I like the timing of this thread so I'm throwing in my experience.

I just wore out yet another pair of ordinary street shoes with my toe/clip and strap setup. Sick of it and said it was time to upgrade to something cycling specific. I did a little research was going to go SPD or CrankBros with MTB shoes so that I could walk in them. A great deal popped on CL today and I've now got CrankBros Candy 3s on my bike. First ride tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. Practicing a little right now....

One of the reasons I went this way is the easy in, easy out reputation of the 4 sided egg beater compared to others, as well as seemingly more durable due to the open design.

OP, you might want to research this as an option as well. Also, I can't return them now but I'd like to get everyone's opinion on the Candy 3s. Anything I shoudld be on the look out for tomorrow. Thanks.

Interesting thread. I've ridden on platforms and regular sneakers for four years. I love being able to just hop on the bike instead of having special equipment.

Well...um....

Older eggbeaters had a reputation for very poor durability. Their open design also let a lot of gunk into the pedal that reduced longetivity as well. They used to sell rebuild kits, but the thing was it was because other pedals didn't require rebuilds like the Eggbeaters did. Their was a whole theme of pics of eggbeater pedals breaking apart when they shouldn't have at all.

The good news is - they redesigned the pedals since then. I don't know what kind of durability they have now.

The 4 sided thing seemed like it would be good, but they quickly started coming out with 2 sided eggbeaters with a platform because it made it easier to land a foot on the pedal without slipping back off. The candy 3's have the platform, but that makes them 2 sided.

I didn't like them as I could not tell by feel if I successfully clipped in. Other pedals (shimano, time) had a distinct feel when successfully clipping in. On the other hand someone on the forum claimed they had no problem feeling it, so - who knows for sure.

I'm curious if anyone has seem more recent threads on eggbeater durability since the redesign a few years ago.

So....ah.... :)

I'll admit I'm a clip-less n00b. After making the call to do it I did some quick research, wanted MTB style, and saw that CrankBros had a good reputation for CX and were 'bombproof'. In hindsight I think this was more about clearing mud than long term durability. I got them at a steal second hand so I'm not going to be disappointed either way.

I got the Candy3s. Even though they have the body, I still think they are 'better' than a 2 sided pedal because you still don't need to make sure it is facing the right way when clipping in. I had very little trouble today using them with no clip-less experience at all so I think that says something.

I'll bump this thread with a follow up once I've got more miles on them.

Like you're saying at a good price it doesn't matter, but yeah - if you want clipless best able to handle literally slogging through mud or snow then jumping on the bike, it's either crank brothers or time pedals. Shimano spd's do not have as good of a reputation for that. But both shimano spd's and time pedals have a reputation for durability and lasting a long time.

I...don't think that 2 sided pedals are not better than 2 sided pedals...

2 sided pedals are better than 1 sided pedals in that you don't need to flip the pedal over like you're saying. But 4 sided crank brothers are the same for clipping in and out than 2 sided pedals, and any crank brothers pedal with a platform at all around the clip is a 2 sided pedal.

I'm sure they'll work fine, wish you luck!

I haven't bought shoes yet. However, apparently I wore out the factory Wellgo LU-984 Pedals in the roughly 300km of riding I've done in the last five weeks. I'm not sure if they were just not well made, if all of the wet weather got to them, or what. Since I haven't picked out a shoe yet, I went ahead and had the LBS put on some Forte Campus Pedals. Since it was a warranty replacement, the install was free and I received a $20 credit towards the pedals. Now, all I need are shoes.

I don't have the Fortes but do have a campus style pedal. If they are anything like mine they will naturally hang a certain way (though they might have to break in before this will happen consistently). Knowing their natural orientation will help you reliably clip in when wearing bike shoes or hit the platform side when wearing regular shoes.

Though it took me awhile to figure it out, once I realized that the pedals hang vertically with the clipless mechanism facing the rear of the bike and the platform facing the front, I could clip in without having to look at the pedals at all and the vast majority of the time I can do it on the first try.

Before that revelation I was pretty lukewarm about the pedals, especially since at point I was using my bike shoes 95% of the time anyway. Now I consider them to be the best of both worlds with very little downside.

Good Luck !

Yes and Yes. Now go get both!!

Mine hang similar to the way that your pedals hang. I find myself not looking at them when I'm riding in regular shoes, and I manage to catch the platform >80% of the time. I bought a pair of DZR Pigeons (similar to their Jetlag) as my test shoe. I know that slip-ons probably aren't going to give me the most power transfer, but the sale price was in my budget and I think they'll make a decent short commute shoe for errands, grocery store runs, and work. I'll be grabbing another pair of shoes in the future for longer rides.

Unlike many shops who seem to have a bunch of mechanics who hate CB pedals, my shop loves them and only one part time mechanic rides SPD, the rest are on CB. This means we also sell a bunch of them. I've only seen two outright failures. Both were by guys who train extensively and are notoriously hard on bikes, so it's hard to say how much of a failure it really was... There's also the pedal strike issue, because the spring is all one part, unlike SPD style, you can slam the bottom of your pedal down on a rock hard enough and your foot could become stuck to the now unfunctional pedal. But that's pretty rare, and pedal strikes can destroy any pedal.