Anyone used Eggbeaters Candy SL pedals?

I just got a lovely Bike Friday for touring and travel and am trying mountain shoes (so I can walk on the recessed cleats) for the first time. After reading tons of great reviews on a mountain bike review site, I bought a pair of Eggbeaters Candy SL pedals. I even had the bike built with blue handlebar tape to match the pedals!

Got the bike all put together today and put the pedals on, cleats and shims on my new clunky Cannondale shoes (I am used to road Sidis and Speedplay road pedals), and practiced clipping in over and over (in the comfort and safety of my living room!), and IT IS HARD!! Sheesh, I have been riding clipless for years and now I am terrified that I am going to take a bunch of spills when I get out on the road.

Has anyone else used these pedals? If so, what was the learning curve for you and did they get easier over time? Any clipping in tips?

Thanks in advance!
Emily

Emily:


Sorry, have never used the egg beaters...but would love to see a picture of your Bike Friday. I guess on the next Lance chronicle they are going to show him riding one!

karen

Hi Emily,
I have the Candy pedals on my road bike and I use the cannondale mountain bike shoes with them. They shouldn't be that hard to clip in. You might have to shim them and they should have come with extra shims so that you actually have enough cleat exposed to clip in with the mountain bike style shoes. I think they tell you in the directions how much the cleat should be above the tread. If not check the web-site. I have no problems clipping in or out and absolutely love the pedals.

Hi Emily -

I just returned from almost 3 weeks away (combo vacation & work) and it's taking me forever to catch up w. all the posts... :p

I had the same exprience as you're describing w. Candy pedals. I posted on this many months ago and I'll edit this post in a bit to link to that thread.
( here's the thread: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...=&threadid=947 )

Bottom line: I too had a bit of trouble clipping into one of the pedals, but I could clip into the other pedal just fine, and I had no trouble clipping out of either pedal. I had pretty much concluded that the sole of my shoe was contacting the platform of the pedal on the problem side a bit too much, leading to the difficulty in clipping in on that one side (my shoes are the Shimano M037-W which are likewise in the 'clunky mountain bike shoe' category :)). I spent a bit of time playing with the cleat position and shims on the shoe of the problem side, and I had more-or-less solved the problem once I carefully shaved away a little bit of the sole on the problem shoe (the instructions for the Candy pedals go into this; if you don't have the instructions you can download them from the Crank Brothers website, which you can find via Google).

Then I found Eggbeater pedals on sale (which are the same mechanism as the Candys but without the platform), and they clipped in and out on both sides with no problem whatsoever. So I gave my Candy pedals to my husband so he could use them on his other bike (he had no probs at all w. the Candy pedals), and Pokey now sports Eggbeaters.

Hope this helps,
a very jetlagged Jo.

I really appreciate the great replies here. I neglected to mention in the OP that I had already shimmed the cleats and was still having severe difficulties clipping in. So today, my husband shaved down the soles of my very heavy-treaded shoes where they were contacting the pedal platform possibly more than they should be. I haven't actually ridden the bike yet, but clipping in and out inside the house seems a lot easier, so I have high hopes that I'll get used to and enjoy these pedals a lot. I possibly should have gotten the regular Eggbeaters rather than the Candy SL's, but now that I have them, I certainly plan to give them a reasonable chance.

Karen, I'll post a picture of my Bike Friday soon, but it looks like I may have to send it back, as it appears that they made the top tube about 1.5" too long for me. It also has the clunky fit stem on it right now, and I'd rather show it off once I get the pretty custom curved stem made. I'm really disappointed that it didn't fit just right as I am so excited to try it out, but it's not like I don't have other bikes to ride in the meantime! :cool:

Thanks again to all who posted!

Emily

It's really weird hearing about Bike Fridays on this site from folks all the way in the east coast. I always thought it was just a local Eugenian thing. =)
I hope you get the right size and look soon!

Actually, I know of at least four other Bike Fridays just in our bike club here in central NC - they're more prevalent in Oregon, I am sure, but they are everywhere. A good friend of mine in Texas has one as well!

Emily

would you believe I actually am friends with the nephew of the guys who invented them? =) It's so good to see their business doing so well- I would've never imagined!

I'm really curious to hear how you like your Bike Friday, Emily, once you have the sizing probs worked out.
I would love to travel overseas with my bike, but it would be such a hassle to take it apart to ship it (and hope it isn't damaged and I can actually put it together again when it arrives). BF sounds like a good alternative.

- Jo.