Mountain Biking - Eggbeaters

I'm thinking about getting some eggbeaters, but I still want a pedal that I could ride with regular shoes decently(i ride to class a few times a week).

I was thinking about getting some crankbros candy SL's or mallet C's.

How are either of these with regular shoes? It looks like the mallets would have more support for regular tennie shoes. Would these be better for me than the candy's?

Another option would be the shimano pd m-324's that have spd on one side and regular pedals on the other side...

i've got Candy SLs on both my bikes, and they ride fairly decently in my running shoes. I got lucky and the loops from the pedals fit nicely into the tread on my Montrails. Its a little hard riding in Chacos, the shallower tread sometimes rolls the 4-sided eggbeater part of the pedals (that and im used to being clipped in...). If you really want super-stability than Mallets are a better choice, but if you want something smaller than candys will work just fine

Here's my two cents: I don't think any clipless pedals are particularly comfortable to ride with "normal" shoes with the following exceptions.
1.) Pedals with a platform on one side and clipless on the other. Unfortunately, I don't think Crank Brothers makes a model like this. Too bad because I have Eggbeaters on all my bikes.
2.) For use with shoes with very stiff or thick treads/soles that eliminate the hotspot.

I don't think you'll be happy with the Candy's, try our the Crank Brothers Mallet instead.

http://www.vaust.com/catalog/images/mallet_c_anthrazit.jpg

On a ride with a friend his eggbeater candy pedel came off the shaft compleatly, was told they had NEVER had that happen before and sent him a rebuild kit for free. Then talking to a bike shop guy he said he had the EXACT same thing happen to him. My friend and the shop guy both switched to time peddels. I run SPD and have never had a problem other than on really muddy trails my clips can get cloged. Also according to my friend who switched from SPDs to eggbeaters to Times the eggbeaters had the most side to side play.

I had exactly that happen to my eggbeaters, I heard that Crank Bros shipped a large batch of pedals with defective bearings. The sealed bearings would come apart, all the balls would fall out, and the pedal body would come loose. Their updated bearings are better quality and I have had no problems since installing them. Crank bros has excellent customer service, they have sent me several rebuild kits for free and included a multitool as well.

I would highly recommend Mallets. Plenty of grip in tennis shoes even while bunny hopping. The eggbeater design is the best out there (with updated bearings!)

I agree they had good service but that was my only two experience/story of them

Just because you're mentioning crank brothers pedals, I'll just put in that I want to get a pair of their new Acid pedals http://www.crankbrothers.com/acid.php

The Mallet-C is a great pedal for picking up after a dab and having something big enough to mash your foot back onto. Once you're ON the pedal it's pretty easy to wiggle your way INTO the cleat. In fact becase of the concave design of the pedal, it's difficult to ride WITHOUT clipping in.

Don't think this for a second that this is a good platform pedal ... it's not. These pedals will only grip your shoes if you wear a VERY lugged tread. This is by design as the edges of the pedal are design to make contact with your shoe in order to eliminate the "hotspot" underneath the cleat. If the edges of the pedal grabbed at those points, you would not be able to twist your foot out of the cleat.

All that having been said ... I LOVE my Mallets ;-)

Regarding assymetric clips (one side flat, the other side a clip-in mechanism) I don't care for this concept. When one places your foot down you want to be able to ride as opposed to figuring out that you've got the wrong side and you have to flip it. For technical riding there is no point. Either use a flat pedal, or use a clip in.

One more option that exists is the AtomLab Quickstep Pedals. These are the "holy grail" of clip/pedal combos. The clips grab the inside of the cleat instead of the outside. So if you stomp on the pedal without a cleat, your shoe pushes the cleat mechanism method out of the way and your shoes seat onto the pins. These are the only clip*/with flat out there that actually act like flats.

* Clipless pedals are NOT clipless. Otherwise how could you clip in. The terms "cageless" or "strapless" or "ball-clips" are more appropriate.

If you ever ride in freezing temperatures, don't get SPD. They get congested easily with debris. If that happens to you (as did me) and it freezes (as happened to me), then you're screwed. I was out riding on a fireroad 2 years ago in January. My pedal clogged and froze and when I stopped next I fell onto the knee I had dislocated 7 months prior. I was in tremendous pain and was furious. I immediately replaced my SPD pedals with Egg Beaters. I have NEVER had that - or any other - problem with my Egg Beaters.