Clipping out of pedals?

tonysj

Hi All.
I've been riding now for 10 months and around 1500miles on my road bike and after reading posts on clip in pedals, which I have, it occurs to me that I probably don't unclip like the majority of bikers or use the right method.
I only use my left foot to unclip and for some weird reason i cannot kick my heel outwards away from the bike to unclip!!!!!
I always have to kick my heel inwards towards the bike and wheel.
Is there anyone else who has this issue or am I just a freak of the cycling world lol.
T.

imposter2.0

As long as you unclip, that's all that matters. Bit concerned that you only unclip your left foot though. How do you walk around with the bike still attached to your right foot?

the_cyclist_of_catan

With Speeplay pedals on my bike, I kick the heel out. But when I had SPDs on my hybrid, I almost always in lipped by moving my heel in, towards the stays. Whatever works best, and whatever you can get used to doing unconsciously.

sniper68

I recently had the same problem with some Look compatible Exustar cleats.They were the Red ones with 9degree float.I swapped them for Grey with 4.5degrees float and I can now twist my heel outwards to unclip.
It's only ever happened with the Exustar cleats(I think) as I'm sure I was OK with the genuine Look Reds.

tonysj

ibbo68 wrote:

I recently had the same problem with some Look compatible Exustar cleats.They were the Red ones with 9degree float.I swapped them for Grey with 4.5degrees float and I can now twist my heel outwards to unclip.
It's only ever happened with the Exustar cleats(I think) as I'm sure I was OK with the genuine Look Reds.

I use the Grey's with 4.5 degrees but just cannot get into the outward movement. The only reason I can think off is that I'm anticipating a stop so put my right foot downwards with both still attached and must lift off the saddle moving slightly over to the right and it's this position which I unclip from.
I will ask my riding buddy to see if this is what I'm doing even though I'm unaware that I'm doing it..
Must say that I have been using them for less than a year but changed my MTB pedals to SPD ones about 6 months before using the road bike so that may be part of the issue.
T

fudgey

TonySJ wrote:

Hi All.
I've been riding now for 10 months and around 1500miles on my road bike and after reading posts on clip in pedals, which I have, it occurs to me that I probably don't unclip like the majority of bikers or use the right method.
I only use my left foot to unclip and for some weird reason i cannot kick my heel outwards away from the bike to unclip!!!!!
I always have to kick my heel inwards towards the bike and wheel.
Is there anyone else who has this issue or am I just a freak of the cycling world lol.
T.

I mostly unclip with my left, hardly my right and i too often twist in towards as i have a dodgy hip on the left and cant rotate my foot/leg outwards easily.
HTH

singleton

I unclip my left foot mostly - just seems more natural to me.
I have got into the habit of lifting my heel, which makes my foot more vertical with my toes pointing downwards, then unclipping by pushing down and out. I find this much easier than trying to unclip with my foot horizontal.

Thigh_burn

I started off doing exactly the same. I still only unclip on the left, however have taught myself to unclip outwards.

It was pointed out to me that doing it inwards can be dangerous as your foot can touch your rear wheel as you unclip. The same person showed me I was also unclipping when the pedals were too high. Try unclipping when the pedals are at the bottom of the rotation.

ben@31

When you say you struggle to move your heel outwards. Is the cleat position correctly on the shoe? (Straight)
Ive experienced similar difficulty when the screws that hold the cleat on to the shoe had worked loose and the cleat rotated a bit to the side under the shoe.
One combination of MTB shoe and pedals that I had were very bad for loose cleats and occasionally the cleat would stay still and only the shoe would rotate. Making it almost impossible to unclip !

supermurph09

Do you have a turbo trainer to practice on? My thinking is that as you twist your heel out its sending your foot in the right direction to put on the ground, whereas turning the other way surely makes things awkward.

As I say, practice on the trainer if you can.

sniper68

Thigh_burn wrote:

It was pointed out to me that doing it inwards can be dangerous as your foot can touch your rear wheel as you unclip.

This is what brought my attention to it.I was on a Sportive with my son and as we approached a junction I unclipped and the inside of my left shoe hit the rear wheel just enough to jar the rear end.A rider behind said "are you aware you twisted your foot inwards"?I wasn't until that point and was sure I always twisted outwards.It was only by consciously trying to twist out for the rest of the ride I realised I couldn't :roll:
I now have a thick black rubber mark on my white shoe :roll:
It's much easier with the 4.5degree float cleats and I have absolutely no problems on the CX bike that's fitted with CB Eggbeaters.

mfin

Are you unclipping when the unclipping foot is at the top of the pedal stroke and your weight is on the non-clipping-out pedal that is at the bottom? If not, do it this way (and with heel going out, heel going in is daft, so unlearn it).