OK, I know this is an MTB forum, I am first and foremost an MTBer and I am prepared for the “well, if you will ride a road bike…/you won’t meet a bus on a trail” type comments and I am tempted to never set wheel on tarmac ever again, but I think I don’t wanna wuss out quite yet.

Last week, in Majorca, on a very nice hired road bike I came face to face with 2 coaches whilst en route to the top of the start of the descent of Sa Calobra (big winding steep hill for those of you unfamiliar). Said buses were heading downhill towards me while I was pedalling uphill towards a narrowing bit of road complete with no safety barrier to protect me from a large drop. Fearing I may be squeezed off the road and down the drop I decided to stop to let them past. They didn’t slow down, I (according to Mr Nich) “panicked”, couldn’t get my foot unclipped and as I was going fairly slowly up hill I realised I was going to keel over. Which is what I did, into the side of a moving bus, before plonking down into the road in front of the 2nd bus, which thankfully stopped 😯 Luckily I didn’t get squashed or break anything and only suffered some nice bruising and scuffing (and the bike was OK). I did refuse to go any further while there was the possibility of meeting any more large vehicles and spent 2 hours waiting for Mr Nich to complete the return trip while sitting in the sun wondering how much a taxi back to the hotel would cost 🙁

To say that this was a completely horrendous experience, the realisation that I was headed for the wheel of a moving coach and was helpless to do anything about it, is an understatement. I haven’t really been the same since, I’ve been feeling anxious, tearful, not wanting to be on my own, lacking in confidence and have had some flashbacks, even though I’ve been trying not to think about it, to block it out.

Has anyone else had an unpleasant accident and felt traumatised by it? What did you do to get your confidence back? I’ve been a cyclist for a long time and this is my first incident like this. I don’t want to give up cycling but at the moment I’m essentially sh*t scared of bumping into another vehicle or falling off. I s’pose I just need to get back out there, probably on my MTB first (it’s cr*p weather for the road anyway) and I’m sorely tempted to bin the SPDs.

Hopefully, given time, it will become quite a good story as it was my first failure-to-unclip occurrence (there’s always a positive somewhere isn’t there?)

Hoping someone has some ideas, or a large roll of cotton-wool/foam padding going spare,
Nich

Think the first tip to overcoming a big scare is to just get out and confront what it was that scared you, in order that it doesn’t become a mental block at a later date.

Certainly don’t ditch the road bike or the SPDs, but perhaps get used to one before the other, if I was to give two pieces of advice about SPDs they would be A) They are great. and B) Don’t try new things on the bike until you are totally used to SPDs, in this case don’t try to avoid large vehicles on foreign roads above large cliffs! 8)

Sounds like the hire bike might not have been set up quite right, which is why you couldn’t get your foot out in time. Unlucky.

Definitely get back on the bike, any bike, stick to the MTB if that helps you get your confidence back. Loosen the SPDs right off for a bit perhaps. Don’t let a freak accident put you off.

I’ve literally cleaned a stripe of dirt from the side of a stagecoach as it passed me on the dual carriageway in Fife. Wasn’t much I could do but think thin thoughts.

Regarding unclipping and road bikes and being traumatised, I ended up in front of one of those open topped tourist buses at the lights for going up the mound in Edinburgh, rolling around on the ground when my right foot refused to unclip. Japanese tourists peering over, wondering what the strange man was doing….. I was wearing original time shoes and pedals and the cleat plate had broken inside my shoe – allowing the cleat free rotation. Eventually clocked that I could take my shoe off. Traumatised by the humiliation more than anything else.

Sounds like you had a bad one-off. Don’t force yourself back in, take your time, accept that you have been freaked out and you’ll get over it with a bit of time. Do some easy stuff on quiet roads. Were the pedals tighter than you were used to on the hire bike?

I meant to say if you are suffering from a really big scare, I agree that you do need to confront it soon, just do it gently, and incrementally or you might make it worse.

