Pedal Malfunction

Pearlstone

I was just wondering if anyone has ever had a pedal break while cycling. I took a tumble a couple of weeks ago which was caused by one of my pedals breaking. Unfortunately I was out of the saddle and fully clipped in at the time so I took quite a heavy fall. Initially I did not know what had happened but a gentleman who was out for a walk saw what happened and came to my assistance and it was he who informed me that it looked like my pedal had snapped from the way I fell. When I recovered from the initial shock I located the broken pedal on the road beside me. I was very fortunate that I got away with cuts and bruises to my hand, knee, elbow and shoulder and also cracked a few ribs. All of the damage was on my right side as that was the pedal that gave way. My helmet was badly damaged so it saved me from what could have been a far worse fate and fortunately there was no traffic on the road at the time that I fell either.

I have cycled a few times since but the old confidence is knocked back a bit and I find that I will not get out of the saddle even if I really need to during a spin.

As I am relatively new to cycling and this was my first time to hit the deck I would very much appreciate any advice.

NBar

Sorry to hear about this and glad not injured badly, what make of pedal was it?

NeedMoreGears

It can be a bit of an uneasy time after a fall, especially if something breaks on the bike but your confidence will come back. just take your time.

Did you get someone who is competent to look over and repair the bike?

'hope the cuts and bruises heal quickly.

Wishbone Ash

Pearlstone wrote: »

I was just wondering if anyone has ever had a pedal break while cycling....

Sorry to hear about your spill. Your confidence will come back in a while. It's perfectly natural to be hesitant for a time.

I had a pedal snap a couple of years ago but luckily wasn't out of the saddle at the time. I was 20km from home and was going to telephone Mrs WA but then an image of Hinault appeared. I told myself to HTFU and continued home on one leg.

XtotheZ

One of the lads in my clubs pedal broke during a downhill sprint interval in March. the lads where leading him out, he jumped out the saddle and the body of the pedal came out the spindle. He hit a bridge at 55kph and smashed his bike, fork and front cosmic and he had to go to hospital to get stitches in his leg. They were look keo max 2's. Funnily enough one of my look keo 2s broke on the turbo 2 weeks later, exact same thing happened but the bearings had been running gammy for a while. Wiggle replaced it tho. Again last weekend one of my friends from meath had exact same thing happen to his. This time a set of Look keo 2 Max carbons but he wasn't hurt.

I just bought a new set of Look keo max 2 aswell hahaha

Pearlstone

Thanks for all of those, really appreciate it.

Amprodude

XtotheZ wrote: »

One of the lads in my clubs pedal broke during a downhill sprint interval in March. the lads where leading him out, he jumped out the saddle and the body of the pedal came out the spindle. He hit a bridge at 55kph and smashed his bike, fork and front cosmic and he had to go to hospital to get stitches in his leg. They were look keo max 2's. Funnily enough one of my look keo 2s broke on the turbo 2 weeks later, exact same thing happened but the bearings had been running gammy for a while. Wiggle replaced it tho. Again last weekend one of my friends from meath had exact same thing happen to his. This time a set of Look keo 2 Max carbons but he wasn't hurt.

I just bought a new set of Look keo max 2 aswell hahaha

Is this a fault with the Look keo pedal? I will be swiftly replacing them if I hear more of those stories.

Wishbone Ash

Amprodude wrote: »

Is this a fault with the Look keo pedal? I will be swiftly replacing them if I hear more of those stories.

:eek: My pedal was a Look Keo also! :eek:

NBar

Think I'm putting my look keo 2 carbon pedals back into the box or else will have to check after every spin from now on

XtotheZ

Imo there still a great pedal and after nearly 2 years of hard use, racing and 2 winters, I will generally accept things breaking. To be fair my bearings wernt running smooth for a while and had just started seezing up a week or so before hand

bambergbike

I've had a crank-arm break as I was climbing a hill out of the saddle. No tumble, just a lesson learned about why cheap bikes (or bike-shaped objects) can be a false economy. Although that particular one probably wasn't, I likely got more miles out of it than it was designed to withstand. My stroke of good luck was that I lived only three miles from the central workshop that did the guarantee bike repairs for all the stores in the DIY chain where I bought it, so I was able to take my BSO there on the bus after trashing it completely (simply by commuting up and down a little corkscrew hill every day for six weeks). The workshop staff were very happy to finally meet an actual customer rather than just dealing with bikes posted in by faceless big-box shops, and they replaced around half the parts on the "bike" at that first six-week service. It gave no more trouble for a very long time after that, but ultimately its pedigree showed through and the crank-arm broke in the middle. I did get it back on the road after that, but ultimately I gave it to a teenager who wanted to cannibalize a few bikes and make himself a new one out of the bits.