit on the bike. Prop yourself up on a wall or the back of the sofa and clip yourself in. Now practice clipping in and clipping out until you get a feel for the correct action.

When you're riding, don't concentrate too much on the fact that you're clipped in and if you need to bail you're likely to fall off. Put it to the back of your mind but be aware that you MAY need to unclip in a hurry and be ready for it.

snig

have you gave them a good go on the flat first? and also do they have an adjuster for the strengh of the unclipping? if so put it no its lightest setting for now,I too got some spd but as yet have not give them a try (no money for the shoes) but am starting to think that maybe they are not for everyone and a good pair of flats and a pair of five ten shoes would be the better way to go for me.

craker

don't go back to flats

I had to take wife's bike to Cwmcrn today instead of my own (long story...) and platform pedals are just a nightmare. Get some air? You've lost the pedals. High speeds on bumpy stuff? I just wasn't confident my feet weren't going to slide off.

Anyway, can't help you with Crank Bros. stuff, am a Shimano man personally and the way to start is to slacken off the tension as much as you can so its easy to clip in and out. Prectice on flat stuff before heading off road.

Anonymous

mr_si wrote:

Get some air? You've lost the pedals. High speeds on bumpy stuff? I just wasn't confident my feet weren't going to slide off.

Sounds like you need to learn to ride off road :roll:
Nothing wrong with flats. Nothing at all.

rowlers

CB pedals take a few weeks of riding to bed in, they are (well mine were - both sets I've had) really stiff when new but gradually ease off and become easy to clip in and out of.
Persevere!

guilliano

I had the same problem with Time Roc Ataks when I first had them and went back to Shimano. I am now going to be forced to use the Times as I sold the 2 bikes I had before with SPDs included. Will just have to get used to them and let them bed in

ads4

I binned the CB pedals that came with my bike and fitted some Shimano Deore clipless ones, thay have adjustable clips which I loosened to their max and have no probs at all...any more

Major Dan

It DOES take quite some time to have the confidence to know you can unclip when it's necessary.

Unfortunately the CB's don't have the adjustability of Shimano's but it still shouldn't put you off.
Spend some time practising clipping in & out whilst stationary, leaning against something solid (wall, shed etc), then whilst out riding, unclip and clip back in whilst you're rolling along at a reasonable speed (but not too quickly) on the flat.

In no time at all you should start feeling much more confident with your pedals

Anonymous

Major Dan wrote:

It DOES take quite some time to have the confidence to know you can unclip when it's necessary.

See, that's where I disagree. I had two large stacks, where the bike was sent arse over tit, and I had abolustely no time to unclip, and tuck and roll. Instant faceplant :?
Most other kinds of crashes, you will tend to naturally twist anyway and become unclipped.
I just can't believe that in the time of a crash, anyone has enough time to consciously think of unclipping before rolling out of the way.

kangaroo

acid peddles with there little platform are going to be harder to clip out of than normal crank brothers eggbeaters, at least that's what I've been told by people who've tried them, from my own experience eggbeaters are far easier to clip out of than crank brother mallets.

after using mallets i was really uncomfortable being clipped in to my eggbeaters, but after a few weeks i got my confidence back, I'm still not quite as confident on slower technical stuff, but hopefully will get there eventually

mancjon

Yeehaamceege said -

"See, that's where I disagree. I had two large stacks, where the bike was sent ars* over tit, and I had abolustely no time to unclip, and tuck and roll. Instant faceplant "

Sounds like you need to learn to ride offroad

Anonymous

Fair cop

ratty2k

Pedals are pedals, ride what you feel most comfortable with. I ride flats, on both a fully rigid 29er and my Reign, never felt like my feet were coming off the pedals. As far as I can see, the only real advantage to SPD type pedals is the 'pull up' whether that be pedalling for extra power, or bad jumping/ air technique. Also depends on the terrain (for me at least) I can ride trail centres and gentle off road in in SPD's seeing as both are usually on smooth tracks. When it gets rough, I'd rather be in flats because it is easier to dab and bail if needed.
Both have their merits, but as said before in this thread, nothing wrong with flats.

nicklouse

spondonchris


lean against a wall and practice.

this does two things. gets you used to the action needed and also gets things bedded in and any edges on the cleats sorted.

dave_hill

ratty2k wrote:

Both have their merits, but as said before in this thread, nothing wrong with flats.

