Crank Brothers Egg Beater Pedals

Hi, I recently changed over my spd pedals to the egg beater variety.

Of course there is the advantage of multi-position entry but I have to say that overall I'm disappointed.

Whilst entry and exit is quite smooth, there seems to be too much lateral movement whilst the clip is in place - more so compared to the former standard spd ones.

I'm going to stick with them as the adjustment is not so extreme as to warrant changing back.

Could it be that some lateral movement of the foot position is good for the knees during pedalling rather than the feet just being stuck in one position like with standard spd pedals?

Is it just a case of getting used to it?

 

That's the reason I switched to them... plus using Candys and (eventually) Quattros on my other bikes.

I used to get really bad knee pains with SPDs, since switching to Cranks Bros, no more pain. There may be other factors, but I'd attribute a lot of the improvement to the extra 'give' in the pedals.

 

That movement is known as float, and yes, is much easier on most people's kneeds. I have switched to cycling because of my knee and like the crank bros pedals because of their float.

 

Do the egg beaters have more float than the 15 degrees in my SPD zeros? I like lots of float, and so do my knees.

 

Yes. I believe they do, although I couldn't tell you how many degrees the Crank Bros have. I'm horrible at estimating that type of thing. But I do believe they have more float (I use the Candy, but I think it's pretty widely accepted that all crank bros have more float than Shimano).

 

It turns out they have less than half the float of the SPD pedals. I just went to their website, and they only have 6 degrees of float versus the adjustable up to 15 degrees of float for the SPD's. I like the extra float.

 

Very weird. When I tried them out, seemed like the crank bros where much better. Maybe the SPD's were just cranked down or something.

 

They probably come out of the box with zero float, but can be adjusted to 15 degrees to either side with the float adjustment screws. Mine were adjusted on an indoor trainer until they had perfect float for my taste, and then I took them for a live ride. The Eggbeaters might be easier entry/exit (although I cannot imagine an easier entry), but 6 degrees of float is not enough to make my knees happy. My last clipless pedals (Shimano) had less float and the result were achy knees.

 

Actually, this is a more complicated subject than you might think. Check out Shimano's SPD page; scroll down for float options. There are several variations or SPD cleat and pedal, with different attributed float, but none of them exceed 10 degrees (5 in each direction). There's also a distinct difference in the offerings between "free" and tensioned float.

 

Perhaps I am using the term "SPD" incorrectly - I guess I assumed that SPD was short for Speedplay pedals. Speedplay Zeros can be adjusted up to 15 degrees in each direction.

 

SPD = Shimano Pedal Dynamics or something similar... it's Shimano's MTB pedal range. Add to that SPD-SL, SPD-R etc etc for Road.

The Crank Bros pedals offer two angles of release... if you put the cleats on one way you get a 15 degree release angle, or 20 degrees the other way (one of the cleats has a couple of dots on it. The release angle depends on which foot this cleat goes on).

Perhaps someone can provide a definition of 'float'. I've always assumed that it is the amount your foot can turn, friction free, around the pedal. The Eggbeaters, for example have 6 deg float, but a release angle of up to 20 deg, hence I would assume that the extra 14 degs is the amount your foot can turn, before release, but is 'weighted' against the spring?

Either way, it doesn't really matter... as with saddles the only way you can really know which system is right for you is to try it.