Clippless pedals failing

Tazza said:

Whas reading a letter in a UK bike mag, about some go going flat out in a
sprint, and his look pedals unclipped on one side, making him go ass over
[censored].

Is this a common thing with clippless pedals to unclip under heavy load ?
I am worried now.

Some cheap Look look-alikes can unclip under heavy load, I nearly went
A/T up a hill doing this, but it didn't happen on the side, it was a
straight up&down. In order to unclip you have to put a moderate lateral
force onto it; anyone who has been in them for a while might forget it,
but try unclipping with your non-dominant foot.

There shouldn't be significant lateral pressure if your cleats are
aligned properly, so just pushing hard shouldn't push them "out the
side". Was the person who wrote the letter an established cyclist or a
weekend warrior or, god forbid, a triathlete

T, a triathlete, who due to having none of the gear, likes to have at
least a smidge of an idea

Tazza said:

Whas reading a letter in a UK bike mag, about some go going flat out in a
sprint, and his look pedals unclipped on one side, making him go ass over
[censored].

Is this a common thing with clippless pedals to unclip under heavy load ?
I am worried now.

Some cheap Look look-alikes can unclip under heavy load, I nearly went
A/T up a hill doing this, but it didn't happen on the side, it was a
straight up&down. In order to unclip you have to put a moderate lateral
force onto it; anyone who has been in them for a while might forget it,
but try unclipping with your non-dominant foot.

There shouldn't be significant lateral pressure if your cleats are
aligned properly, so just pushing hard shouldn't push them "out the
side". Was the person who wrote the letter an established cyclist or a
weekend warrior or, god forbid, a triathlete

T, a triathlete, who due to having none of the gear, likes to have at
least a smidge of an idea

"Tazza" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Whas reading a letter in a UK bike mag, about some go going flat out in a
sprint, and his look pedals unclipped on one side, making him go ass over
[censored].

Is this a common thing with clippless pedals to unclip under heavy load ?
I am worried now.

YES, if you use Look pedals. I will only use them on my fluid trainer. I
refuse to race them because I think they are dangerous in a sprint. Apart
from the fact that they are heavy, bulky and have a [censored] cleat. My
experience is that I can pull them, new cleats and all whenever.

Kevin

"Tazza" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Whas reading a letter in a UK bike mag, about some go going flat out in a
sprint, and his look pedals unclipped on one side, making him go ass over
[censored].

Is this a common thing with clippless pedals to unclip under heavy load ?
I am worried now.

I saw that happen at training a few weeks ago to a guy in Look cleats when
sprinting
and it got real ugly. He reckoned they didn't look worn either but it pays
to check the
condition of the cleats and your pedal tension regularly. That's one reason
I went with
Shimano SPD-SLs, they have little plastic pontoons to protect the cleat when
you walk
on it. Having said that if there was a real problem with the Looks there
would be riders
with big red skin strawberrys hobbling around all over the place.

Adam

"adam" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

"Tazza" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Whas reading a letter in a UK bike mag, about some go going flat out in

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

sprint, and his look pedals unclipped on one side, making him go ass

over

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

[censored].

I saw that happen at training a few weeks ago to a guy
in Look cleats when sprinting and it got real ugly. He reckoned
they didn't look worn either but it pays to check the condition
of the cleats and your pedal tension regularly.

Could this be due to a messy sprinting technique?

I pulled out of SPDs (the mtb ones NOT SL's)
ONCE.. that's right ONCE. This was over 3-4
years, I'm still on the original cleats, have only 'just'
moved up from the lowest tension setting and these
were used for crit racing and training regularly.
I just don't get it..?
The one time I pulled a foot was at the start of
an ITT on my track bike - HEAVY stress on
the pedal system here..

hippy