I'm condidering a change from SPD to Egg Beaters – anyone found it a change for the better or worse?

Spent £180 on a pair and sold them about a month later for £65.

If your used to SPD's you may find them hard to get used to. Buy a £15 pair off ebay and give them a try. The lack of positive engagement takes some getting used to. I also found my feet slipping out of them at critical moments even with the cleats at the max release angle.

They do look amazing and are uber light. Bearings/bushes have poor reputaion for longivity.

I went from SPDs to mallets which at the time I thought was ok. It was not until one of the spindles broke and I went back to my old SPD that I realised that the Shimano clip in/out is far smoother. I now run SPD on both bikes with no intention to change.

Personally I much prefer the action of Crank Brothers pedals.

I changed from SPD's years ago, because of painful knees and a dislike of the positive action required to actually unclip from Shimano pedals.

Crank Brothers pedals aren't as positive to clip into, granted, but to me that's a minor downside. They are much much much easier to get out of though (your foot literally just falls out when required, no positive movement needed) and they're much kinder on your knees, these upsides far outweighing the downsides for me…

Oh and yeah, they don't last as long. They do wear out quicker, or need a service more often. There's one simple solution to this… Don't buy the expensive ones, buy them for £15 (with cleats I might add!) off ebay from people that have bought new bikes that came with them (usually Candy C's, IMO the best pedal they do, Smarty's are piss poor by comparison) but use other pedals, so sell them on ebay… I've bought my last 3 pairs of pedals (all still going strong, 3 different bikes) this way and it's a highly viable option.

The only time I wish I was ever on Shimano pedals is when it comes to having a go on other people's bikes, as most still run Shimano!

Oh, should just add… DO NOT buy eggbeaters… Buy Candys, Mallets, Acids (not Smarty's, they fall apart in a couple of rides and aren't rebuildable), but eggbeaters are very difficult to find when you need to clip in, and they're only about 50g lighter than the equivalent Candys (and even the Candy C's are lighter than top end Shimano XTR pedals)…

hi,
i was well into lightening me bike and thie egg beaters dropped about a kilo compared to me 545's? but i kept rollin off them literrally like tumbling along and off the back of my foot.. so i too paclked them up and sold them for not a lot to putmy spd's back on!!!!
maybe mallets are better……

i was well into lightening me bike and thie egg beaters dropped about a kilo compared to me 545's

I think you need to recalibrate your scales! 😕

More likely they saved you about 300-350 grammes (for the pair), which is a fair bit, but not a kilo by a long stretch.

but i kept rollin off them literrally like tumbling along and off the back of my foot.. so i too paclked them up and sold them for not a lot to putmy spd's back on!!!!
maybe mallets are better……

Mallets, or Candys, or Acids… All much better than Eggbeaters. Candys are the equivalent to a normal SPD pedal I'd say, similar sized target to find.

been using 'em fora few years now.

much prefer them to SPD's, better float = kinder to knees, no clogging, looks etc.

OK they take a bit more servicing but we are not talking much more than re-packing with grease hardly a difficult task .

top tips – replace the plastic axle caps (?) for metal ones. Get some sole savers for your shoes.

I have eggbeaters on the mountain bikes and SPD's on the commuter – no problem swapping from one to the other. One pair of 'beaters must be 7 years old now – I have put new seals and bearings in 1 pair but I'm not sure which. Keep 'em well greased and they seem fine.

Had two sets over about 3 yrs, wore out v quickly and not intersted in taking to pieces and fixing etc. They are light and I never had any problems re engagement or coming unclipped and they are light and look good. I even used on a hire road bike once (fashion error acknowledged) and found 'em fine. They are just not very long lasting. WMB wote a pursuasive article about how even most pros used spds because of their reliability in use and lifetime and that swung it for me next time they started to play loose. Nasty american cack! Crank bros pump was nifty but fell to pieces as well. I'm not buying their wheels any time soon!

Ditched SPDs for candys, thought they were great. After two years the bearings and cleats needed changing, but a pair of new SPDs was almost half the price. Not quite as good, but near enough.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-changed-from-spd-to-egg-beaters-for-the-better

Why 2 threads??

Did a C2C recently with EBs, no probs. Since put them on the RB. Shimano are too awkward to get out of. Prefer flats for the singletrack though.

Moved to egg beaters recently. Was Ok with the Shimano SPD's until it came to muddy cyclocross races and they clog too badly. Egg beaters far better for this and the extra float does make them far easier on the knees as an added bonus