My one and only unclip disaster came when I fell over on the footpath outside of a local shop that was full of people. Of course everyone turn around and gawked at me as I flayed around trying to unclip whilst laying on the ground. Just missed smacking my head on a car bumper.
I have a pretty good one and appropriate for this thread, but pretty long story for those of you unfortunate enough to have experienced them it was using Onza's HO elastomer clipless pedals....yes elastomer!!
So had a new girlfriend at the time (1994) (now wife testament to her quality not mine) thought I'd take her for a ride around the river in Perth. Load bikes onto car drive into town, off we go. Got to the narrows (bridge across the narrow part of the river) and there was a little sandy track down the bridge embankment we used to ride. Told my new lady, "I'm just gonna do this cool bit down the side of the bidge, I'll see you at the bottom" .
I look resplendent in my brand new DBR lycra (yes basically everyone wore lycra then) on my brand new Diamondback Axis TR (cost more than my car) complete with aforementioned Onza HO's I had maybe one or two rides on, they were super stiff and hard to release.
I set off down the track but at the top was a little bush/stump you needed to turn around to get onto the good bit of track by the side of the bridge, it was a little boggier than usual and front wheel stopped dead going around the bush, usual story bike started to lean, couldn't unclip due to stupid pedals and I fell over. This would not have been a big deal as new girlfriend was down the hill and wouldn't have seen the embarassment except I fell on the small bush which had a small broken off branch which I impaled my lycra clad leg on.
So lifted myself off the bush soon realised with quantum of blood rushing out I had a problem. I hobbled up to the path, my now wife had circled back to the bottom of the hill I gestured to her to come back up. She was not wearing her glasses and though I was waving and cheerfully waved back. A bit more animated waving and I got her to come up.
So pre mobile phones she went with some helpful roadies to call a) ambulance and b) my parents to pick up the bikes!
Next thing police car shows up...(The bridge is also a traffic bridge) they got a report that a car hit a bike, me with shirt off wrapped around my bloodied leg had to admit no I fell off all on my own.
Both ambos and doctor wanted to cut off my brand new shorts which I violetently objected to and managed to keep them basicly intact, they did stretch over the offending timber, a kind of protection!
The ridiculous thing is I stuck with those Onza's for probably at least 6 months before getting some 737s (or whatever they were went they came out).