New model or old faithful?

[Vorpal]

My 'best' fall was when I pulled off of a road in the US (I don't remember why I went off the road. I think maybe I wanted to check my map) and what looked like hard packed gravel turned out to be soft. Very soft. I lost my balance and fell over. I knew I was falling and made some effort to fall away from traffic. I managed to kind of control my fall and land without injury. And as soon as I tried to stand, I slipped on the grass and fell into the drainage ditch beside the road.

It would have been quite comedic if anyone had been there to record it...

[LollyKat]

I did something similar once on a punt. I was getting the hang of the pole technique and started to put my back into it with great confidence -- until I found a sudden deep hollow in the river bed so that the pole didn't reach the bottom and I nose-dived straight in!

I don't know which foot I usually put down. I can't recall even thinking about it. I'll think about it once or twice tomorrow.

Reminds me of a poem learned in primary school:

The centipede was happy, quite,
Until a toad in fun
Asked him which leg came after which,
Which worked his mind to such a pitch,
He lay frustrated in a ditch
Considering how to run."

[iandusud]

We seem to have gone a bit off topic here, but in answer to the OP, I think you should treat yourself to a new bike if you have the money and the inclination because it's nice to have a nice bike. However don't get it just yet. You've had lots of very good advice here and it's definitely worth carrying on with your Giant until you have a clearer idea of what new bike would best suit you. Do you have any cycling groups such as Wheeleasy anywhere near you (What part of Yorkshire do you live in?). I think you would find it helpful to find a group of folk to ride with at a gentle pace with whom you could pick up all sorts of tips about bike set up and different bike options.

Anyway well done for getting back on the bike.

[slowster]

………... Most older riders were already used to using toe clips when they switched to clipless, and that probably made it much less of a transition...........

Really? To clip in to clipless, you just step on it, like putting your foot on a flat pedal. To un-clip, you twist sideways, not pull your foot backwards out of the toeclip.
Toeclip users have learned the reflexes to flip the pedal to get it right side up, and to enter the toeclip from the back, and exit it towards the back. (And to fasten and undo toestraps, if of a racing persuasion.)
None of those reflexes help at all with clipless, its easier to learn clipless if you miss out the toeclip stage altogether.

I think that for most people, unless they have particularly poor coordination, neither toe clips nor clipless pedals are all that difficult to get the hang of. For someone who has used neither, I think much - even most - of the difficulty is psychological, rather than the 'complexity' of learning a couple of relatively very simple foot movements.

If someone is already used to using toe clips, then they are much less likely to be fazed by the prospect of being 'locked' to a clipless pedal, and learning a different foot movement is trivial.

The fall described by the OP sounds fairly unremarkable for a novice cyclist who is having to think about what they are doing a lot of the time. It is the same as for a new driver who has to consciously plan ahead to perform manoeuvres and change gear, and just as it gradually becomes unthinking second nature for the driver, so will cycling for the OP (including instinctively making the right decision about which foot to put down). After that might then be a good time for her to try her SPDs (or toe clips/half toe clips).

[531colin]

On my ride this morning I found out that I can start using the "wrong" foot.....but it isn't half awkward!
I am absolutely staggered that people browbeat other people (and children!) into starting off using the "other" foot.....that is, to start off not using the foot they naturally would use, but the other one. I would put that on a par with forcing children to write with their right hand, or stonemasons in the middle ages making half their sons use a hammer and chisel left-handed (although there is a practical reason for this.)
What is the supposed advantage of starting off using a particular foot? Does the chosen foot vary depending on the side of the road driven on in a particular country? As explained by the OP on this thread, it makes for a very confused cyclist, having to consciously decide which foot to put down. these things are much better left to conditioned reflexes......just like using SPDs.

……….The wild card in this was the long grass which was hiding the shallow ditch on the verge on the left.... put left foot down, found nothing there until far lower than I had thought and fell over ……....

The moral of that particular story is that if you can't see what you are putting your foot onto (or into), then slide off the saddle to be sure of reaching the ground. Something that riding off-road very quickly teaches you.

[531colin]

I did something similar once on a punt. I was getting the hang of the pole technique and started to put my back into it with great confidence -- until I found a sudden deep hollow in the river bed so that the pole didn't reach the bottom and I nose-dived straight in!....

People who are used to punting throw the pole into the river in front of them. There was a particular stretch of river near Hemingford Abbots where I used to do this for the entertainment of visitors, because the pole disappeared completely below the surface, to bob up again after a short pause. The full technique is throw the pole in, catch it as you draw level with it, push on it (walking on the punt deck if there is the opportunity) twist the pole to release it from any mud, use the pole as a rudder as it trails behind you in the water, before throwing it in ahead of you again.
Actually relevant to the thread drift, I always put the punt pole to my left, as I faced forward.

[RJS]

I was under the understanding that right handed people put their left foot down, the majority of people; left handers put the right foot down, except for a few awkward people like me, right handed and put my right foot down. Mother-in-law is left handed, she pushes her bike from the right hand side. Unclipping, most people seem to be able to unclip anywhere in the crank revolution, my feet turn outwards, I have to pause momentarily at the bottom of the circle to be able to unclip, if my forward motion becomes to slow and I try to unclip the result is embarrassingly predictable
Cheers. Rob.