Sympathy?!

[Archie_tect]

Took it to the LBS this morning and they sorted the gears, the rear mech was bent from my fall yesterday Have 't ridden it yet but I do totally trust they've done it right....

Well done BG... and welcome to Cyce Chat!

I've fallen clipped in 3 times but not recently.

The softest one was onto a springy grass verge where the long grass hid the slope- the car of teenaged girls behind had the glorious view of me slowly rolling over sideways still clipped in until I came to rest upside down, laughing like a lunatic. They all got out to make sure I was OK which was kind of them- they may have stopped giggling by now- there are nice ones!

 

[deadpool7]

Ah, the joys of road bikes and clipless pedals. I was new to road biking so it took me quite some time to get comfortable with the bike alone. i added clipless pedals a few months later and that really took some getting used to. I've fallen while practicing in the yard, but not on the road...yet. i did have about 5 close calls where i leaned the wrong way and almost took a tumble. I've only recently felt like i just "get it" with my bike and setup and feel comfortable and natural on it. Im no longer worried which scares me because this probably means I'll be more likely to take a spill

Just hang in there. like anything new, it takes time and practice.

 

[cyberknight]

The reason it keeps coming of the rings is that it's not been set up properly. If you had it set up by the people at Halfords then I am not surprised. Take the bike to your LBS and get them to give it the once over and running properly.

And just to be different my road comp worked perfectly straight from the shop , i even rode it home when i bought it after sticking spd`s on.My gears never needed any major tweaking apart from a few turns on the rear mech to take up cable stretch, the rest of the changes i have done have been for fun rather than necessity.
Sounds like the front mech was either set up with the H/L stops not set up right or the front mech was not close enough to the chainrings which i have had before .

 

[katymac]

You definitely have my sympathy. I've had a couple of clipless moments, both with witnesses. The worst involved me riding into the back of a Mercedes which I thought was pulling away but turned out not to be.....Since then I've discovered that if you don't occasionally spray them (the springy bit at the front) with WD-40 or GT85 they can seize up completely. I've also been shown how to adjust them using a multi-tool and would feel confident doing that myself in future. If you can set yours to the right degree of resistance for you, I'm sure you would feel more confident on the bike. Good luck.

 

[Gary E]

Not sure if anyone's already mentioned it, as the threads getting a bit long now but as well as being able to adjust the tension to make it easier to get out of the clips did you know that Shimano make 2 different types of cleat for use with their SPD pedals?
One of them is call multi-release. It's slightly shamfered and in an emergency, if you pull hard enough, it comes out in any direction (not just by twisting your ankle out).
The normal ones are SH-51 and the Multi-release are SH-56. Take a look HERE.

 

[asterix]

Wouldn't they 'let go' on steep climbs?

 

[Archie_tect]

Thanks Mort.

 

[Gary E]

Surprisingly no. Possibly if you're a monster hill climber but to be honest they've not popped out on me (what does that tell you about my climbing? Lol)
They've worked really well for me and have saved me on 3 occasions now where a last minute panic attack would have had me on the ground.
Like most things, they may not work for everyone but I put them on thinking I'd change to the normal ones when I got the hang of it but now don't see any point in swapping.
In my experience clippless moments don't happen through bad technique, they happen because I plain forget about them and by then It's too late to do anything about. These allow for my natural instinct to panic and pull harder to work

 

[Gary E]

Deleted - duplicate post, sorry.