Sounds horrible… I don’t believe anyone would come away from an incident like that without some level of trauma so I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself.
When I broke my shoulder a few years ago I started feeling like I never wanted to ride again, which was a ridiculous idea but the whole incident really shocked me as I was still recovering from another broken shoulder…
I got over it by taking it easy, only riding when I wanted and coaching myself it was a normal, natural reaction to a scary incident…
You;re bound to be fine in time but you may need to coach yourself carefully – being aware of the negative thoughts and overriding them with positive thoughts instead
Good luck…

I know it sounds daft but try to blame other factors when you think about it. Eg I wasn’t used to that side of the road, the pedals were too tight. You then eliminate those from your normal ride and soon have few, if any reasons to worry. Its not easy but , for example ride off road to start with, back off your own SPds, if fitted.

If you’re happy with SPDs other than the unclipping, try some Speedplay Frog pedals, they literally have no release springs to fight against(plus massive float,cartridge/needle roller bearings, and grease ports). Probably the easiest pedal to unclip from, but still holds you securely.

I’d say get out an ride soon, even if it’s off road, but you will need to go out into traffic at some point or you’ll never ride again.

Pick a quiet road that you know well and ride your own bike – limit the ‘unknowns’ as much as possible.

Does sound like a bad experience – I’m not surprised it’s shaken you up.

I broke my hip on a fairly innocuous jump 10 years ago this month. It’s only recently that I’ve got both wheels off the ground at the same time ‘on purpose’ and I regret not facing up to it sooner.

Don’t put too high an expectation on yourself, either though – pick a gentle pootle close to hime for your first ride, not a 100 mile sportive…

Post-accident trauma is very common – and Kudos to you for acknowledging it as it’s not a thing most blokes admit.

Good friend of mine was standing on a bus in Germany when it made an emergency stop – he was slung forward into the windscreen and smashed his head against it hard. No blood,, stitches etc but probably like you, he thought it was ‘lights out time’.

The symptoms you describe – anxiety, need for social contact, tearfulness, lack of confidence – lasted for months in his case.

Some very good advice on here already…

1. Get on a bike and go for a ride. I’d advise going with 1-2 others as that will tick your boxes for social contact plus you’ll likely feel better with others.

2. Mentally you should blame other factors – unfamiliar road, stupid f*cking bus drivers, SPDs too tight to unclip – “That combination of circumstances will never happen again” is what you’re aiming to tell yourself. And I can assure you – it won’t.

3. Go get some counselling if it persists – I’ve done it and it’s very worthwhile.

Similar experience here. I had not long started from the front of the queue at the level crossing (arrived first didn’t push up to the front) and passing a building site. Joe-car driver wasn’t going to wait and pushed past squeezing me into the kerb and the two large cones. I rode over the base of one and fell off at the second still clipped in. The 44 tonne artic stopped before squishing me.
On the same journey I then had an oncoming overtaker brush my right hand sleeve. An exciting journey, all made better by hot tea.

Most people fall off three times before their brain learns to unclip automatically. Was that your first time? Let the other two happen on grass on an MTB in a park.

Don’t bother with counselling; have a drink and chat with friends about it. You’ll wake up next day with a mental strategy in place.

And check that your cleats are screwed on properly. The only time this happened to me I had just been walking for a bit with a mechanical (to the nearest bike shop) and jumped straight back on.

The walk had loosened my cleats and I couldn’t get out of the pedals !!

Full sympathy !!

nich3000 – I recently very similar situation to you (but with less serious implications)

Same place – Majorca, climbing up the road to start Sa Calobra, tried to stop, failed to unclip, fell over sideways. Fortunately for me the context was somewhat different – I was coming to a halt to re-group with the other riders I was with, and fortunately fell sideways onto a road which at that point had no traffic coming down it. But I think the causes might be similar to you – riding in a strange country, distracted by thinking about riding Sa Calobra (I’d only seen pictures as was somewhat concerned about the hairpin bends / steepness etc), and anxious about riding with a new group of people most of whom were far better than me.

End result, I was distracted, and temporarily lost my ability to unclip. I suspect it was the same for you – focused on the buses and the drop. For me, I just ended up feeling embarressed about falling over sideways in front of everyone, but for you it’s obviously been more scary. But the ‘actual’ physical impact on both of us has been the same – a few bruises etc.

It’s easy to focus on ‘what could have happened’ (I do it far too often), but it’s important to think about what ‘actually’ happened (the buses stopped, you weren’t injured).

In terms of dealing with it, all the above advice is good. Maybe suggest that you take your road bike on a traffic free cycle path and practice riding up and down clipping in and out over and over again. Lots of actual positive reinforcement of how you can do this quickly and easily, in a non-stressful situation.

