Falling out of love with Crank Brothers' pedals, a review

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Falling out of love with Crank Brothers’ pedals

Posted: 24 February 2010 Views: 2453 9 Comments Modified: 21 July 2010 at 9:38 pm
Tags: Crank Brothers, cycling, eggbeaters, fettling, ramblings, review, soap box

crank brothers eggbeater A few years back when I decided to go clip less, I search for something that was easy to clip into and easy to learn to use. I don’t like the “proper cycling” shoes as you can’t just jump off your bicycle and have a walk as you please, so I was looking for MTB style cycling shoes. Out of them all stood the Crank Brothers’ eggbeater, since they are four sided and also looked cool and simple.

Four sided : The four sided design made them extremely easy to learn to use. Simple to clip in, no flipping the pedal around to be able to clip in, e.g. just put your foot down and you are clipped in. The four sided design also meant that if you walk around in your cycling shoes or get mud on the pedals, the mud will just fall right off and you still can clip in.

Look : the eggbeaters just looks way cool, great design and the feel of them is like something that will last long and can handle a beating.

Simple : Being new to the game of cycling clip less and cycling shoes, back then, they looked well simple compared to others. Didn’t have fancy screws here and there to adjust them. Which can be a problem for others, if you like to set your pedals up, but I was a beginner, so KISS (keep it simple stupid). There are two settings for clipping out, 15 and 20 deg angle, plenty of float which I read was good if you have knee problems. Which I have especially with my left knee, I only had to change of the angle of one cleat a bit to get it to work, well it was the first time I have ever put cleats on my shoes. In the four years I have cycled clip less I have never had any problems with my knees, so that is a win for the Crank Brothers pedals.

And on top of that, their website look very slick and the packaging the pedals come in felt and looked like this is a good investment.

I have two sets off candy C, because now and again I would like to be able to cycle with out clipping in, the candy’s makes that happen for short distances, which I need. I also got one set off eggbeater SC and a set of eggbeater C on my other bicycles, you can get by cycling with normal shoes on the eggbeaters but you can easily slip.

crank brothers candy

In the last 4 years I have used both the candy and eggbeaters I have gone trough two set of each. That last pair of candy’s I got just managed to clock up just under 3000 miles before they broke*). That is not very long compared to other pedals out there. Many of my cycling friends use SPD’s and do many more miles than I do before they need service or new pedals.

*) that is mainly commuting with one week long tour over the last 6 months. And definitely not been knocked or banged as they are on my new pride and joy, the Surly Long Haul Trucker.

I don’t do MTB’ing or drop my bicycle onto the road or push hard on my pedals I use the gears. Most of my cycling is commuting in London and the odd cycle tour. And therefore I would like my pedals to last quite a bit longer than 3000 miles before they break on me.

What breaks all the time is the ball bearings, the spring and “hooks” hold on much longer. Though I did break one “hook” on one eggbeater but that is probably linked to the massive pedal strike I had on my fixed a half year before. And with only 3 hooks and therefore only 2 sided the pedal lasted a few more months before the bearings went.

I contacted Crank Brothers last year when my last pair died, and their answer was …

As to your comments on not having to buy rebuild kits; Crank Brothers pedals are designed to be rebuildable as this will provide the longest lifespan of the pedals. Other brands may appear to last ‘forever’ but after they break they will need to be replaced as a complete unit. A simple regrease of the spindle every now and then will reduce bearing wear significantly and reduce the need to do a full rebuild.

Well my argument against this is the friends I know who got SPD’s or the like, pretty much fit and forget their pedals and get many more miles out of them before they even have to think about servicing them. I talked to a friend the other day and he told me that he had a set of TIME pedals which have been going for ten years without service.

I should have some left over bits from my last repair and should hopefully be able to fix the candy C’s. I also do hope that the eggbeaters SC I just got will clock up more miles than just 3000 miles before they fall apart.

I really don’t know if this is linked to the price I pay for them, as I can’t afford the high end titanium pedals that Crank Brothers produce and therefore have to go for the lower end pedals.

The worrying part is that while I was writing this up I checked out ,citycycling always a good read and .anth is top bloke too. In his post on the blog “second fall in as many weeks” he tells us why he came off. He have come of his bicycle the other day because his Crank Brothers (candy) spindle snapped. I’m lucky and haven’t come off any of my bicycle when the pedals have failed but .anth came off quite dramatically. Lucky it was only a scrape to the bicycle and his jacket, though it could have been much worse since it was in rush hour traffic. Sadly as he report no one stopped to ask if he was ok when he was laying on the road all tangled up in his bicycle.

I really don’t fancy splashing out for 3-4 set of new pedals and cleats for my shoes, but if the pedals from Crank Brothers still fall apart I have to. Because I don’t fancy a drop just like .anth because my pedals have failed and I have had four sets fail in the last four years, that is too much.

Raitings:
I would have loved to give Crank Brothers more but because of so many failing in the last four years I can’t. Though the easy of use, when they work, and their look still pulls the rating up. If you still want Crank Brothers do spend a lot of money on the pedals as I do hope that the top end last a longer than the low end pedals. Which I can’t afford to test out for you.

