Eggbeater pedals?
 

This is for those of you who use or have used eggbeater pedals for touring/general use. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Are they really "easier" to use than spd pedals?
Thanks!

One distinction is that they're quite hard to ride w regular soled shoes. Disadvantage if you want to ride with normal shoes. Advantage if a thief wants to ride the bike away.

I've been using them for two years. When they wear out, or when I buy my next touring/general use bike, I'm going back to straps which I used for the prior 20. I've decided that for the kind of riding I do clipless pedals aren't worth the expense and inconvenience.

The candy models offer a little more of a platform, which a lot of people say helps on longer rides. I have them and think they're easy and comfortable.

My 2 cents:
I am a big fan of egg beater pedals. Admittly, I haven't tried any other brands or types of clipless. For the first time in years, I spend a few days riding around on flat pedals w/o straps and hated it. I'll be surprised if I go to any other pedal outside of some sort of Crank. Bros. Very easy to get in and out of and the shoes that I wear (cleats are very recessed) works wonderful with egg beaters.

I've had them on my tourer for a while, I switch them over to the MTB when I go mountain biking. Lightweight, easier to get into than regular SPD pedals, and so far very durable.

I have used them for a while. I like them a lot...would recomend them as well. I ride the SS version..easy to get in and out of. Simple...and like is said above the cleat is pretty small...the main advantage I see over spd is they are self adjusting and they are lighter....just mount them and go...

I have Crank Brothers pedals on each of my bikes. Two sets of Eggbeaters, one set of Candies and one set of Mallets. Love 'em.

They are wonderful in snow--- the shed almost everything. The chrome ones will rust a little. The end caps are soft plastic, and you will eventually destroy them, unless you never maintain them. They are the best value for the money--- $50 on sale- with cleats?! Incredible.

I have some of the original eggbeaters that are going strong. I use a rebuild kit on them each year. The stock cleats are quite soft and seem to need replacing more often than my Time ATAC cleats. Crank Bros offer a premium cleat that is supposed to be more durable. I have a set, but haven't used them yet so I can't comment.

I used Time ATAC control Z pedals on my touring bikes. If I had to choose I'd buy the Time's over the eggbeaters, but the eggbeaters are lighter and cheaper.

I've heard mountain bikers and cyclocrossers say that there is more of a tendency for your foot to roll off the pedal while trying to clip in, in a hasty fashion.
I have not used them but I have used Time Atac and don't like them.
It's the feel of clipping in and out that I don't like.
They do not have the positive tactile feeling that Shimano SPD's have.
Also, SPD's have adjustable entry/release tension. You can make them super easy to clip in and out of or clamp your feet in tight for fast riding.

Eggbeaters are a 'keep it simple stupid' philosophy. There's nothing to go wrong, and the newer ones require no maintenance or adjustment. They're smooth, predictable, and reliable. They shed debris (mud, snow) better than most any other clipless pedal and you'd pay double for equivalent weight SPDs. Really, I'm not sure why anyone would consider any other pedal.

I use them on all my bikes.

I brought along the rebuild kit on this tour, but have yet to use it. The bearing on the right pedal are getting a little loose, but not worth swapping yet. I've ~11000Km on them this tour, plus ?5/6000Km prior. Pretty darned good IMO. Particulalry given the conditions I've ridden through: rain, dust, snow, mud, sand all the goodies which can trash bearings.

I have swapped out my cleats on this tour, but that's reasonable given the distance cycled as well as the amount of walking about I've done.

Mine are the non-platform version eggbeaters. These definitely limit ones footwear to a stiff soled cleated shoe. I 've mostly used my Shimano sandals, which now seem about to fall apart. The soles are still pretty stiff (there's a thick plate in them). I'm lugging around a pair of MTB shoes I bought in Bangkok should my sandals fail.

~Cheers from Hoi An Vietnam!~

two friends of mine had bad experiences with the eggbeaters loosing tension with regular usage over the course of about a year and a half and yes they tried everything new cleats cleat position and all

my personal favorite is the time atacs

I have heard good things about Time Atacs. I can't imagine Shimano would be any better. In fact, I can't imagine a worse pedal than Shimano, at least for mountain biking. They're absolutely terrible (good luck getting your foot out if they get muddy and the mud freezes - yes, it did happen to me, and I couldn't get my foot out for a planned stop on a fire road).

I have been using Eggbeaters on my 05 Caldera since January 05 (25 months and 3800+ miles later) with no problems. I've had them on my 05 Surly CrossCheck since I got it in Sept. 06 (5 months and 900+ miles later) and have not had any problems. Retem, maybe your friends with bad experiences had an earlier version of Eggbeaters. They were redesigned in either 04 or 05 (this is why the directions say to occaisionally grease the spindle - I checked with Crank Bros. and they told me this applied to the earlier incarnation of Eggbeaters, but the new ones do not need to be greased; apparently they haven't yet edited this out of the owner's manual/directions).

I've used Time ATAC pedals and Shimano SPD and I prefer SPD. As I said, it's the feeling of clipping in and out that I don't like about the ATAC. It is an indistinct, unprecise feeling with the ATACs.
You may not like SPDs but they are the most popular by far. The newest version is better in terms of mud clearing. I don't ride in mud enough to make the ATACs worthwhile for me. If anything, I find the SPDs easier to get out of because you don't have to turn your foot as much and, as I said, the entry/release tension is adjustable unlike the ATACs or Eggbeaters.
The criticism I've heard of the Eggbeater is about it's shape. All four sides are the same size and are very narrow from front to back. If you miss clipping in the pedal rolls on the bottom of the shoe. Or, if you're tring to pedal without being clipped in the foot rolls off. I know people who have gone back to SPDs for this reason.

I have eggbeaters. They were the ONLY cleats I could get out of w/o having to try to hard. Then, on a tour, I was "this close" to falling over at a last-minute-stop-because-of-stupid-driver-not-stopping-when-they-should-have and had more-or-less given up and prepared myself psychologically for the crash, when, instinct told my foot to be on the ground and it ended up on the ground and I did not crash. I would have crashed in my other pedals. I was forever sold on eggbeaters.

I was told by my LBS that Crank Bros makes the cleats softer so that the cleats, not the pedals, wear out. Pretty smart. So, when I tour, I just take along an extra pair of cleats and screws, just in case. They're small.