Yes, had failure-to-unclip scares. Put me right off them. To the extent I decided long ago to ingore what anyone else thinks I should do and just do what I want to do – so I use flats when riding for enjoyment (which is the vast majority of the time) and only put SPDs on when I will be doing the ride against the clock. And yes, that’s even when on the road bike.

Probably about 15 years ago a sponsored cycle ride from liverpool to Blackpool, we had a nice Police escort for probably 200 cyclists out of liverpool, to past Bootle, where the nice police officers left us, up tioll then we sailed through every set of red lights.

The next set was red, and one chap had just fitted Look pedals the day before, he stope suddnely forgot to unclip, and brought about 20 of us down.

We shared some choice words with him.

Get back on the bike. As much as you can. Your emotions are dictated by experience. In this instance the experience evoked some pretty powerful emotions, and rightly so. So it might take a little while to balance that out with less, erm, ‘exciting’ rides out. But it will re-balance itself – slowly, but surely.

Your brain needs to re-learn that it’s not as dangerous as you currently perceive it to be. And that again is done through experience…

I had a crash in an MTB race and my crank bros clips failed to un clip, broke my tib fib and was on crutches for 5 months.
I don’t think I will ever go back to clips even though I had used them with no trouble for over 10 years prior to the accident.

I now use Five ten’s and flat pedals and have no trouble even on rocky downhills etc.

Take some time out from the bike and your ” need for speed” on a Bike will soon come back

Learn to track stand – then you don’t have to unclip. Or at least it gives you better balance and control of the bike at very slow speeds, which gives you more time to unclip if you have to, and will help you relax and not panic as much.

But yeah, thinking ahead as much as possible, and just getting used to it through practice and you’ll be fine.

nasty situation strange bike – treat it as the one off that it was – come up against something similar and you will be better prepared to react earlier

had a nasty accident many years ago – car pulled out side junction straight at me – saw it coming and lifted leg – impact threw me across a dual carriageway and broke the BB axle where car had hit it – i walked away bleeding but didn’t ride for a few months afterwards then i realised that the experience i already had meant i reacted fast to move my leg out of the way of the impact and that after the accident i’d recognise the potential for this type of accident easily enough in the future

oh and a fall clipped in isn’t a bad fall unless the banana gets squashed

Wife on her new carbon road bike going over cattle grid had a wobble, couldn’t unclip, wheel down gap, heap of plastic and sweary woman combo, as you can imagine I was sympathetic …

In early days crossing deep ford on mtb with feet strapped in hit rock, over I went, thought I would drown, had to crawl to bank bike still attached.

trackstands ftw! yoga is great for core body strength and trackstanding

kind of similar moved from shimano to crank bros pedals

stopped at traffic lights tried to unclip, failed
fell into the path of oncoming bin lorry, thank **** it stopped as the wheel was in line with my head

didnt really affect me tbh

however kid on a microscooter stepped out on my while i was cycling home went down and broke my heal and ankle- 9 weeks off work was keen to get back on the bike, but cycling home everytime i went past iceland (where it happened) i found myself getting all clammy and nervous – i still think about it pretty much every day on my comute a year later but it doesnt stress me out now

overall i think i pay more attention to my surroundings and im a safer cyclist because of it

Maybe use flats until the confidence returns. Then any time in the future you are hiring or borrowing a bike get your own pedals put on it?

I think getting on a hire bike with the SPD release tension set high if you were used to low release tension could cause anyone to have a failure to unclip.

Eggbeaters – never any problems getting in or out of them.

Multi release cleats are your answer, with the spring tension on your pedals loose as can be. No chance of getting stuck in…

First things first that would of shook anybody up sounded very scary. Being a fireman i see a lot of people in life that are unlucky or just in the wrong place etc etc so appreciate that things can happen that are out of our control. You were just unlucky things happy in life both good and bad you just have to accept that they happen. I crashed 2 kilometers up mt Badabag in turkey on my own and was lieing in a drain channel knowing nobody would find me but to scared to move as id hurt my head and back. I was the same as you for a while i kept thinking of what could of happened…but it didnt, i was found and rescued and still love my biking. Try to just accept it happened and take life as it comes, sometimes good sometimes bad