Eggbeater pedals with straps
 

I decided to start a new thread instead of hijacking the recent SPD thread.

I am an eggbeater user (no platform, I'm on the SL version) and I'm wondering if it's possible to attach a strap of some kind for extra security. I unclip often whenever I apply a huge amount of torque to the pedals. I recently unclipped at the beginning of a sprint and had no chance of catching up. That was frustrating.

Has anyone done this before? I've seen a strap attached to FROG's before, but never on eggbeaters.

Thanks for your input,
-Chris

I was working on this problem just the other day at my local shop. With the basic eggbeaters, there's nothing except zipties, and even that doesn't work well because you can't keep the strap on the underside of the pedal -- it still will tend to turn 90 degrees, at which point the strap is trying to pull off the pedal rather than up into it. With Candy's, it's much easier -- the strap attaches to the frame with existing hardware.

All this begs the question of ... why? It's not a pedal designed or intended for ultimate clip-in security. It's not even a particularly good platform for high power high rpm riding -- its strength is in off-road and in certain road situations. This isn't to demean Eggbeaters in any way -- they are a great design -- but you are looking to make an apple taste like a steak. Get a different pedal and you'll be much better off if toe straps are what you really need.

it's true chris, go with look pedals if you can...at least. or get the quattros or candies (as mentioned) and then stick a strap on it. i ride eggbeaters on my street track bike and keo carbons on my track track bike. and how did that frame turn out?

11.4 - Applesteak can be good, under certain condition though!
;)

I would certainly echo your sentiments and suggest a different pedal option for the track. I do know a few people who rode Eggbeaters at the track, and have watched them unclip in sprint situations. I had a set of road-based Speedplays and frequently came out of them - so I switched to the track-specific Speedplays and have had great success with them.

I can't imagine a worse pedal for the track. I use them on my road fixie (and on my mtb) but pulling out on the road isn't as drastic as up a banking. Get a pedal with adjustable tension and crank it down tight!

I'd love to try a different pedal for the track. I'll check out those speedplays, I've heard great things about them.


Jason, the frame is getting some paint. 2 weeks wait turned into 2 months

i have eggbeaters on pretty much all of my bikes. i was even riding eggbeaters on the track for awhile, mostly due to not wanting to shell out extra dough for different shoes and pedals, but FINALLY switched to miche track pedals this season. the difference is night and day. aside from the unclipping factor, i really notice how much energy i feel like i lose just from all the float eggbeaters have. also, the larger platform on the miche's feels much better and i feel like i can put down more power with them. also, my new road shoes are waaaay stiffer than any mountain shoe i've used.

Eggbeaters and track are a baddddddddddddd idea. The weight shift at speed diving a cornor can pop the cleat right out the side. Plus the brass cleats wear out suppppppppppppper fast. Eggbeater spindles are also tiiiiiiiiiny.

If your going to be riding hard enough that you need straps get rid of the egg beaters.

I have beaters on my mountain bike, but I'd never use them at the track. For that, I use Speedplay Zeros that are shared with my road bike.

If you use Looks, make sure you keep an eye on your cleat wear. I know some folks who have had nasty spills due to accidental release.

Many if not most high-level track riders end up with non-floating pedal systems, whether traditional slotted cleats or clipless systems. This is partly because it gives greater connection to the drive train. It's also because floating systems tend to have more problems in high-powered events. Floating Look cleats, for example, have a thinner plastic ledge to clip into the pedal, so they have a tendency to break with a catastrophic result. The fixed Look cleats don't have this problem. The release pressure on many floating cleats is also less than for the comparable fixed cleats.

There are a number of inexpensive and widely available pedals that work really well on the track. In fact, track racing tends to subsist on a lot of equipment that was discarded by the road world years before.

You're lucky catching up was your only concern. My friend clipped out of his Time pedals when doing jumps and he launched himself off the bike and I almost ran over his neck! His skinsuit ripped open right at the crotch and he hobbled off the track holding his junk. The only good thing to happen that day was the cute medic onhand.

