Buy Nice Pedals

I have long said that upgrading a bike to clipless pedals is the single greatest upgrade you can make to a bike. I also remind friends and customers that unlike most other upgrades,  it is one that you will take with you to your next bike.  So while it may not be worth spending $500 on a new suspension fork and putting it on a $300 bike, spending a little extra on the pedals is well worth it because they will look just as nice on your next bike.

All this really hit home when one the guys here asked me about a set of pedals I was putting on my new road bike,  and I realized that I had had them for about 13 years.  There are all sorts of stories here,  but let me run through some examples of pedals I have owned and I think you will see where I am going with it.

First clipless pedals were $30 cheapie SPD style Welgos I bought online.  Rode them on my mountain bike and destroyed them in a season,  repurchased them and destroyed the second set as well.

Time MTB pedals -  Started running Time's on a recommendation from a teammate.   Due to cash constraints I bought the less expensive Time ATAC pedals. Loved the system but found myself destroying them regularly.  It was to the point where I had a box of spare pedals and if ever I had both a left and a right pedal in there I would run them as a set.   Finally I sprung for the Time World Cup Pedals which were times high end version of the same pedal I was riding.   I didn't think about it at time, but as the World Cups quietly worked on one of my bikes I continued to destroy the others on my other bike.
Ended up selling all my pedals (including the World Cups) when I switched to Crank Brothers as I was frusterated with breaking so many pedals.

Crank Brothers-  Landed a sponsorship deal with Crank Brothers and was riding two sets of EggBeater Twin Ti. pedals which were one step off of the top of the line.   After countless 24 hour races, thousands of hours of training, and more abuse than I care to mention,  I am still riding these pedals after over 11 years.  Naturally I was really happy with them and have been singing the praises of Eggbeaters.   A few years ago I brought my wife on board and bought her a cheap set (MRX) of Eggbeaters for her occasional riding,  I also had a second set that I was going to put on my commuter, but never got around to it until a year and a half ago.   In about a year of commuting on the MRX I destoyed a bearing and cracked the shell on the pedal,  and if finally dawned on me.

 I was not breaking pedals because of the brands,  I was breaking pedals because of the quality I was purchasing from that brand.

Suddenly spending $200 on a pedal that will last 10 or more years and outlast 3 bikes makes more sense than buying a new set of $60 pedals every year.

In summary:

Nice Twin Ti Eggbeaters -  11 years and counting
Nice Look Road pedals - 13 years and counting
$180 Times - Rode for 2 seasons and then sold them in good condition.
$30 wellgo's - Less than a season and done
$60 Time's - about a season

Conclusion:  Buy nice pedals.  It is well worth the investment.