Crank Brothers Eggbeater vs Candy

The very last Shimano part on my bike has been replaced. Now I'm not a total fanatic anti Shimano person, but I've always liked the smaller companies and been a Sram fan even though they are not so small anymore. There were two parts on the bike that stayed Shimano because there were no viable alternatives for me. The front der, but with the new Sram Xgen that has been replaced. And the pedals.

Been on SPD since they first came out. Finally got tired of the bearings dieing, having limited rebuild capabilities and the ever present poor engagement in mud. You know that falling over why is my pedal not unclipping feeling.

Been interested in the Crank brothers product for a while but the SPDs were working ok until recently. Decided to try out the Candy pedal first with the platform because I was worried about going to such a small platform of the regular egg after being on SPD for so long.

(borrowed from blue collar mtb)

As you can see the standard egg beater clip has been enclosed by a resin platform. The problem I found with them was two fold
1) the platform caused interference with my shoe sole. I cut away a ton of the sole and used the enclosed shims and still got interference
2) the egg beater clip had to be at a 90 degree rotation with the outer platform in order to clip in. It involved a two step process to first get the clip part rotated and then clip in.
Many times I just could not get clipped in which sucked on rough sections.

When it did clip in I loved the smooth engagement and disengagement. But in the end just could not handle the slow process of getting into them.

In comparison, the regular egg beater is like butter.


There was still some interference issues with the sole of my shoe (Nike) but some judicious cutting with a knife fixed it all up


Yes the platform is small, but once engaged there is no problem esp with a shoe with a stiff sole like these Nikes. Engagement is telepathic once you get your foot in the right spot. Overshooting it is easy to do and you can slip off the front. But it is going to take some time for me to get the muscle memory set up to get my feet in the right spot.

The regular eggbeater also has flat sides for using a regular 15mm pedal wrench in addition to the hex head on the back. The Candy only has the hex head. I much prefer a pedal wrench for the ability to use the crank arm to help with leverage when removing. A hex torque wrench can be used on the back to ensure correct installation torque.

Haven't had much ride time on the eggbeaters yet, so the review may change after some time around the single track and the rocks. But I think I'll be happy. I was happy with the Candy's once I got clipped in, it was just getting in that was the hard part. Granted the issues are most likely related to the Nike sole, but there is still the issue of where the springs need to be in relation to the platform in order to clip in.

* Revised
having some problems clipping in, am trying the shim out to see if it helps.


*Revised 6-08
Sorry Crank Brothers, they are listed on ebay and I'm going back to Shimano. Reasons: Mainly the clipping in. It just requires more force to clip in than the SPDs. I weight 135lbs and just my body weight alone is not clipping me in most times. I've got to twist and force it to clip. Which I gotta do with SPDs when it is muddy sometimes, but it just is not a fast enough clip in. I've been trying for several weeks to get them to feel better, trimmed the hell out of my shoes, but I just cannot clip into them quickly, which leaves much much to be desired when trying to start on a steep climb or restart in a technical section.

The release was nice. Most times, sometimes my left clip would require noticeably more force to unclip. It seemed random, but for the most part the release was smooth and nice.

So for some people and can see them being great pedals, but for me they just did not inspire confidence and did not clip in fast enough.