First unclipping fall

Chris_marshall

Just got in from a ride, whilst on the ride I fell off the bike for the first time, I was being lazy waiting to get onto a roundabout and didn't unclip while waiting for traffic then all of a sudden I lost my balance and fell on the pavement infront of a few cars. I jumped straight back up and back on the bike hoping no one saw!

I knew it would happen one day and everyone said it would but it doesn't half make you feel stupid!

The is a small scratch on the bike but other than that the bike and I are fine!

goonz

Doh!

What pedals are you using? I am sure most pedals allow you to adjust the tension to make it easier or harder to unclip, perhaps you should loosen that spring?

Ka12

I had a few falls from stopping without unclipping, fractured my elbow on one ride but got back up and carried on.

As a driver I sit at lights watching cyclists and a few times have seen them showing off doing a track stand then hit the ground!

Chris_marshall

They're Look Keo and are super easy to unclip, I just panicked when I realised I'd lost my balance!

Gave everyone a good laugh apart from the old woman in the car behind who was worried I'd hurt myself.

Mikey23

Rite of passage...

pride4ever

Chris_marshall wrote:

Just got in from a ride, whilst on the ride I fell off the bike for the first time, I was being lazy waiting to get onto a roundabout and didn't unclip while waiting for traffic then all of a sudden I lost my balance and fell on the pavement infront of a few cars. I jumped straight back up and back on the bike hoping no one saw!

I knew it would happen one day and everyone said it would but it doesn't half make you feel stupid!

The is a small scratch on the bike but other than that the bike and I are fine!

Road beginners section that-away.

denniskwok

At least you're no longer a virgin in this regard. I did it three times when I first stated out.

rstabler11

Did it the other day when I pulled into a drive because a BMW was following me down a single track road. Just slowed to let him pass, but for some reason he decided to drive by at about 2mph, so I ran out of room on the driveway. Then for some unknown reason instead of unclipping I backed myself to do a trackstrand, and right as the car got to me I hit the deck. The BMW promptly sped off.

Hollow-legs

Heeh ha ! Its the rite of passage ,Try not to panic,thats when you end up falling!!! TIMBER!!!!!

denniskwok

Just wait till you're tackling a narrow super steep climb, realise you've bitten off more than you can chew, need to clip out at a snails pace with you're legs about to fall off, you're lungs about to spew out of your throat and then realise a car is coming downhill towards you.

That's fun.

zardoz

I have only done this once before months ago when I first went clipless but I chose to do this for the second time on Sunday as I pulled into a feed station on a sportive in front of all the other riders.....to make matters worse I couldn't unclip once I was on the ground and had to be helped up. I put it down to tiredness and loss of concentration (it was near the end and I was pretty tired) felt a right numpty though :-)

NITR8s

denniskwok wrote:

Just wait till you're tackling a narrow super steep climb, realise you've bitten off more than you can chew, need to clip out at a snails pace with you're legs about to fall off, you're lungs about to spew out of your throat and then realise a car is coming downhill towards you.

That's fun.

Or as it happened to me on Sunday, your pushing it up a steep hill for the strava segment. 200 meters to go and you change down a gear, but the chain gets stuck mid change you cant pedel anymore and lose the little momentum you have. No time to unclip, all thats left is a sholder and hip out to protect bike (must protect bike at all costs). While your on the floor another guy from the cycling club takes the opportunity to cycle past asking if your ok(but they dont really care, as he is now beating me up the segment and is now first.) Bestpart about all of this, I still manged to scrap 10th Place overall on the segment.

farrina

denniskwok wrote:

Just wait till you're tackling a narrow super steep climb, realise you've bitten off more than you can chew, need to clip out at a snails pace with you're legs about to fall off, you're lungs about to spew out of your throat and then realise a car is coming downhill towards you.

That's fun.

You forgot to mention... and the front wheel is lifting off the ground as you lock your elbows at right angles to lean over the bars to try keep it down only to feel the bike's rear wheel start to slip .....

zardoz

You can always use this as an excuse:

Neale1978

Ha, Least you are ok. Iam still expecting this to happen one day. Iam not bothered about myself too much though.. I dont want to damage the bike more than anything so i'll try and roll right over onto my back if it happens and probably keep on pedalling for a minute just to make it look like its supposed to be happening :roll:

lakesluddite

Neale1978 wrote:

Ha, Least you are ok. Iam still expecting this to happen one day. Iam not bothered about myself too much though.. I dont want to damage the bike more than anything so i'll try and roll right over onto my back if it happens and probably keep on pedalling for a minute just to make it look like its supposed to be happening :roll:

I'm picturing a dying fly with a bike strapped to it's legs!

Chris_marshall

LakesLuddite wrote:

Neale1978 wrote:

Ha, Least you are ok. Iam still expecting this to happen one day. Iam not bothered about myself too much though.. I dont want to damage the bike more than anything so i'll try and roll right over onto my back if it happens and probably keep on pedalling for a minute just to make it look like its supposed to be happening :roll:

I'm picturing a dying fly with a bike strapped to it's legs!

First thought was for the bike and apart from a small scratch on the frame it's fine!

Everyone said it would happen and it hadn't for the first two months so I thought it wouldn't. To make matters worse it wasn't the best of rides either.

Neale1978

I'm picturing a dying fly with a bike strapped to it's legs!

Thanks for that :roll: 8)

First thought was for the bike and apart from a small scratch on the frame it's fine!

Everyone said it would happen and it hadn't for the first two months so I thought it wouldn't. To make matters worse it wasn't the best of rides either

You will be fine.. Next good ride out will sort that

lotus49

Chris_marshall wrote:

[First thought was for the bike and apart from a small scratch on the frame it's fine!

Everyone said it would happen and it hadn't for the first two months so I thought it wouldn't. To make matters worse it wasn't the best of rides either.

Me too.

I have been cycling again since last Autumn and I had avoided the clipless fall until a few days ago. So many people said that it happens to everyone but I was really hoping that I'd be the exception.

I was riding along behind my 11 year old son up to some fairly widely spaced bollards before we joined the cycle path when he suddenly decided that the bollards weren't widely spaced enough. He suddenly stopped and so did I. I then toppled over very slowly giving me enough time to lift the bike in the air and completely avoid doing any damage. No-one saw me except my two children (who are used to seeing me do stupid things) and one little old lady.

I'd had visions of doing this in front of hundreds of teenage schoolchildren at chucking out time at the local grammar school. I highly doubt that they would be too polite to rib me mercilessly. I know I would have done in their position. It's not too late though...I'd better be careful.

ricky1980

i have an unprecedented amount of falls lately, fell down twice yesterday on lights...i unclipped then it clipped back in while i was coasting at the last minute just before i had to stop. and had a number of hill starts that mis-clip and nearly caused me face planting. I have been thinking of putting stabilisers on my bike

Camus

And on this day you became a man.

mpatts

Polo players shout "Getting off" mid fall. I like this approach.