Yes, I know I gave the Eggbeater SLs a bad review. But here we have the 2011 version of the Candy. To be specific, what you are looking at is the Candy 2.
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The assembly of my steel hardtail coincided with this new 'training regimen' of mine called 'climb-Mt. Faber-until-you-puke'. The thing is during training, long before I puke, I complain about my knees already. It got so bad that after these ride sessions to Mt. Faber, I have to put ice on my knees when I get home.
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So what does an old guy like me do? I have gone past the denial stage and am now in the acceptance stage. So I went surfing and found out that my old nemesis (AKA Eggbeater) is supposedly good for the knees. The worst part is that, supposedly, all that float that I hated on the Eggbeaters is the single most important factor that makes them so good for people with bad knees.
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I went through the denial stage again. It can't be that this product that I slammed would turn out to be what I needed! So I surfed again for other alternatives. There is LOOK, Speedplay Frog, and there is Time ATAC.
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Actually, both Look and Time are similar to Eggbeater in design. Not just that, they are also similar in that both of them are difficult to find in Singapore. Difficult to find = expensive as well. I know BikeHaus along Bukit Timah (near 6th Avenue) sells Speedplay Frog. But those pedals have very bad reviews in MTBR. A lot of people think they are only good for road riding.
After this initial denial stage, I eventually went to the acceptance stage. Factors that helped were :
1. Agent for Crankbrothers is Hup Leong
2. I have good relationship with the people there
3. The price of Crankbrothers stuff at Hup Leong is a lot cheaper than ChainReactionCycles.
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I know #3 reason is very surprising but you could always go down there and see for yourself.
But I will only eat half of the humble pie as I did not buy the Eggbeaters :-) I opted for the Candy 2 pedals. I read a review of the Eggbeaters which I wholeheartedly agree with. The review said something like pedalling with Eggbeaters is like stepping on an icecube, then the icecube is on a stick, then you pedal.
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I am glad to report that the Candy 2 pedals are not like that. The small platform really made a huge difference. I don't miss my XT pedals now (PD M770 - 423g per pair). Of course the ususal stuff about mudshedding and being able to find the engagement point due to having four of it (as opposed to other pedals which only have 2) have all been confirmed because today I used them on a wet, rainy trail ride at Pulau Ubin.
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I still have something bad to say though! I had numerous moments in which I could not clip out !!! This lead to about 3 crashes. I installed the cleats with 20deg release angle. I have already changed them to release at 15degrees and I will use them tomorrow at T15.
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By the way, the weight of the pedals that these Candy 2s replaced is 423g/pair (PD-M565). The Candy 2s have a claimed weight of 296g per pair. However, my scales disagree and said that they actually weight 307g.... and no, again, I did not feel any benefits from the lower weight :-(
I have just completed a 75km ride. Around 30km of those are off-road with lots of long(ish) climbs and I did not have to put ice on my knees when I got home :-)
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Ok, I will eat the other half of the humble pie now.
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