Clipless...

I've tried them on a unicycle, briefly, for the
novelty value.

Wouldn't try them on a unicycle unless you're familiar with
them on a bike first though 🙂

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Klaas Bil said:

* So in the occasional wipeout, he just crashed and let
his protection do what it's meant for. *

Sounds like a workable plan. It's got to be a lot less
painful than going down in a bike race at 40 mph with 4
other riders wearing only lycra, gloves and a helmet.

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quote:

cyberbellum said:

MUNIYETI said:

* ...when I uni I have an ocassional gremlin that grabs
my wheel for the UPD even on good surfaces; the kind
where you barely have time to break your fall with
your hands ; *

I haven't had any of those yet, but I've only been
unicycling for a few months now.

Update - My old pedals let my feet slip off without
effort, so I always used to land on my feet. I just put a
pair of nice, spikey pedals on my 24" unicycle and had a
UPD as you describe.

I can still see the value of cleats, but only on steep
uphills where the RPMs are slow and you almost never have
weight on the back foot. Since this is only a segment of a
normal ride I'd like to switch my vote from a "yes but not
joona" to a "no unless you're either nuts, out to break a
hillclimb record, or both."

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I have clipless pedals on my MTB. I'm pretty comfortable
with getting in and out of them quickly, but so far I
haven't been able to convince myself to try them on my
unicycle. I will try them sometime, just not quite yet.

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cyberbellum said:

*quote:

Update - My old pedals let my feet slip off without
effort, so I always used to land on my feet. I just put a
pair of nice, spikey pedals on my 24" unicycle and had a
UPD as you describe.

I can still see the value of cleats, but only on steep
uphills where the RPMs are slow and you almost never have
weight on the back foot. Since this is only a segment of a
normal ride I'd like to switch my vote from a "yes but not
joona" to a "no unless you're either nuts, out to break a
hillclimb record, or both." *

I was hoping you would post "I tried the clipless and
they work great, you wimpy old MuniYeti".... because I've
been thinking of how I could use them to Uni since the
thread started (I really like the "locked in" feeling on
the bike)....

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MUNIYETI said:

*

I was hoping you would post "I tried the clipless and they
work great, you wimpy old MuniYeti".... because I've been
thinking of how I could use them to Uni since the thread
started (I really like the "locked in" feeling on the
bike).... *

I'll probably try them sometime, but the "locked in"
feeling I get with my new spiky pedals is pretty close to
cleats. With the pedal spikes I can't rotate my foot (easy
with cleats), but I can lift it straight up (impossible
with cleats).

I wonder if clipless cleats would lead to a loss of control
since it is virtually impossible to apply a torque to the
pedal (at least with eggbeaters)?

PS: I can barely freemount my 20" unicycle, so I'm not about
to call anyone here a wimp.

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cyberbellum said:

*I wonder if clipless cleats would lead to a loss of
control since it is virtually impossible to apply a torque
to the pedal (at least with eggbeaters)?*

I think it depends on the style of riding and experience.
Riding smoothly means slower, easier movements and therefore
less torque applied to the pedals. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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cyberbellum said:

*With the pedal spikes I can't rotate my foot (easy with
cleats), but I can lift it straight up (impossible with
cleats).

I wonder if clipless cleats would lead to a loss of
control since it is virtually impossible to apply a torque
to the pedal (at least with eggbeaters)? *

IMHO there isn't any torque of significance applied to the
_pedal_, but only to the _wheel_ through the natural pedal
distance-from-centerline and the use of leg angle-to-pedal.
I can only think that clipless would help with pedal
operation of all kinds.

I think that most of the time, when one unclips on a bicycle
in a bail-out move, the rider is coasting, not pedalling
(however short the coast interval is, it's usually there).
So unclipping during a unicycling "emergency" would probably
involve stopping the wheel before initiating the twisting
motion to unclip. This, in turn, would speed up the
emergency event.

Just theoretically, I think that clipless pedals are a
convenient way to attach oneself to the pedals, but that
their emergency exit feature is essentially useless on a
unicycle. When you go down, it's as a unit. This is not
necessarily a bad thing. Isn't snowboarding safer than
skiiing simply because one's legs become a unit?

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U-Turn said:

* I think that most of the time, when one unclips on a
bicycle in a bail-out move, the rider is coasting, not
pedalling ... Just theoretically, I think that clipless
pedals are a convenient way to attach oneself to the
pedals, but that their emergency exit feature is
essentially useless on a unicycle. When you go down,
it's as a unit. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Isn't snowboarding safer than skiiing simply because
one's legs become a unit? *

The pedals always rotate on a fixed gear, and everyone I
know who has one on the road uses clipless pedals. It's a
three step process to clip in - plant foot on pedal, then
wait until the proper part of the pedaling cycle and re-
locate foot (usually several rotations of the pedal), then
when aligned properly stomp in during the power and bottom
parts of the motion.

