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A long-time Eggbeater user, I can’t say that I was exactly looking forward to exchanging my pedals for a 24 hour race- even if it was within in the same family. While I understand the attraction of adding a small platform to the frightening-looking Eggbeaters, I’d never had trouble clipping in to the minimalist pedals- in fact, I find it hard not to. Besides, my experience with the first-generation (composite bodied) Candys was less than ideal. The first time around, the Candy seemed to interfere with the shoe a bit more than the Eggbeaters, meaning that any given pair of shoes and cleats would only ever work well with one pedal or the other. Still, with a new low-profile aluminum cage and surprisingly low 305g (actual) weight, I thought that the Candys would provide a bit more support of a long day’s riding- and be worth trying. Little did I know how much I would end up liking them…
Thanks to the difference in shape, I initially found the revised Candys marginally more difficult to clip in to than the Eggbeaters. It wasn’t enough to be frustrating, but certainly enough to be noticeable. 
The metal cage doesn’t provide a whole lot in terms of a platform when unclipped, and with a pit of practice and a smidge more attention than I was used to, finding and engaging the cleat became largely automatic. With that sorted, I stopped thinking about them altogether.
I’ve got several hundred miles on the Candy 3s at this point and they haven’t asked anything of me. In nasty New Mexico mud and gritty sand, they’ve engaged reliably and I’ve never had any issues unclipping while wearing either Shimano or Mavic shoes. 24 hours’ worth of racing came and went without any foot pain, which is no small thing. It wasn’t until I returned to another bike and standard (previous generation) Eggbeaters that I was really impressed by what I missed. It turns out that the Candys really are noticeably more stable underfoot than the Eggbeaters- especially with worn shoes. Not that the Eggbeaters are bad- just that the Candys are better.
This improvement in stability had me thinking. Surely, the aluminum platform added an unacceptable amount of weight- at least enough that I could happily stick with my old favorites. 
In my book, a 26g difference is not enough to justify reduced performance- and that’s the published difference in weight between $120 Candy 3s and $120 Eggbeater 3s. Will the slight delay in clipping in become unmanageable? Will the bearings live up to the promise of their 5 year warranty? I’ll keep on riding the Candys and report back after several months’ abuse, but at this point see no reason not to make the change to Candys as Eggbeaters wear out. It’s sure can be nice to be surprised.
marc
