Pedal Preference?

So I have some yelling EGG BEATERS, some SPDs, while still others are screaming SMARTYs.....anone else want to weigh in? I keep thinking I need a bigger platform that Egg Beaters have.....

Suggestions? Pros? Cons?

I'm a spd pedal girl. Give me shimano 959's anytime and I'll be happy. But different people will swear by different pedals. My brother loves his time atac carbons. He swears that they shed mud beautifully.

Some people say that egg beaters are the way to go, that they shed mud better than spd pedals. I'm not sure that is so true. If you have to ride in terrible enough conditions, mud sticks to everything.

This year my teammate and I raced in one of the most awful, rainy, miserable mountain bike races ever. She cursed her eggbeaters and I cursed my spd's.

While I'm pretty new to cross, I'd say you want a pedal in which you can easily stand on for dismounts and easily clip into for mounting your bike. Mud shedding pedals would be a bonus...if there is such a thing. But, the pedals that would work the best, are the ones your most comfortable with for CX (IMO).

Assuming you are riding road (??) - I vote for Look (mine) or Shimano SPD-SL (boyfriend). Both excellent. Never could get used to SPDs.

I have Look on my road bike and SPD's on my mountain bike. I tried the eggbeaters on my mountain bike but I couldn't clip out as quickly as with the SPD's. I am also considering going back to SPD's on my road bike.

Since I was hoping to participate in local cyclocross races, I figured that egg beaters might not offer the stability I wanted, but I know a person who uses them in cyclocross and loves them.

I use SPDs on my mountain bike and road bike and was leaning toward them, but then two others told me to look at the Smartys....too many choices....

Thanks for the input!

I raced my first three seasons on SPD 959s and they do not shed mud worth anything. They're the pits! I switched to Eggbeaters for the last couple of races last season and then used them for mountain biking. I put Candies on my cross bike for this season (to have a larger platform for Adam H-M's unclip the left first technique). I'm pretty happy with them, but can't unclip when I thread my right leg through (so I have to do the unclip the left first technique).

The most popular cross pedals around here are Time ATACs (the old skoolers) and Eggbeaters and/or Candies. The only folks who race SPDs are the newbies who don't know any better (guess it took me 3 years to get past newbie status).

Well, I am guessing my ineptness will scream NEWBIE louder than my pedals, but thanks for the info Velo- I do have some trouble with my spds not wanting to give up their precious load of mud even now and was wondering how that would work in CX - Ah, the excitement of equipment! Nothing like that new bike/pedal/saddle/tire/air smell to make me smile!

But it's all fun, right?

What I did like about my SPDs is I could adjust my left cleat to almost zero tension so I never, never had a problem clipping out on my dismounts.