I saw a set of egg beathers on a bike while I was in NYC and wondered what they were. A little research later and a wander down to the bike stores on the weekend in the city and I find them for 30% off at Giant.
Is anyone here using eggbeaters or heard anything beyond the reviews that are available. They seem to mainly for mountain bikers needing to remove mud and such. I’m currently using the Cinelli kink toe straps and I’m enjoying them just fine with ordinary sneakers.
Some people here hate them. I’ve used a few pairs and, while they work pretty well, would recommend better options, especially for riding fixed. I’ll let other throw in their recommendation.
Questions:
Longevity and continually tuning as they get slack, is this a real problem, or one imagined by the MTB crowd?
How comfortable are they to use over a long distance. Do you end up with a pressure point in the ball of your foot?
Are hard shoes required to get the most out of them?
Are they ok for city cruising and general about town use?
Would you recommend them to others?
honestly, shimano SPDs are dirt cheap, and super great. under $30 for a set of XC or trail pedals, with cleats.
some people have success with CB, but their reputation for slopped out bushings, bent and broken axles, unintended release (by striking the bottom arms on something), etc precludes them. I’ve personally bent axles on the mid spec model not even MTBing and I weigh 60kg.
Time ATAC are also good, but more $ & weight than shimano, and the cleats wear faster.
Better shoes will prevent hot spotting, if you’re doing big distance / time, just get SPD-SLs. Stiff soles will give better power transfer at the expense of walkability.
The EBs and Candys that have stamped steel wings are no good. I’ve bent axles on two pairs of those. I’ve never had any problem with any others I’ve used.
I don’t know know what you mean by “tuning as they get slack”. The only maintenance I’ve ever done is to replace bearings and bushes as necessary. I think I’ve done this three times in maybe 7 years. Rebuild kits are cheap and it’s simple to do. A couple of basic tools and about 15 minutes is all it takes.
As Blakey says, hot spots are to do with your shoes. Stiff soles prevent that, but stiff soles are uncomfortable for lots of walking.
Like all contact points, pedal choice is very personal. I wouldn’t say I’d recommend them as such, because it really depends on your priorities and budget. SPDs are much much cheaper and do a fine job. But I have no complaints whatsoever about Eggbeaters.
To be honest, I’d say SPDs are the best overall choice for the first time clipless user.
I’ve unclipped unintenionally heaps, both fixed and free. It’s especially hairy when jumping obstacles.
Getting slack (play in the inner ‘wing’) is a real and recurring problem
True that. But I’ll add my experience here for posterity anyway…
I bought an ex-demo custom touring bike with CB Candys and took it touring in the USA for a few months. As I was putting the bike together in the USA I noticed that one was a bit rough. Turns out one of the outer seals had split and water had been getting in, washing out the bearings. I pulled it apart and regreased it, jury rigging a seal because I couldn’t get one quickly enough before I had to leave. The bearings were tiny little things. This isn’t bad in itself; there were enough of them, but it made rebuilding a bit more tricky, and maybe they would be less resilient to any lack of or dilution of grease.
I put SPDs back on when I got home. I was using Wellgo copies before I bought this bike and they were fine. The cheapest Shimano ones require a special tool to pull them apart don’t they? The next model up are rebuildable with normal bike tools; these are the ones I run. They’re easy to rebuild and I’ve found them very reliable.
I’ve had a really bad experience with Candys. I had them on Campy Veloce cranks and the right one simply unscrewed itself while riding and I copped a bad crash as a result. I was accelerating out of the saddle, went head first, bent the forks, smashed the helmet and ruined my left knee and left shoulder. I didn’t install them myself so maybe I should have checked. Maybe they were incompatible with my cranks or maybe they were faulty. Went back to good ole Shimano SPDs.
Other than that, I thought they felt a bit too cheap for an intensive use (the eggbeaters look better), and too much float for my taste.
i rode a set of egg beaters for about 3yrs on my mtb, then gave up on em (clipped out too often, too much float) and sold them at a swap meet for $20. forgot to give the guy the cleats though, so if anyone wants em send me a pm and i’ll pop em in the post for ya.
i dont even know how many years i have used eggbeaters for now… fixed/nobrakes, bunnyhop up/down gutters and plenty of other shit, i would say im pretty much as abusive as can be on components… have only clipped out once unintentionally from memory. would chalk this up to worn cleats and or flimsy ankles when skidding.
yes i would like a little less float but thats not the end of the world.
