1st Annual BT "Who's crashed while 'clipped in' poll"

To paraphrase another saying, there are those that have, and those that will.  I have come close (yup, just when I thought I had it "wired", and seen others do it, but not yet

OH YEAH, i'm in the club.    Fell over at a busy intersection and had 3 men on bikes come over to make sure I was ok.....the following week, fell over in front of about 8 people in my tri club.....and beyond that, I basically fell about every week for a few months.  I'm hoping I'm done falling now. 

Not YET!

Sometimes I feel like I should just crash on purpose into a nice soft patch of grass to get it over with, but I guess I`ll just wait for "my time".

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Hell yes, usually at traffic lights while trying to second guess them. The only dignified repost is to get up and take a bow.

I voted "are you kidding..." Because I fall ALL the time. It isn;t a good ride if I haven't fallen
My partner loves my gnarly knees, she says I remind her of the girl I once was... whatever that means.

Just once when I swtiched from an SPD system to a Time system.  I let my buddy put the cleats on my bike and he didn't tighten them enough.  So, when I went to twist and release, the cleat twisted on my shoe and didn't release.  Luckily, only about 4 people saw.  No mishaps since then because I am sure to tighten my cleats at least once a week!

My fall was an award winner.

I had just finished a long ride and was heading home down a very bust street, The light turns red and I start to coast hoping that it Will change but no luck.

So I un clip the right side but I was traveling so slow that the inertia started me going the other way and I did a slow motion fall into traffic.

well, I bounce back up check my bike and look back to see who watched the performance there is a long line of cars and the car closest to me has a younger guy driving it with a bike rack on the back of his car.

I thought he was going to burst trying not to laugh.

Roy

"More times than I care to remember" was my choice. My first pair of clipless pedals were on my MTB, so I wrecked a lot off-road at first. Nothing like using your big chainring as a crampon to go over a log and getting stuck...

I had 2 incidents with my road bike because the bolts holding the cleat loosened up so when I turned my foot, the cleat didn't twist out with my shoe... A little bit of blue threadlocker took care of that.

-Frank

Once for me so far. I was taking a little break and just coasting really slow along the side of the street...standing to rest my back a little.  My front tire must have hit a small rock or something because  the next thing I knew I was on my way down with no hope of getting a foot on the ground.  There I was, laying on the road with both feet still firmly attached to the damn bike...it's actually difficult to unclip when you aren't upright on the bike.

Not yet.  But I've only ridden with them once .  Approached intersections carefully and unclipped a couple times when necessary.  However, one time was crossing a relatively busy street which was uphill from where I was coming.  So there was no way for me to get up enough rolling momentum to clip in(to my clipless pedals ) without risking taking my first spill in the middle of the intesection.  So I inched my way across the steet trying to push with 1 leg (bike shoes are slippery on the ground, huh?) and looking left & right hoping a car wasn't going to come whizzing around a bend before I got across.  Felt a little silly, but no spill.  I know I'll join the club soon enough though.

Yep, first time yesterday (see thread Wipe out with clipless).

The dangerous part is being to comfortable with them. At that point, you don't even remember you're using clipless, UNTIL THAT CAR STAYS LONGER THAN EXPECTED AT THE STOP SIGN!

1) My first was when I unclipped from the right pedal and then unconsciously shifted my weight over to the left and fell on my left side. It was something like 5:00am so there were only 2 cars around to see me.

2) At the Los Angeles bike tour on the closed streets the morning of the marathon. There are 15,000 cyclists packed into the streets for this event that starts at 5:45 in the morning. People on all sorts of bikes, and a lot of people that aren't used to riding at all, let alone in groups. After successfully clipping in and out of my pedals to be able to stop at a moments notice as unsure cyclists switching directions and/or stopping with no warning. After about 15 miles, I was more at ease, the crowd had thinned out, and the sun was coming up. I decided to pull over when there wasn't anyone coming up close behind to put on my sunglasses, and fell over. The cyclists coming up from beind started yelling "Cyclist Down! Cyclist Down!" as I was quickly hopping back up to my feet mumbling "I forgot I was clipped in."

3) I clipped out to stop at a stop sign, and accidentally clipped back in before I completely stopped.

I chose the "Once... due to an equipment malfunction" option.. but it was actually FOUR times.

My first ride with SPD's was a commute to work. I didn't have the cleat tightened down enough, and ... just like others here ... I couldn't twist my foot far enough to get it to unclip. Unfortunately, the loose cleat was on the side I naturally lean to (left), and by the time I remembered there was a problem, I'd already leaned... and there's no stopping at that point. YOU"RE GOING DOWN!

After four falls in traffic at stop lights (and in front of the building at the end of the ride... despite having a pillar to lean on), I borrowed an allen wrench from our technician and tightened them down GOOD.

No problems in about a year since...

Of course, now I'll probably do it twice on the way home today!

Yup. But in cages. I'm such a dope. I got done with a long, tough ride and then, in my driveway, I toppled over in slow motion while desperately trying to get my left foot out. The irony is that my right foot was already out. I had enormous bruises on my hip that looked like a big hand print for a week.

One time a pebble got jammed between my cleat and my pedal, and then I couldn't unclip. Then when I fell, the cleat got ripped apart! It was a Look cleat made out of a plastic-type material.

Lesson learned: replace Look cleats before they get worn down!

I fell off my MTB in the middle of peak hour traffic about 6 months ago, no reason, just seem to wanted to throw myself down and get some road rash. I had no clips or cages so if thats not being a knuclehead I don`t know what is.

Edited by Tizzy 2005-04-06 1:20 PM

I think I've posted this story before, but who remembers??

I was on a 500km tour of Tasmania with my then 2-yr-old in a baby seat behind me, and the bike was this heavy touring bike I'd borrowed for the trip. We'd just gotten to the top of a morning climb over what must be the biggest mountain in Tassie and I decided to climb just that little bit further up a dirt road to see the view from the summit. I turned left into the road, ran into some invisible gravel and went down before I could get unclipped. The whole weight of bike and kid came down on me, and I was more worried about him not hitting the ground than about protecting myself. You parents will know how that is!

So there I am, lying there pinned and bleeding, and everyone rushes up to get Jr out of his seat, comfort him, feed him jellybeans, and he doesn't have a scratch on him! My husband finally rolled up and helped me extract myself. Mommies get no sympathy.

I fell the first time that I tried my clipless pedals way back in 1998.  I also used to fall over when my "rat traps" were cinched up and that is even worse than the clipless.  Once you have fallen over with clipless you can simply pop your feet out and stand up.  Not so with cinched "rat traps", you have to reach down and undo the belts and when you are on your back that is very difficult.

Yes, My story is similar -

Got my new bike with clipless SPD about 6 weeks ago now. Never rode with any kind of toe clip, or clipless before.

The LBS was very emphatic about always unclipping RIGHT so that you lean AWAY from traffic. SO about 4 days after I got the bike I come zooming up my steeply sloped driveway after a nice morning ride and unclipped RIGHT. Except the driveway was loping away LEFT. Physics reminds me, you can't fall UP hill. So I went down like a pole-axed ox. Fortunately, nobody else was insane enough to be awake.

Next time was much more dangerous. Slowed to let some cars pass, just slowed down too much and tipped over. Fortunately, AWAY from the cars. Landed hard on my tailbone, it still hurts two weeks later.

Made me so nervous, I couldn't get off the bike gracefully at my first tri last week. I dumped the bike into the mud and jumped clear. Tried to pretend I meant to do that