never used SPDs before but hopefully going to try them out at dalby, any tips or will I just die and have to accept that.

Death is inevitable, but maybe not form your first ride in SPDs.

Keep them nice and loose, you’ll be fine.

*EDIT to correct grammar.

Don’t have them too tight, the classic falling over slowly when stationary and struggling to unclip will happen anyway, just make sure it is in a soft play area.
Then monitor your knees for any discomfort over a longer term.

Ride around the car park, stopping lots and disengaging. I do more injury when stopping on purpose then when being stopped.

First time I tried SPDs: coming up to traffic lights, I thought I’d have a go at that thing I’d seen roadies do, where they stop and stay clipped in, holding onto a railing.

Stopped, reached for the railing, and just brushed it with my fingertips before toppling sideways onto a car bonnet.

Looked around to see two police officers in the car laughing at me 😉

Champion seems top tip is nice and loose, I fall alot on flats so I can accept it, just fancied been a bit more connected on pedals going down hill as in this muddy wet weather I feel i slip on flats so cant go as fast.

Make first ride an easy one. I road around to Richmond Park and then a few laps and was fine. I never stopped thinking about being clipped in so didn’t forget I was. Once saw someone with a note stuck to their bars – ‘You are clipped in’!

Thought my first time road spd pedals were nice and loose too.Unfortunately it was the cleats in my shoes that had worked themselves lose.Only spotted when I stopped for a breather and one fell off my shoe!

Managed to survive my first day (yesterday) of using them so you should be OK.

Have to say, I really like them… The feeling of being connected and not shuffling my feet subconsciously on the pedals has made my riding feel loads better…

I fell in a load of nettles. Thankfully they weren’ty stingy enough to kill me.

Seems like I’ll survive, the black bits at Dalby Forest may be a sharp learning curve though. anybody find that they helped going up hill

@bencooper thank you oh so much for making me have a good laugh at your expense. Classic 😆

OP, if you can beg/borrow some knee pads would be my advice as knees tend to take the brunt of it when you fail/forget to unclip.

🙄

Cheers Mark Ive got some Knee pads will put them on if I dont fall at least my knees will be warm

First time I tried SPDs: coming up to traffic lights, I thought I’d have a go at that thing I’d seen roadies do, where they stop and stay clipped in, holding onto a railing…..

I came to traffic lights at the head of traffic, forgot I was clipped in, wobbled then grabbed a convenient lamppost and slid gracelessly to the ground, arms wrapped around it.

It’s a rite of passage, everyone it does it once.

I think perhaps the a black run isn’t the best place for your first SPD run.

I’d go for elbow pads rather than knees and you’re first times usually about falling sideways and skicking out an arm to stop you falling.

eyerideit, Im very much from the school of landing with my face first. Black run might not be the cleveriest idea but if its there I might as well give it a whirl, dalbys black isnt that tough anyway.

Sure it’s been said above – comedy falls are a rite of passage when you first venture out with SPD’s.
First time out i’d spent 15 mins riding around the back of the house, clipping in and out. All was good. Until i rode up the alley at the back, heading for the hillside above. Managed to stall on the hairpin left, to get onto the road.
Cue look of horror as I totally forgot how to unclip. Slow fall to the left, thankfully onto a grass banking. Fall to the right would have ended up a tarmac / wall interface at a level below my tires…

Take some advice from Dara;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8kbQc6zCc&feature=youtu.be&t=7m7s

edit – seems embeddy link not like ‘&’

First time I tried SPDs: coming up to traffic lights, I thought I’d have a go at that thing I’d seen roadies do, where they stop and stay clipped in, holding onto a railing.

Pah, real roadies trackstand 🙂

I have only ridden SPDs on my mountain bike, but recently changed to trail version. Wow, this is taking time. Even on loosest setting and new cleats, it is a very precise sideways movement to release quickly. My normal SPDs released with any kind of movement, it seemed. But riding lots of bombholes with new, trail version was not a fun experience. Couldn’t get out regularly and lots of muddy crashes after failing to carry enough speed thru the bombholes.

Why teach yourself a bad habit?

I remember my very first ride with SPD’s

It was on the street out side my house. I clipped and unclipped a few times then went for a quick blast.

Wow I thought you can really feel the difference, you can pedal all the way round and power through the shifts, this is great!!

Got back to my front door forgot I was clipped in and fell off!

I had a few comedy spills in the weeks ahead, but now its second nature to unclip

Yep, comedy fall here too. Bottom of Berkley Square at about 7pm on a thursday night very close to a busy bar. Went for pro balance on roadie bike at traffic lights, toppled over and then because my leg was under the bike i struggled to unclip. Flailed around on the floor a bit before finally releasing myself. People in the pub got a good laugh and i couldn’t help but laugh at myself.

Bet you don’t fall off on the black itself, it’ll be at the bottom when you come to a stop with a glowing sense of satisfaction because you just nailed it clipped it. 😀

I recently switched to SPDs. It didn’t take much getting used to even though my riding’s quite incompetent to begin with! The problem when I did do a few comedy falls to start with was that it’s much harder to unclip when lying on the floor.

The one thing I still find tricky is stalling on a steep climb and having to get a foot down quickly.

Glad its not just me – loads of falling off while stationery at first. Worst time was when I was accompanying a group of kids from the local primary school on the annual 2 day mtb ride – they were all lined up nicely waiting for the signal to pull off, I rode up to the front of the group, came to a nice calm stop, and me and the bike, welded to each other, just fell over sideways to the ground. It took some madskillz riding to regain their respect.

And +1 to nice and loose. I have mine set-up now so I can get either foot out almost as easily as lifting off flats, with a fair bit of sideways float.

I remember my first SPD Pratt Fall like it was 21.5 years ago.
Sideways.
Tyne Riverside Country Park.
DX SPD’s.
Caratti Alpinestars lookalikes.
Embarrassing.

I’ve always held there is a direct correlation between taking a comedy fall when coming to a planned stop and the number of observers in the area—-and it increases if any of them are of the opposite sex that you are hoping to impress.

So did you die?