LINK : Crank Brothers

9 Comments »

Anth said:

Hey Woolly!

First off, cheers for the link.

Secondly, that pretty much all sums up exactly my feeling about Crank Bros. I’ve used them now for about 5 years. I’ve got a set on three different bikes, used Eggbeaters, Candys and Quattro SL. The Quattros actually feel quite solid, though they’ve only done about 1000 miles. The main commuting bike ate the pedals for breakfast, and the mountain bike just destroyed them. The looks are great, and the ease of use can’t be beaten, but after having that spindle break yesterday my new Time ATAC Aliums arrived today, and are already fitted to the bike. Will see how they fare heading home.

# 24 February 2010 at 14:18

Kymbo said:

After first riding clipped for about 3 years on SPD and then converting to CB, My main personal issue was the life of the cleats. I have read all the palaver about Crank Bros making them softer for the sake of the longevity of the pedals. But I am not so sure, myself. Other than that, my only problem had been with the MXR entry level pedal models which I pretty quickly flogged out and spewed bearings. (warrantee job the first time.. the second time…. meh)

I have since gone back to clips & straps for the commuter bike.

I do like the design of the Eggbeater.. but experience tells me they’re best dedicated to MTBing and not every day use.

# 26 February 2010 at 17:00

woollypigs (author) said:

Hi Kymbo

Yes the cleats do wear down a bit fast compared to others, you can get harder Crank Brothers cleats. In my job I do tend to walk a lot in my cycling shoes and therefore wear down the harder cleats faster. Though I since I got my Lake I/O SDL I haven’t changed cleats in nine months. The main reason is that the cleats on the Lake’s are recessed much more than one the Shimano and Specialized cycling shoes I had before, both pairs wore out the cleats in under six months.

# 26 February 2010 at 17:20

rogerzilla said:

I’m not sure about SPD longevity either. Generally they develop bearing play after 1000-2000 miles from new. They are serviceable with care (3/32″ bearings are very fiddly to handle), and a bit of play doesn’t actually damage them immediately, but I don’t find them to be low-maintenance.

All pedals have the disadvantage of being the closest bearing to the water and mud and there not being much room in the package for decent-sized balls. Shimano tried a pedal with an oversize axle and bigger bearings in the 1980s, but as well as being an new and incompatible standard, the cranks tended to break at the pedal eye.

# 13 March 2010 at 07:14

Arne Boberg said:

I concur with the quality of Crank Brothers pedals. I have gone through 3 sets in 2 years. My 14-year-old son has gone through as many. Either the outer bearing gets “lunched” or the spindle gets badly scored by the sleeve bearing. The sad part is that Crank Brothers patent expires in 2018, giving them a monopoly on the eggbeater design until that time. I have sent a request to Crank Brothers asking them to improve their products. I at least hope to hear from them that they are “working on it”.

We will most likely be switching to the Time ATACs – I hope that they are equally good for entry and for dirt tolerance. It would be sad for Crank Brothers to have a monopoly in these two categories when they cannot build a product that will last.

# 15 March 2010 at 16:02

alex said:

hi
Always looking at Crank Brother Pedals.
I have used Time for 11 years. The 11 year old work A-tacs work still. The Z platforms i use day in day out have worked with no maintenance for 7 years. Some bottom of range Aliums need greasing, as the spindle does not spin easily. However the more expensive ones just work. Never had a spindle snap and i have hit everything on an MTB downhill.
I would like Time to offer Z platform style with small pegs in them like the Crank Bros Mallets. Thats the only improvement they need to make. I use platform style peddles as you can use normal shoes once in while.
Your comments echo a lot about crank bros comments else where.
No clogging in mud( I cycle the south downs a lot), just work. Never know why they are not more common.

# 23 March 2010 at 13:30

a review of Lake I/O SDL cycling sandals | woollypigs said:

[...] feel a difference in the sandal in how they were clipped in and I was at first worried that it was my new eggbeaters falling apart on me again. I checked the pedals and found them ok, then I checked the cleats only find a crack in the [...]

# 7 May 2010 at 23:35

Will T Smith said:

I will concur with the negative assessment of Crank Brothers pedals. They are a great concept with poor execution. I’ve busted about 8 spindles on Mallets. I had an acid fail after 7 months road use. It just had lousy seals. The bearing seized and I spun the potmetal spindle threads right off the thing.

The final straw came when a pedal sheared off when hitting a root sending me into an uncontrolled crash and separating my shoulder. Crank Brother had the promise of good things but ended up being poor attention to detail and poor manufacturing.

If you value your time, money and health, don’t buy Crank Brothers.

# 18 May 2010 at 08:24

Shimano XT HollowTech II bottom bracket | woollypigs said:

[...] But yesterday I started to feel some play when pedalling. At first I was thinking that this was the Crank Brothers pedals which were playing up again. They were so I swapped my pedals over so that I can fix them later, thinking that that would be it [...]

# 4 August 2010 at 17:06