have you tried two-sided pedals? they work fine too. 4-sided is really unnecessary.

I rock eggbeaters on my road and track bike, but they do seem to have a bit more play than I like. I've cranked down on the retaining bolt until my forehead vein bulges, but it still seems a little wiggly.

yeah, but four sided works better than fine...they work superDUPER!

Unless you're racing cyclocross. I've had my two-sided ATACs jam up with mud and grass on many occassions.

So MTB shoes are built for offroad use- my experience has been that pavement kills the lugs pretty quickly. the harder plastic of more expensive racing shoes seems more vulnerable to this, so you might actually be better off with some lowly shimano shoes or whatever. i've worn out spds and time cleats as a result of this wear and have had to deal with accidental clipout as a result. it's never been that bad- i've always been able to deal with it in time. even pulling out at the brooklyn base of the north side of the williamsurg bridge path with snow on the ground, back when that was open, wasn't a huge problem. certainly taught me to push more than pull when skidding.
to address the original post- spd cleats wear less than time cleats. i switched back to my 747s because of the wear on my atacs. the first thing i noticed was the lack of float- i'd unclip in the middle of traffic just from flicking the back end of the bike around. i was twisting my shoe more in the atacs and on the spds my foot would just fall out of the pedal (it felt like a really gentle, barely noticable unclipping).

right now i'm thinking about going to toe clips cuz food delivery sucks on slippery sidis.

yes, i have. i rode eggbeaters for a year until the right pedal fell apart. now i typically ride atacs. i fail to see how you could ever get a two sided pedal stuck perpendicular to the ground so as to be unable to flip it to one or the other sides. i have also used speedplay, most varieties, and generic spd pedals. i have never encountered a situation where i thought "dang, i wish i had two more sides!"

be careful--those things strip quite easily and then you're in for a new spindle.

I use Eggbeater Cs and love them.

m520's here ....cheap and they work fine. Unclipped only while climbing an very steep section of road (+20%) on too tall of a gear. I think that It was not for the strain but I moved my heel inwards or outwards. Shoes are not bad at all, ventilated, black on black with vents and 3 velcro straps.

Are there any advantages of candies over eggbeaters?

you have a bigger contact patch and can transfer more power.

I would think that would mean that they would be more popular, but it doesn't seem to be that way...

i have candies and eggs and switch them between different bikes. i actually find the eggs easier to use than the candies. the candies have enough of a platform that sometimes i miss the springs and slip off the platform. rare but happens. never have that problem with the the eggbeaters.

I run frogs on everything. I've got a pair which is still going strong after 5 years of daily use including boston winters.
There's a grease port which makes servicing easy- just squirt some new grease in ther every month or two.
Seriously, i want every part of my bike to include this feature now.

The cleats last me ~1.5-2 years/pair.


Also, it's basically impossible to pull out of them while skidding.

Been using eggbeaters for a year and a half (mtb and fixed) with no problems. Unclipped once in a skid, but to no ill effect. I bought new cleats for my cheapass shimano shoes a while back, but haven't needed to replace them yet.

its a lot easier for me to spin a square than a rectangle.

I'm another one on the Time ATAC wagon. I've been running my 9 year old pair for the last 2 years with no issues (and no maintenance of any kind). Clipping in's easy, and I've never accidentally unclipped. Once in a while I do wish for a larger platform, but that's about it. I can't imagine riding eggbeaters with that nearly non-existant contact patch.