# Which SPDs?



## ChristinaJL (12 Mar 2011)

I think I've finally convinced myself to go clipless on the mountain bike.  However, there's a bewildering amount of mtb spds out there, so I need a bit of help choosing!! 

Currently running DMR V8s on my new mountain bike, but even with these I find my feet can slip off especially when I hit a large rock or something like that. I'm mostly going to be riding xc or on the trails at my local mtb centre. I have shimano WSD mountain bike spd shoes and the sole is pretty slippy and that's why I'm going to make the transistion to spds.

So, I'm debating between a few crank brothers models - eggbeater, mallet and candy. I have rubbish knees so need a pedal with float and one that's easy to clip in and out of, especially in case of any emergencies, as I've only been mountain biking a few weeks.  I run speedplay light action pedals on my road bike, so I'm well used to clipping in and out - although it took me ages to find an clipless pedal I liked - I don't like shimano as I find them hard to clip out even on the slackest setting - I have the Shimao M324 combo pedals on my touring bike but don't much care for them. 

Thanks!!

*
*


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## Muddy Ground (12 Mar 2011)

Time ATAC for knees.

www.muddyground.blogspot.com


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## PpPete (12 Mar 2011)

Have you tried M520s ? Much better than the combo pedals IMO

If you shop around you can find them for £20, and if you don't like you can resell on ebay for almost as much.


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## ChristinaJL (12 Mar 2011)

PpPete said:


> Have you tried M520s ?



Yes, I had a pair when I first got my road bike, those were the ones I had trouble clipping out of.


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## ChristinaJL (12 Mar 2011)

Muddy Ground said:


> Time ATAC for knees.



These ones?


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## Cubist (12 Mar 2011)

I like the eggbeaters, but if Mallets have the same float and are in budget then go for it!


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## Muddy Ground (12 Mar 2011)

Yes, spot on - I've dodgy knees from too many motorcycle accidents, and these are the ones I've been happy with. I think What Mountain Bike this month has a pedal review, so that'll be a good place to start.

However, the flats are probably the best if your knees are really bad?

www.muddyground.blogspot.com


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## ChristinaJL (12 Mar 2011)

Cubist said:


> I like the eggbeaters, but if Mallets have the same float and are in budget then go for it!



I've asked Wiggle what the float is on the mallets, so we'll see what they say. I might have to go without breakfast for a week to afford them though!!


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## ChristinaJL (12 Mar 2011)

Muddy Ground said:


> Yes, spot on - I've dodgy knees from too many motorcycle accidents, and these are the ones I've been happy with. I think What Mountain Bike this month has a pedal review, so that'll be a good place to start.
> 
> However, the flats are probably the best if your knees are really bad?



Thanks, they do look good. My knees are ok on the road bike now that I've got the speedplay pedals, so I'm hoping they'll also be ok with spds on the mountain bike. I quite like my DMR V8 platform pedals but my shoes are just too slippy especially if I get any mud on the bottom of them. I thought about buying a new pair of shoes (the sticky five-ten ones) but I have more trouble getting suitable shoes to fit than I do with pedals, hence I've ended up with 4 pairs of road shoes and 1 mtb pair.


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## lukesdad (12 Mar 2011)

+1 time atac


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## ChristinaJL (13 Mar 2011)

Thanks all, so now I have 4 different sorts to choose from!!  Guess I'll have a look at the shop when I go for my mountain bike course in a fortnight and see which look easiest to clip out of!!


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## cookeaa (22 Mar 2011)

I’m a fan of resin caged M424s (the cheapest Caged Shimano model) it’s marginally lighter than all the alloy caged pedals Shimano do but still has a usable platform for emergencies and is quite robust, I’ve treated them quite mean for a few years now with minimal maintenance and they’re going quite nicely… Make sure you have adjusted your cleats properly (this may well not be symmetrical, very few people are) to make sure your knees are straight and happy, often an indicator is feeling one foot get to the limit of the pedals float or even unclip itself during normal pedalling… Set the release tension nice and loose to start with if you like, just to help you get used to them, although once you start getting more confident you may find you are bouncing yourself out of your pedals on rough sections and may want to tighten them up a bit… A lot of people swear by Crank Bros pedals, for plenty of float and easier exit, but a fair few also seem to report disintegrating CB pedals and frustration at the lack of adjustment… but this is all subjective… Times get brillaint reviews in general, I've known a few people who swear by them, especially for dodgey knees...


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## teletext45 (22 Mar 2011)

Ive got a a road bike and ive just fitted these...... http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-pd-...=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products 

for three reasons
1 the match my bike
2 im using mtb shoes so i can still walk properly in them 
3 you can adjust the tightness of the clip while im getting used to them

andy


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## threebikesmcginty (23 Mar 2011)

Cubist said:


> I like the eggbeaters, but if Mallets have the same float and are in budget then go for it!



I've got eggbeaters on my road bike - I like 'em.


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## BigmechUK (23 Mar 2011)

The New CrankBrothers Candys are amazing! the have sorted the float issue but are very easy to use!


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## BigmechUK (23 Mar 2011)

Egg beaters are also a great pedal!


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## ChristinaJL (23 Mar 2011)

Thanks all!!

I think I will go for either the candy or eggbeater pedals, or maybe the look ones.  I'm on my mtb course on Sunday so I'll see what the instructor suggests. Apparantly they're assessing our skills first and we might be doing jumps, so this could be interesting.