I've read that the Speedplay Zeros are a track favorite of many top-class riders but I also read that when adjusted down to zero float, there is no warning of an unplanned release. How can that relate to your first sentence?

Was that recent?

At local track racing levels, Speedplay Zero's are common. They are popular in part because they are compatible with road shoes and road pedals and riders don't have to maintain two different pairs of shoes with different cleats. But if you go to a World Cup event, you'll be lucky to see more pairs than you can count on one hand, and you probably won't see a single pair in kilo, sprint, team sprint, 500m, or keirin.

The track version of the Zero's gives no warning of an unplanned release regardless of the float setting. The lips on the pedal that create the retention for the cleat are perpendicular to the outside of the pedal, not sloped as on the road Zero's. This means that the cleats (and your shoes of course) stop solidly at the lip, but where the road pedals give you an increasing tension level as your shoes move out slightly towards a release, the track pedals simply have two positions and two positions only -- engaged and unengaged. For some riders that's OK, but I've seen a fair number of top riders who lose their pedal when using Zero's in kilo starts and the like. I have other issues with Zero's that aren't related to this issue.

My comment about non-floating setups had to do with the following: If you use a traditional slotted cleat with clips and straps, it's by definition non-floating. On SPD-R's the most common cleat is the zero-float SM-SH90. On Looks, the floating cleat has a breaking problem; even without that problem, riders tend to favor the fixed cleat. Zero's are so infrequent at world-cup level events that frankly I didn't consider them in my comment, though as indicated above it isn't an issue that applies exclusively to zero-float settings on Zero's anyway.

The real driving force is that once you're on a zero-float cleat, you realize how much more contact you have with your drive train and how much more you're able to apply power without having to stabilize a foot that otherwise wants to rotate around and potentially release.

Hope that clarifies my point.

I've got eggbeaters on my trackie... And I'm defiinitely gonna get different pedals!

Thus also making it hard to find and expensive! haha. A perfect example would be the current market value of a new pair of Shimano 7400 pedals. Or trying to find high quality shoes that accept SPD-R cleats. Thats why I stopped using them.

It shouldn't be rocket science to develop a modern track pedal but maybe the economics of it doesn't make it a worthwhile proposition.

What do we need - adjustable release tension independant of the retention mechanism (something like a tension adjustable Eggbeater?), an adjustable float. How about a manual release like the old Cinelli pedals?

Maybe the under 11 second sprinters will never be happy with anything less than the security of straps but most trackies in the world aren't even close to that category.

Has anyone else ever seen this? I've been riding the speedplay frogs from my commuter on the track because I can't afford new pedals & shoes right now, but am worried about pulling out. If anyone has any insight on how to rig up straps on the frogs, I'd love to know. Thanks--

This thread gets weirder and weirder. Toe straps on Frogs?

Two methods (same as on Speedplay Zero's): First, remove one of the allen bolts on one side and reinsert with a loop of steel underneath (most simply cannibalized from the toe strap loop on the top of a toe clip). You can also just punch a hole in the strap and run the bolt through it, though I don't really recommend this method. Second, clamp the strap into a second Frog cleat and simply clip it into one side of the pedal -- the pedal is now effectively one-sided but has a strap.

Yo, folks, toe straps don't belong on these things. Either some of you are going crazy because you can't get out to ride any longer, or you just need to think about why you're putting straps on. I know straps are cool on messenger fixies, but straps on frogs on the track are an accident waiting to happen. Are you actually disengaging accidentally from your Frogs? Those pedals actually hold pretty well, so you're probably creating more of a problem than you're solving anything.

I agree 100%. In the first place if your not going hard out WHO CARES. Secondly if your racing you should be smart enough to have a solid, reliable pedal witch is scary to think some people dont care. Like MikeTea said most people are perfectly fine with the tention maxed on their Looks or SPD SL's. That includes some sprinters. Yes straps may make you feel a little safer but its probably closer to 75% of people to use them dont realy need them. I can think of a few jr.s in our area that this is directed at ;)

Then what happened to this?

Firstly youd have to understand the situation and who said that to me and secondly I still stand behind that. But you know who Im talking about. There are riders who get along fine and only complicte things more.