sprinting with eggbeaters dangerous?
 

Someone commented on my CB eggbeaters at last weekend's race saying they're dangerous in sprints because they're more likely to unclip when you "throw down" some real power.

I love my eggbeaters, race with them in cyclocross with no problems, and have them on all my bikes.

Anyone have any evidence to corroborate his statement?

Didn't Fast Freddy use plain ol' eggbeaters? If that's true, then they should easily be able to handle the fraction of his sprint power that I might toss around.

I was just talking to a guy yesterday (cat 3) who did a road race using his CX bike (some gravel roads and a bit of single track). He was going to win, was headed down to the finish (on a normal road) and crashed because he came unclipped (SPD's).

Nothing is guaranteed, but road pedals are more secure. period.

A lot of people use eggbeater for cross and those races are basically stacked sprints.

I thought they were Quattros, but it's the same retention design, just with a plastic surround. May have made it more stable for sprinting, I don't know.

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/uploads...tImage/480.jpg

I ride Beaters on all my bikes and have for years. Never a problem with unclipping. I suspect the naysayers feel they need to justify the $150+ clipless wonderpedals they just shelled out for when you got your pedals for a song and they will last forever, they clean themselves, and they have 4-side entry. Add platforms to the basic eggbeater design and you got some pretty sturdy pedals.

I'll never switch.

I would wager a bet that the majority of "I unclipped in a sprint, must be my spds" comments are because of poor form rather than secureness of the pedal's tension system.

I have spd-sl pedals and poor form so take the comment for what its worth.

I paid about the same for my Eggbeaters and Speedplays. I don't think cost has anything to do with anything. I use them on my cross bike but I much prefer the Speedplays on the road.

I think that is a fair assesment, but I also think that it is easier to unclip with SPD and Eggbeaters if you have poor form than with some of the road pedals. I've only used Speedplay for road pedals so I can't comment on the others, but it's really damn hard to unclip because of poor form. I've used SPDs and Eggbeaters and while the held my foot in just fine, if you are sloppy your foot can come out relatively easily.

I have become "disengaged" a few times when throwing down.

The first time was with toes clips and shoes with a slotted cleat. I was doing a ride on unfamiliar roads and we made a left turn onto a ridiculously steep pitch. That time my foot came out of the shoe and the shoe stayed attached to the pedal.

The other times were when my cleats were very worn out and should have been replaced.

I didn't crash on any of these, but it each time it was pretty close.

I do have to say for full disclosure that I have my retention dialed up to 11.

well said, I'll buy it.

Yeah, I was thinking that form has more to do with it than the specific pedal system. I've actually only had a problem NOT unclipping when I endo'ed over a fallen rider in a CX race--the bike stayed glued to me and I was writhing around in the mud for about 10 seconds trying to get unclipped.

For my road race bike, I have plain SL eggbeaters but use the Quattro cleats with the built-in pontoon thingies. Not as easy to engage with a backstroke compared to mtn cleats, but they feel secure enough thus far. My max measured wattage is only around 1250, but I haven't really done any pure power/sprint workouts, spending most of my time at or just over/under threshold.

Really, I just don't want to be a danger to myself or any of the other hard-workin' fellas around me in a bunch sprint.
So I threw this out there to see what your collective anecdotal experience is. (Is "collective anecdotal" an oxymoron?)

Poor form might not help, but it's simply much easier to pull out of SPDs than road pedals (no idea on Eggbeaters, but my impression was that they don't release as easily as SPDs do). This makes sense as an element of pedal design; it's supposed to be easy to get out of MTB pedals fast to put a foot down. I pulled out of SPDs a couple times before I switched to road pedals. I managed to keep it upright both times, but I came pretty close to eating pavement. Scary! I've never once pulled out of the Performance pedals (Look Delta clones) or Speedplay Zeros I've subsequently switched to.

That said, I've not pulled out of SPDs in a sprint a lot more often than I have pulled out of SPDs in a sprint, and I never came out of a pedal during an actual race. The pedals that another rider is using are pretty low down on my list of concerns about the people I'm racing with.

I raced on (mtn) SPDs last year, which was stupid. They creaked/gave at about 800 watts, didn't feel solid.

Now sprinting on speedplays I could break 1,000w much more easily.

