I switched form Shimanos to Times and then to Crank Bros. Each step was a step up in my experience. But if you get the Candies and ride a lot in areas with a lot of grit (like PA) you have to clean them up and check the spindles pretty regularly, because the bodies have a tendency to break off the spindles when they get beaten up. This happened to me twice -- both after more than a full season of heavy use, but if you race, make sure you check them before each race. Unfortunately, both times they broke on my happened during races when I was chasing a podium -- once during 24 Hours of 9 Mile (cost me a category win!) and once this past November at a race on Long Island (dropped me out of the top five and cost me a lap when I had to stop for a while to fix them.) So I was a little pissed at Crank Brothers for a while, but when I look back, that was really rider error -- I didn't take the time to clean them that I should have and I had put a shit ton of miles on them by the time they broke. All things considered they really are the easiest to maintain if I take the time, and they never ever get clogged with mud and I've never popped out of them while pushing (which used to happen with my ATACs all the time because the limiting screws always seemed to move on me.) So from a riding experience, I have been happiest with Crank Brothers. I really don't like Shimanos -- too many parts and the springs always seemed to loosen on their own. The ATACs were good, but like I said, I just got tired of having to adjust them all the time. I usually run the candies, but I always have a backup set of egg beaters in my car in case I have to swap them out. I like the idea of the minimal platform of the candies, but some of the issues I have had might not happen at all with egg beaters.