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## threebikesmcginty (23 Mar 2011)

CRC have some Crank Bros Candy X for £16 at the moment. Not sure what's going on with their payment stuff at the moment though, few reports of credit card fraud.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=54823


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## User482 (23 Mar 2011)

Egg beaters have all sorts of reliability problems - do a search on singletrack world.

By contrast, I still have a pair of Deore DX SPDs that I bought in 1993, in perfect working order. They get refilled with grease once a year.


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## Cubist (24 Mar 2011)

User482 said:


> Egg beaters have all sorts of reliability problems - do a search on singletrack world.
> 
> By contrast, I still have a pair of Deore DX SPDs that I bought in 1993, in perfect working order. They get refilled with grease once a year.


The good citizens of singletrack world fail to point out that the reliability issues were with the original Eggbeater SL, which had fragile axles if you were of the Clydesdale persuasion. Crank Bros offer upgrade axles for the SL pedals. I would like to point out that I am a big fat f*cker and haven't broken either of my two pairs of Eggbeater C yet, neither on the Commuter nor on the MTB.


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## User482 (24 Mar 2011)

Cubist said:


> The good citizens of singletrack world fail to point out that the reliability issues were with the original Eggbeater SL, which had fragile axles if you were of the Clydesdale persuasion. Crank Bros offer upgrade axles for the SL pedals. I would like to point out that I am a big fat f*cker and haven't broken either of my two pairs of Eggbeater C yet, neither on the Commuter nor on the MTB.



All I point out is that you see a lot more complaints about problems with eggbeaters, than you do with SPDs. I doubt that this is entirely because of the weight of the rider.


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## mountainrider (25 Mar 2011)

Ive got eggbeaters on both mountain and road bike and they are great. My knees are sensitive but fine with these.


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## Berlinbybike (29 Mar 2011)

Crank Brothers use 1 bearing race and 1 bushing in their pedals - at least in the ones I have (Candy) - absolute rubbish at any price and never again at their price.


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## Bicycle (29 Mar 2011)

Berlinbybike said:


> Crank Brothers use 1 bearing race and 1 bushing in their pedals - at least in the ones I have (Candy) - absolute rubbish at any price and never again at their price.




I have no idea about the technical side of Crank Bros pedals.

They may have one bearing per pedal or twenty....

But they are nice to use, easy to clip in and out of and they don't clog up with mud and annoying little stones.

They also offer lots of float if float is what makes your boat float.

1 big vote for Egg Beaters and Candy.

I have the cheapest versions of both on various different bikes and they are absolute mustard.


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## ChristinaJL (30 Mar 2011)

Well, I did the course on Sunday and learnt a whole load of skills. I'm going to stick with flat studded platforms for now and buy some five ten shoes so my feet don't whizz off the pedals when I try to do wheel lifts.  The instructor recommended I stayed with platforms for a bit as I tend to get numb feet whatever pedal/spd shoe combo I use. But I'll get some candy pedals having seen them in my local shop too for when I feel confident enough to make the transition to spds.


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## Trembler49 (31 Mar 2011)

cookeaa said:


> I’m a fan of resin caged M424s (the cheapest Caged Shimano model) it’s marginally lighter than all the alloy caged pedals Shimano do but still has a usable platform for emergencies and is quite robust, I’ve treated them quite mean for a few years now with minimal maintenance and they’re going quite nicely… Make sure you have adjusted your cleats properly (this may well not be symmetrical, very few people are) to make sure your knees are straight and happy, often an indicator is feeling one foot get to the limit of the pedals float or even unclip itself during normal pedalling… Set the release tension nice and loose to start with if you like, just to help you get used to them, although once you start getting more confident you may find you are bouncing yourself out of your pedals on rough sections and may want to tighten them up a bit… A lot of people swear by Crank Bros pedals, for plenty of float and easier exit, but a fair few also seem to report disintegrating CB pedals and frustration at the lack of adjustment… but this is all subjective… Times get brillaint reviews in general, I've known a few people who swear by them, especially for dodgey knees...



I'm a big fan of these as well. long lasting, virtually indestructible, easy to clip out of and you can aso use normal trainers for going to the shops.


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## ChristinaJL (2 Apr 2011)

Trembler49 said:


> I'm a big fan of these as well. long lasting, virtually indestructible, easy to clip out of and you can aso use normal trainers for going to the shops.



Those are the pedals I had on my road bike for 6 months and didn't get on with them for some reason they're stiff to clip out of even on the slackest setting - maybe I'm just a girlie wuss!!  Anyway, I got some five ten shoes yesterday which I can use on both my touring and mtb. Once I'm a bit more confident about not having to do any emergency foot down movements, then I'll move onto spds for the mountain bike. For some reason, although I'm really confident on road with spd-sls, I'm a bit reluctant off-road - probably because I've only been mountain biking a month and need to practise on riding over technical stuff unclipped.


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## deaksie (2 Apr 2011)

Hello 
I use normal SPD pedals but then have some Northwave Bike n'walk shoes which have a sole more like a walking boot than traditional biking shoes. That way if you have to get off in the mud (e.g. when opening gates) then you have a lot more grip. Works well for me
L


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## Dave5N (3 Apr 2011)

Time ATACs


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## dtw (5 Apr 2011)

I second the Shimano DXs. I made the leap to SPDs from flats and like the fact that they have a larger platform. Do look a bit daft on my carbon xc full susser though!


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