Maybe my SPDs just weren't adjusted right, but they sucked for racing. Might not help the OP but someone else..

you weren't riding a black bianchi w/ a wired powertap harness, were you?... :innocent:

this one.

yep

You rode a good race, you've obviously got plenty of firepower, eggbeaters will probably be fine... but they felt sketchy to me whenever I got sloppy at all in a sprint.
YMMV,
hope to see you around at the other races, come find mattm & I at the RCR tent sometime.

I think road pedals are much more secure period. Even cheaper Shimano 105 pedals will be better. There's a reason you rarely, if ever, see eggbeaters on track bikes.

Yup, that would be me. It was good to meet/talk with you afterwards. Like I said, you did a good job softening up the group early on. Too bad your teammate flatted.

Thanks. I've got some Shimano DA pedals that came with the bike. Won't hurt to try it out and see if there's a functional difference. I just didn't have the cleats for them at the time, so I just plopped my spare set of beaters on there. (One pedal system on all my bikes is just plain convenient, too.)

Will do. Probably Volunteer Park next.

Cheers.

I raced with Eggbeaters all last season and a couple races this season. They never unclipped unintentionally, in a sprint or otherwise. If your form is such that your heels swing out enough to approach the release angle during a sprint, then other pedals might be safer. (You might want to work on your form, too.) The only other scenario I can imagine for coming unclipped is if you're built like Hoy and doing kilo standing starts. I'm 153lbs and maxed out at 1400 watts, and I never generated enough force to rip the cleats from the pedals.

As an aside, I recently switched to SPD-SLs -- because I bought nicer shoes, not because there was anything wrong with the Eggbeaters. I wrote a dissertation about using Eggbeaters on the road, if you're interested: http://amplewritings.blogspot.com/

yeah - I got him OTF on Sat and then a 2man TT / launch solo FTW - pity it didn't happen yesterday, but that's life.
See you in a few weeks!

oh, I totally understand having only one pedal system - I run Time pedals for everything, even the cross bike on non-race days.
I'm sure you'll be okay, knowing what the possible danger is mostly what I was thinking about when I mentioned it.

I did that once when I was about 15 on my old Raleigh Technium with toeclips and sneakers trying to outsprint the neighborhood dog.

Nice write-up. Thanks for sharing that.


Since I'm a "just see for yourself" kinda guy and already have the shimano pedals in my parts bin, I'll try them out.

Thanks for all the replies.

Not really. SPDs - and other mountain-oriented pedals - are designed to allow easier unclipping. It is far easier for me to get out of my SPDs and Frogs than it is to SPD-SLs or Speedplay Zeros. I went OTB while on a downhill run on my MTB - managed to unclip my Frogs and land on my feet. With road pedals, that'd be a new helmet.

Were I able to put out any kind of BB-busting watts, I'd hesitate to use mountain clipless pedals while sprinting as well. Maybe if you use mountain clipless pedals enough, you get used to them and so reduce the risk of accidental unclipping - but if you can avoid it, why not?

V.

This.

OP, I think you will really like the DA pedals. I use eggbeaters for CX and SPD-SLs for the road and the difference is huge. You will feel more secure and that is nice (because you actually are!)...the last think you want headed into a sprint is a negative/distracting thought going through your noodle.

The cleats are ~$20...try them out. You will like.

Also, Road shoes vs Mtn shoes make a huge difference...its not been said, but if you've got two pair, the two pedal systems will never compete with each other and convenience won't be an issue. Unless you are just really into symmetry...;)

Yeah. I have a 2 pairs of shoes, road and mtn, so it won't be a big problem. It's just been nice if I've been commuting in this rainy PacNW weather to be able alternate shoes while one pair dries from the night before.

I just switched back do spd-sl's after riding my cross bike all winter.. SUCH a nice feeling to be off the eggbeaters. You feel totally secure and stable on road pedals, I have not ever felt that way on any mtb pedal.

not all mountain pedals are created equal, just like not all road pedals are created equal (don't believe me? ask the road forum)

spd's != cb's

I'm curious if the poster who thought crank bros pedals feel sketchy has ridden speedplays? in my experience, spd's can come unintentionally unclipped while the only way of getting cb's off is by getting as much twist as I need to get out of my spd-sl's. The main difference is that "skating on ice" feeling that comes with cb's as compared to keo's or spd-sl's, imho.