Quite right, I use both - but I only really use my flats for trail-centre black run action - the rest of the time it's SPDs.

There is no doubt it makes climbing more efficient - I'm not reknowned for my climbing prowess but I find that theres a noticable difference between being clipped in and not.

But then I've been riding clipped in almost exclusively since Shimano introduced SPDs so I find flats difficult to get along with sometimes.

meesterbond

Personally I've been using CB pedals for years on and off road and after a while they do become second nature... Only once or twice have I come off and failed to unclip (and they were very embarressing, very slow speed topples to one side when I was learning to use them!).

I don't think anyone has mentioned that whilst the pedals have very limited adjustibility, you can swap the cleats over to get greater or lesser rotation before unclipping.. I think it's 5 and 15 degrees. Check on the website or on the instructions with the pedals for the details (if memory serves, one cleat has two dots on it - if you put this on the right foot you get one setting, on the left the other)...

I don't think there's any great difference in the amount of force needed to unclip across the CB range - I've owned EBs, Candys, Mallets (2 sets) and Quatros and don't recall noticing any vast difference... perhaps Quatros might have been stiffer, but couldn't say for sure.

spondonchris

hello all, thankyou for the advice sofar. I'm still on the fence, mostly due to now being worried about having a big off when going fast. I have been riding with flats for a couple of years and not had any problems and feel comfortable going as fast as possible over as rough as possible. The spd idea was to increase power on the uphill and flat.
the 3 offs were all fairly slow speed uphill, coming to a sudden stop for instance, or trying to change from one rut to another going downhill, all three were embarrassing falls clipped in.
I think I will give thenm another go on the flat and see if I can get them to bed in??, but it will take some convincing for the rough trails I ride - and I dont want to be swapping pedals all the time.
from the replies it seems there is no easy answer - it's either percevere and take more falls or play safe and go back to flats :?:

snig

you say "or play safe and go with flats" I don't think that is what people were saying,using spds is one option and flats is another.

I would think that by using spd pedals then you give up trying that bit sooner and instead of using the time to get out of trouble use it to start to unclip.

alfablue

snig wrote:

I would think that by using spd pedals then you give up trying that bit sooner and instead of using the time to get out of trouble use it to start to unclip.

I find the opposite, being clipped in tends to make me gain more control and ride through where I might otherwise be tempted to dab a foot down. It improves my skill. The disincentive to unclipping is not difficulty with releasing (spd's on low tension release very easily), but with the prospect of getting started again and clipping in.

That said, CB's may be harder to get in and out of (no experience of them), and also, I got completely used to spd's on the road before taking them off road.

Anonymous

It's the really fast crashes that got me on SPuDs, the ones where you're pinning it on the edge of control one minute, then WHAM, you're part of the floor.

spondonchris

I have tried to adjust the cleats to see if Ican improve this through set up and during this realised that I cannot unclip at all when the crank is next to the front (side) of my shoe as the crank gets in the way of the rotation of the shoe, perhaps this is why I got stuck in ???

dave_hill

In that case I'd be tempted to swap the cleats over as recommended above. It sounds like you're having to rotate your foot too much in order to disengage because there's too much float.

You might also want to try moving the cleats further inboard - it sounds like your foot is too close to the crank, so moving the cleat inboard will move your feet out slightly.

jstanman

stick with it they get easier,i dont think i'd go back to flats now,just remember to carry some spare cleat bolts as i lost one a couple of weeks ago & could'nt get out ending doing 0mph comedy tumble a*se planting the mud with the bike on top & having to take the shoe off to get free :oops: still no harm done & got some laughs

jayson

yeehaamcgee wrote:

It's the really fast crashes that got me on SPuDs, the ones where you're pinning it on the edge of control one minute, then WHAM, you're part of the floor.

OUCH i know that one all to well :oops: :P

konanige

Hi there, you could try using the supplied cleat packer to give the sole of your shoe more room to manouvre for a while. Just dont give up it'll come, I've had loads of comedy slow speed crashes [ these tend to hurt the most ] and more than my fair share of high speed wrecks [i'm sure its the bikes fault not mine] but not once have I remained attached to said steed. However I did have one occasion when a river bank collapsed but managed to save my bike from a watery grave by hanging on to a tree root and not unclipping until my mate grabbed the bike, I know Five Tens are sticky but they ain't that sticky!!!! Stick with the CB's the knack will come and they are loads better than shimano when things get muddy. Good luck