pedals scraping floor when turning?

[Maz]

Daft question (but maybe not)...I sometimes 'feel' as though the pedal might scrape the floor when I'm turning sharply in that direction. Maybe in reality the pedal's a long way from the floor.

Would you have to be at a really tight angle for the pedal to scrape the floor?

 

[monnet]

Not a daft question. You probably would have to be at a tight angle for the pedal to scrape the floor. It's probably most likely to happengoing fast rounda tight corner (in a crit. for example). There could be other things affecting your 'feel'. You might have a low bottom bracket or long pedal cranks in relation to the bottom bracket height.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

Well, I hit my pedal on a right turn on Tuesday, but that's only because I already happened to be falling off at the time...

 

[Tynan]

can't see it, it's so close to the axis of the bike that you're really have to tip it over to get it that much closer to the road

 

[longers]

I've done it on a sharp right turn before. It was an awkward one, a 90degree turn, up hill, at the bottom of a small hill.

I also came close to doing it a couple of more times as it was at the bottom of my road and I took that corner nearly 700 times before I moved house. Keep your outside foot down.

 

[HJ]

I did it once and it was damn scary...

 

[longers]

If it's a sharp enough corner that there's a chance your pedal may scrape, then you don't really want to be pedalling do you? And the road-down side pedal would be at the top of the circle, then you'd have no chance of scraping.

Unless you're on a fixie.

Or am I missing something?

You're not missing anything. I should, and did, have known better, and still do.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I guess you could put one pedal down, hold the bike from behind and lean it until the pedal touches the floor - that way you'd get a good idea of how far you'd have to be leaning to get it to hit.

I think you're very unlikely to get it to happen unless something else in involved like a curb or if you're cycling on an incline.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

I take it that you ride clipped pedals then? i.e. toe straps and clips, or just a platform pedal with nothing attaching your foot to the pedal. Otherwise I cannot see how you could possibly lean over so far as to catch a pedal, surely it would be a shoe, but even then, that's a pretty acute angle, unless as others have said your cranks at disproportionately long if you have a low BB, and there is an obstacle (kerb, bump/hole) on the road surface.

As a rule stop pedalling as you enter the corner, and have your inside (the bend) foot at the top of the crank (12 o'clock), then you cannot ground it, unless you have already fallen off!

 

[Plax]

I've managed to scrape my pedal on the road twice now, both when cycling fast around corners. I think it was a case of stopping pedalling when turning into the corner with the pedal /cranks closest to the floor.

 

[Maz]

I take it that you ride clipped pedals then?

Yes.

 

[mickle]

Its really easy to clip a pedal if you pedal through a corner. The faster you go and the tighter the corner the easier it is. The shape of the pedal, height of BB, length of crank, the crank Q factor and camber of the road are all relevant. Its why you put the outside pedal down and coast through a corner on a freewheel equipped bike. The technique for cornering fast on a fixed is to keep the bike as vertical as poss by leaning into the corner from the waist up as the pedal reaches its lowest point. Ive banged pedals the ground too many times to remember whilst riding fixed. It'll throw the bike in the air if youre going fast enough.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Scraping an inside pedal is remarkably easy to do, even if riding clipless - as the gouge on the cf sole of my left cycling shoes is testament too. I accelerated too soon and with a nasty scrape and jolt the outside of my foot touched down. Luckily only enough to scare me, not enough to throw me off.

 

[andygates]

Until you've cornered hard enough to scrape it, you don't know how far over you can go. Maz, turn tighter.

 

[rustychisel]

Yep, pedal strike! Usually throws the back wheel sideways with a skipping movement and you shoot yourself. Never crashed it, though.