Uncliping is easy. Agressively twist ankle so that heel
kicks out sideways. I can do that at any RPM and at any part
of the cycle. I wasn't clear in my earlier post, but I think
in some ways it's easier to unclip from a clipless pedal
than to unplant from a spikey pedal. (Once you wire in the
reflex to kick the heel out sideways, that is... Nearly
every new cyclist experiences that "Wylie-E-Coyote moment"
of stopping at a stop light and forgetting to uncleat, and
then the brief moment of terror when they realize they have
forgotten how to uncleat.)

As for keeping your feet lashed together in a fall, that's
what the pro cyclists say. There have been a few high speed
crashes in mountain stages where the rider went cross-
country at 30+ mph on a 40 degree slope (without armor, and
sometimes without a helmet). Some of the survivors of these
kinds of crashes claim that having their feet lashed
together prevented more serious injuries.

In my experience my feet always came off the pedals in a
violent fall regardless of how I had them attached. The only
falls where my feet didn't come off were very slow speed
crashes (fixed gear single tracking in the snow at 4mph, for
example) where I just keeled over.

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Wow, great comments, cyber. Thanks!

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okay,

I used to have clipless standard eggbeaters on my first
MUni (the lotus... pics in the gallery, but without
eggbeaters) and what I found was that after clipping in,
and getting going, riding was easier, especially going up
small, steep uphills.

However, I NEVER managed to unclip the pedals while riding,
and even when holdling onto something it was a little
challenging. This is due to the fact that there is nothing
holding the uni in a forward plane (like a bike) so when you
rotate your foot to the side, the entire uni rotates along
with it (in my experience)

So, what I do now, as Zod can attest to, i ride pedals
with full or half toe clips. These take a little getting
used to, but it is definetley WAY easier to get out of
them, especially the half toe clips (which are clips
without straps)

So joona, try them if you like, but do it on a soft surface.

As far as the whole "it's better to have your legs locked
together when you fall" argument, #1 unicycles are not
capable of generating the same speeds as bikes. #2 when
dismounting a unicycle, because the momentum is forwards,
the dismount is usually forwards, thrusting you off the
saddle and landing usually (correct me if I'm wrong) on
your feet.

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cyberbellum said:

*Nearly every new cyclist experiences that "Wylie-E-Coyote
moment" of stopping at a stop light and forgetting to
uncleat, and then the brief moment of terror when they
realize they have forgotten how to uncleat. *

This is what I am really looking forward to. 😄

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hopeful said:

* However, I NEVER managed to unclip the pedals while
riding, and even when holdling onto something it was a
little challenging. This is due to the fact that there
is nothing holding the uni in a forward plane (like a
bike) so when you rotate your foot to the side, the
entire uni rotates along with it (in my experience) *

Agree about the slower speeds on a unicycle making the
"lashed together feet" bit irrelevant, and the "crash" mode
on a unicycle making the "lashed together feet" bit
undesirable.

Thanks for the info RE clipless on a unicycle. I guess the
only way to unclip is both feet simultaneously, so the
torques oppose, and probably with cranks horizontal. Much
trickier than on a bicycle.

RE: newbie bicyclists at stop lights - yeah, it's funny!
Unless it's your girlfriend who you've just talked into
trying the sport, or they are crashing on your new bike.

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Hmm, I managed to unclip one foot, step forward onto it and then do a
funny kinda dance trying to unclip the other 🙂

Shimano SPDs, if it makes a difference.

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However, I suppouse an upside is that you would NEVER
UPD AGAIN!!!

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hopeful said:

*However, I suppouse an upside is that you would NEVER UPD
AGAIN!!! *

Good point.

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clipless pedals and coker = Kamikaze uni

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I say you buy yourself some straps (and a good helmet)
and go try a backflip off the ground on a uni and film
the action.

(thats what I said to some guy)

i will do but not right now

(thats what he answered)

Looking foward to seeing that!😄

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Murde Mental said:

*I say you buy yourself some straps (and a good helmet)
and go try a backflip off the ground on a uni and film
the action.

(thats what I said to some guy)

i will do but not right now

(thats what he answered)

Looking foward to seeing that!😄 *

I won't. I'm crazy and sometimes do things I shouldn't but
I know that I would land on my head if I tried that. And
it's happened to me once without an uni. And I hurt my neck
a little bit. No need for doctors but it was sore for a
couple of days.

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Ha! Ha! Alright then....but if you ever do.....make sure you
have a camera on hand....😉

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