My old shimano spds have given up – worn cleats, knackered springs and dodgy bearings. I've got about £50 to replace them, so what's the best option? I prefer the look of the egg beaters, but the shimanos have the benefit that I can use the same shoes on my road bike which is shimano cleats. Have also heard the egg beaters suffer from dodgy bearings.

Cheers

shimano for me

I use shimano all round. Got some Candy C's in the garage with cleats – straight off a new bike, replaced with XT. £30

Shimano. They don't fall apart, they're adjustable, cleats last longer and you don't have to service them ever.

Another vote for Shimano.

Anything BUT egg beaters – seen too many riders at races with bare spindles and a pedal in one hand!

M520s: get two pairs and 4 pints of beer for your £50!

The bodies will wear before the bearings

Egg Beaters should only be used for beating eggs, and even then they'd probably fall apart or release the eggs at a critical moment. Avoid.

Not sure about Shimano (never used them), but I'd say you can't go wrong with option 3 – TIME.

neither time atacks

No personal experience of egg beaters, but friends have. Poor bearing life has put me off. Currently got xt's and very happy with them. In for m540's they're identical to xt's and cheaper!

Candys all the way for me.

Shimano gave me knee problems and I have no issues with reliability with the Crank Brothers pedals. Running four sets.

eggbeater 2ti@s seem lovely to me so far

The thing that really puts me off Egg Beaters and derivatives is that there is a major design flaw which compromises safety. The oh-so-pretty "X" profile means that the top and bottom retention bars are coupled together – twatting the bottom of a pedal will open up the bottom bars, and hence the top bars as well; the very ones which are holding your feet in place. I had this happen too many times for comfort so I ditched them. They will also wear deep grooves in your soles, unless you fit the protection plates, and as so many people have note in the past on here, they will fall apart sooner rather than later (though I didn't keep them long enough to experience this personally, so perhaps I'm not being objective on that last point).

Seriously – avoid them.

Stuartie_c – love the eggs comment and I aggree about the Time option-all I've run for years. Unfortunately your criticism re the unclipping when you **** the under-side goes for times too-the two plates are linked and I've come unclipped a few times. You do have to really hit the bottom one hard though 🙂

seems fairly conclusive, thanks guys.

Might just go for the cheapo shimano jobbies and save some beer tokens as mr lightyear suggests!

Norfolk-In-Chance,

The TIME design is different. The upper and lower bars are connected BUT the front and rear ones are independent. On each side there is one movable bar and one fixed, each movable bar is coupled to the fixed one on the flip side so that hitting the underside of the pedal won't cause the upper bars to open – by NOT crossing them over, you have two independent spring systems which is a better design.

I've managed to break one of the bars on a TIME pedal (the square section ones are hollow!) by hitting it very hard on a rock, but my foot stayed clipped in and the pedal still got me home.

I briefly had some shimano caged pedals M424(?). I did not like how they felt so I moved to Crank Brothers Mallets and loved them. I found the 'float' that the design allows much more comfortable.

However after a relatively short time the bearings wore out… Then another set went and finally a third set (one set of bearings disintegrated leaving me with a spindle attached to the crank and a pedal cage attached to my shoe in Canadian back country!).

I've now moved to Time pedals and in the same period of time (and very similar use) the Times are outlasting the Cranks.

Funny lately I've noticed that many of the comments on here are grounded on a rough consensous of experience.

I bought M520s from the Hub at GT recently for £15. Bargain.

Time

shimano, although i've never had anything else, nor have i had any reason to try anything else!

Shimano for me too.

I decided to try Eggbeater recently after being on Shimanos (or Ritcheys) for years. After a couple of initial problems (different clipping-in technique and a feeling of not being quite as connected, I've found them to be really nice. Easy to clip in, never any problems with mud. I've now fitted Candys to my commuter as clipping-in after traffic lights is much easier. No problems with reliability yet, and I rather like the idea that they are user-serviceable. The Ritcheys were atrocious in this regard.

I've used both m540 and m520. M540 bearings and axle seem a lot better. And don't touch Ritchey pedals with a barge pole…

My old LX SPDs from 1997 are still going strong, used almost every day 🙂

Time, my ATACs are 10 years old next year and have needed one new bearing.

if it is between shimano and CB – Shimano.

if prepared to look at others, the Time stuff is a consideration.

Time. My Z controls are on there third bike in 6 years.