Crank Bros. Candy vs. Mallets - which will work better?

I already own the Candy SL pedals, but have not used them yet. I have never clipped in for off-road riding, but have clipped in for road riding. I was wondering if I would benefit from using the Mallet pedals instead of the Candy pedals. Can you ride on the Candy pedals while not being clipped in?

I'm just nervous about some of the more technical areas and getting my foot down quick enough.

What's does everyone think? Are the mallets AS EASY to clip into as the Candy pedals?

I can't directly answer this question because I haven't tried the Candy pedals.

What I can tell you is that the Mallets were such a headache to me, that I ended up ditching them for the standard Eggbeaters. The Mallet platform is large, and made clipping-in a huge pain in the ass. I even went so far as to trim off most of the rubber cleats on my shoes, and used every available spacer under the pedal cleats. This helped, but I still had difficulty finding and getting the pedal cleat to clip-in. The shoe-to-platform contact area was just too much to allow easy entry.

To me, the standard Eggbeater design works as well as it does because there is no platform to get in the way. Maybe the Candy's smaller platform isn't an issue, but I wasted enough $$ on the Mallets and wasn't going to risk throwing away more money.

thats like asking "whats better a car or a truck ?" well i dunno you tell me, what are you going to use it for, are you going to ride without your shoes ?
i use eggbeater Ti's and i can ride easy withoput being clipped in, i just slide the front of the cleat into the back wing and it sortof wedges the pedal onto my shoe.

i honestly cant see a point in that piece of slippery plastic around the candy they call a platform

then if your going to0 be riding without your normal shoes then the mallets though yes you probably will end up cutting off some of your shoes tred (same with most big platform double sided clipless pedals) and you might have to use some shims as well which is a bad thing.. since it increases the distance from the shoe sole to the pedal axle

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GT Ruckus SS
2006 Giant Trance 1
Giant TCR Euro

yeah you can ride the candy sl's without being clipped in and they very easy to clip into. sometimes I will clip in without enve knowing that I did. you can't very easily ride the eggbeateres without cliping in

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if you see me on the road i am the one passing you

kestel Talon trek fuel 90
waiting for the heckler full XT

I think that the candy sl's thing on them makes them very tough and that inturn makes them good pedals

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if you see me on the road i am the one passing you

kestel Talon trek fuel 90
waiting for the heckler full XT

when did you last see a broken eggbeater ? and how was it broken ?

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GT Ruckus SS
2006 Giant Trance 1
Giant TCR Euro

You've already got the candys, so use em. I use ATACs on my MTB and Candys on my tri bike, but have never used a mallet. On both the ATAC and Candy, the engagement is real easy and the platform is wide enough to pedal without clipping in. I give the edge to the candys for ease of unclipping. piece of cake. When my ATACs go, I'll replace em with Candys.

You dont really need a huge platform like the mallet to pedal. As previously mentioned you can even make go with the regular eggbeaters. I DO find that even the small surface area afforded by the Candy does make it easier pedaling when unclipped.

You'll turtle a couple times, no matter what clipless you use.