Which foot do you unclip? or which should you unclip?

[Miss]

My mum has this trouble and ends up on the path lol few bruises later :/

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

- I can't understand why anyone would normally want to clip out RH foot first, given that we (usually) ride on the left. The Bikeability teaching looks to be correct. Does anyone clip in the LH foot first? Why?

I usually clip in LH first, mostly because I'm left footed. I'm not sure I agree with the Bikeability approach, though. Unclipping to lean away from the traffic takes you more into the gutter and out of the line of motorists' sight. And, one of the advantages of being a right footed unclipper is that come the ''oops'' moment, you'll fall away from the traffic, and if you fall onto the pavement it's less far to fall (and less risk of damage to the dérailleur/hanger. Actually, that might be 3 advantages...

 

[xpc316e]

I usually clip in LH first, mostly because I'm left footed. I'm not sure I agree with the Bikeability approach, though. Unclipping to lean away from the traffic takes you more into the gutter and out of the line of motorists' sight. And, one of the advantages of being a right footed unclipper is that come the ''oops'' moment, you'll fall away from the traffic, and if you fall onto the pavement it's less far to fall (and less risk of damage to the dérailleur/hanger. Actually, that might be 3 advantages...

When we teach children to put their left foot down first, it is because they then will tend to fall to the left and onto the pavement out of harm's way. If your left leg is dangling out to the left, then your centre of gravity is off to the left and you will naturally tend to fall to the left. I fail to see how unclipping with the right foot will make you fall towards the footpath.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

When we teach children to put their left foot down first, it is because they then will tend to fall to the left and onto the pavement out of harm's way. If your left leg is dangling out to the left, then your centre of gravity is off to the left and you will naturally tend to fall to the left. I fail to see how unclipping with the right foot will make you fall towards the footpath.

I think it's because your unclipped foot is ready to land on but it's dealing with the kind of unexpected events that that can happen riding slowly, say at lights, that can throw your balance over to the still-clipped in foot. Every time I've had a clipless moment I've fallen pavement-wards.

 

[youngoldbloke]

When we teach children to put their left foot down first, it is because they then will tend to fall to the left and onto the pavement out of harm's way. If your left leg is dangling out to the left, then your centre of gravity is off to the left and you will naturally tend to fall to the left. I fail to see how unclipping with the right foot will make you fall towards the footpath.

There is a big difference between simply putting your foot down and unclipping before putting your foot down. I think the argument is that any 'clipless moment' is initiated by the foot left clipped in - if your R foot is clipped in when you are coming to a halt, if you lose balance you will fall to the right, and vice versa. However, I still think it is a bad idea to unclip the R foot first, just in case a 'clipless moment' might occur.
edit - I think DFM and I are making the same point, however I don't agree with his earlier conclusions re clipping in L foot first. The Bikeability teaching still sounds correct to me.

 

[Radchenister]

I've been consulting an old book to get this thing sorted; still struggling to get my head round it, some of the positions are easier than others, after a few hours of experiments and a fair amount of bruising, I've concluded number 4 is by far the best method:

 

[flissh]

No 5 looks good, If I could master that I could do away with the turbo!

 

[youngoldbloke]

No 5 looks good, If I could master that I could do away with the turbo!

Should be easy enough - but shouldn't you be facing backwards to be pedalling forwards, as it were?

 

[jonbrackenridge]

I always unclip right foot if stopping but I do "track stand" as long as possible first, usually long enough for an average set of traffic lights :-)I hate having to set of at lights if I've unclip led as I usually miss the first few attempts and look a tool lmao

 

[minimba]

me too. still can't ride no hands either, but am almost there, however I think for me tis slightly harder being slightly paralysed down my left side and not getting feed back from my lower left leg any more since it was redesigned by a dog & a major nerve severed behind the knee.
It is possibly one of those things I should have mastered as a child!

Hi - just noticed the bikes you have - did you take your rock hopper touring!?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Hi - just noticed the bikes you have - did you take your rock hopper touring!?

not on the world tour. we had custom bikes made for that, but we did our first tour on mtb's (2 weeks, 1,100km in Denmark) and that did include a rockhopper and a scott scale 40 both fitted with racks. the rockhopper takes a rack without an issue and we are currently doing day rides/commuting on the rockhoppers as well with racks. http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=8S&page_id=178124&v=15 2nd photo on the link shows them.

 

[eevvee]

unclip left first, clip in right first

+1 - just seemed to be the natural way....for me anyway

 

[kedab]

clip in left first, only unclip right...it's just the way my brain tells me to do it.

 

[spooks]

Starting off I always clip in right first. At traffic lights/turns I just unclip whichever foot leans me away from the rest of the traffic, so usually my left. Generally not fussed but then I've only just started doing it so haven't got any habits yet.

 

[ushills]

Always right as that's the way the track slopes!