eggbeaters or spds?

I use spds of the 520 and xtr varieties.

Time ATAC

Any Shimano without cage, Ritchey's are good as well, or exustar.

Crank Bro's if you like replacing bearings a lot!

Cages are pointless, use stiffer shoes and it is not needed. I fail to see how it helps in any way, if it flips over you clip in the other side

Yep thems the ones, I've got a pair of those and the xt version and they are great, the extra platform helps me when I'm unclipped and rest my foot on the pedal, I also find it easier to relocate the pedal and clip back in faster than the normal shimano pedals on my road bike. As I say I've only recently switched after years on flats, but I certainly prefer the cage type

The Shimano cage isnt for the foot to rest on the sole shouldnt touch the cage when clipped in. They are designed so there is a bigger area for your foot when your seaching for the pedal. The cage also protects the binding. When I started on them I was amazed the difference it makes clipping in no rolling off the pedal and smacking the back of your leg as your flying down some techy woodwork or rock garden. Its one of those you have to try it to understand it things.

The Beginner wrote:

stubs wrote:

Its one of those you have to be inept at clipping in to understand it things.

FTFY

A stated, never had a problem finding the pedal and clipping in the first time it gets on a downstroke, on that basis the cage wouldn't help!

Your so lucky you always clip in 100% of the time, unfortunately I'm not perfect and need help occasionally.

I don't think we are talking caged pedals as such, more the new style trail pedals as opposed to the race 'normal' spds, like m530 or xt trail with the 5 after mxx5.

That makes no sense, it is impossible.

okay, the beginners info on eggbeaters refers to the Old style, where you'd be looking at 18 months for a set of bearings tops, and would often end up with the pedal attatched to the shoe and not the spindle! but since then they have dramatically improved the design, aas it was a rebuild kit was only a tenner anyways,
Crank brothers dont offer any tension adjustment, the springs are set and for the first half a dozen rides they are quite stiff to clip into but they become a Great pedal,
i went form CB's cands to Time roc atacs, the times have some adjustment, but even on the minimum compared to the cb's they are a much more solid feel when clipped in, they do loosen over time but a lot slower! mine are over 2 years old now, on original bearings, original cleats, and they are still a Solid platform,
Shimano's are the better choice realistically if your a Newb to spd style pedals, they are cheap - the 520's are often £20! they offer a nice amount of adjustment on the tension so you can have it set to minimum until you get used to it, then wind them up a bit, what i'd suggest is that you start of with the 520's and see how you get on, if you like them then have a look at the time's or cb's, both offer greater float over shimano, iirc shimano are 6 degree, cb's 7 degree and time 8 degree of float, which doesn't sound like much difference but in practice does become more obvious!
as for caged Vs non caged, makes very little difference, my candies were effectively caged, and the times have a minimal cage around them, but, you dont notice when your foots in!!

I personally much prefer spd's, I always found it much harder to clip into eggbeaters and eventually switched back to spd's. I also don't believe the cage makes any noticeable difference.

I tried egg beaters having had clogging problems with old style spd's but the new versions are far more open. I also think spd's are the best performance wise even if they are slightly heavier than other brands.