A good reason to not use clip-in (clipless) pedals [Video warning: Nasty arm break]

[arallsopp]

Clipless has considerable advantages if you're travelling flat on your back with your legs stretched out in front (as do I). I find riding on flats to be extremely tiring, somewhat more dangerous, and a fair amount more embarrassing. Witness the 'damn, wrong shoes' style exit from lights, when what should have been a powerful first push on the pedals sends a leg skywards in a crisp seig heil.

Even on an upright, the sheer apprehension about riding clipless seems to make me safer. That gap which to a beginner on flats looks so enticingly harmless spikes canyon running apprehension into the newbie on SPDs. By the time I'd learnt confidence in unclipping, I'd also learnt where the real risks were.

 

[Citius]

Bin the start ramps = end of problem.

 

[Davidc]

Ironically, that is exactly the technique that track riders use to slow down (and they're always clipped in)

Same goes for any fixed bike, nothing ironic about it, it's how you slow down without a back brake or with no brakes and any system for keeping the foot in its intended position will help, as it does in normal riding. Clipless and clips will do that, I'm sure someone will invent something else new (and more expensive) one day!

 

[JMAG]

The rider is poorly pushed off; he then wobbles rather than pushing down hard to get moving, then falls badly.

They aren't being pushed off, they are simply being supported until GO. The problem here might be language - I wonder if any of the riders who fell were natives? As far as I can tell, it's a count down from 5 and they might have been expecting a count down from 10?

 

[Citius]

They will be counted down with plenty of time. Only the last 5 seconds is counted with the hand signal, so no experienced rider would have been caught off guard by that.

 

[Milkfloat]

This looks and sounds like the Netherlands - we all know they are not used to hills, so the start ramp must have confused them Before anyone shouts at me - yes I know about the Cauberg.

 

[Simontm]

I've been using them every ride for over a decade, without even a sniff of an incident. How much proof do you need?

Really? Every ride? You have a start ramp every ride? I call shenanigans

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Bin the start ramps = end of problem.

Just watching live coverage of the women's elite TT at the British championships and they aren't using a ramp.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

When you crash it is safer to stay clipped into the pedal than to pull your foot out. The rider in the clip broke his arm because he put it out to save himself, had he kept hold of the bars he wouldn't have. An extended limb is far more likely to break than one which is not.

As for clipless, I've been using them since they first appeared (Thirty years or so ago) and never had an issue.

 

[Milkfloat]

View attachment 93374
Just watching live coverage of the women's elite TT at the British championships and they aren't using a ramp.

I now have to admit that I clicked about 3 times on that screen grab to get it to play. Oh the shame.

 

[nickyboy]

All this pedalling circles, pulling upwards stuff is nonsense. You only pull upwards if you're doing some humungous effort up a short hill....so about 0.01% of time on the bike

The benefit of clipping into the pedals is it guarantees your feet are in the best place on the pedals and they remain there

 

[Milkfloat]

The benefit of clipping into the pedals is it guarantees your feet are in the best place on the pedals and they remain there

Good for cheating at bunny hops too

 

[JMAG]

Good for cheating at bunny hops too

True, we can't all be Danny MacAskill can we?

 

[Cuchilo]

Maybe the pusher offer thought they had to push people off the bikes not the ramp ?
Looking at the horrible vid again , The pusher offer didn't actual push off . She just let go . Ive only done a few club TT's but always get a shove at the start . If I was expecting a shove and didnt get one then I can see why this happened .

 

[Mr Celine]

Those studies show that power is mainly produced on the downstroke - and that pulling-up and the 'scraping' - and even the 'pedalling in circles' thing - are largely ineffective in terms of power production.

How much power on the downstroke do you develp when your foot has been bounced off the pedal by the typical British road surface?