How Effective were Spears Against Cavalry?

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This sort of 'suicide attack' could certainly be effective, but no commander could count on his troops actually carrying it out, nor on its success if they did.

Suicide attacks are integral part of the history of warfare - even relatively recently, just to mention WW2 Kamikaze. In fact warfare as such, is a suicidal activity - soldiers constantly risk their lifes during battle. Various battlefield activities only differ regarding the percentage value of that risk of death, but the risk is always there. Sometimes it is 10%, sometimes 50%. All of warfare is more or less suicidal.

Suicidal attacks also often tend to be unusually efficient. Japanese were using Kamikaze not because they were stupid, but because Kamikaze attacks were more efficient than conventional attacks carried out by Japanese bombers and casualty ratios - paradoxically - more favorable. Statistics did not lie.