Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals |
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When the Eggbeaters were announced in late 2001 at Interbike, expectations of the pedals were high: superior mud performance in a lightweight package. It was almost too good to be true. When they arrived at our muddy shores some time in April 2002, I immediately bought a pair from KSH Bicycles. Having exhausted 2 pairs of Speedplay Frogs, and having worn down to a taper the retention springs on a subsequent pair of Time ATAC, I was ready for a new pair of pedals.
Construction
The Eggbeaters are now available in a variety of models, differing in the materials used for the spindle, the retention bar “wings”, pedal body and the finish of the springs. At that time, however, the Eggs were only available in one flavour: chromium-molybdenum steel axled pedals weighing 283 grams a pair. They saved about 120g over the Time ATAC they replaced.The Time ATAC, I would guess, provided much of the inspiration for the design of the Eggs; Crankbros took some of the basic elements of the Time design one step further to arrive at a product that is lighter, more elegantly engineered and which performs just as well if not better. And all at a comparable price (because the Eggs are made in Taiwan).
Because of the similarity in design, it would be instructive to compare the design of the Eggs to that of Time. On the Time, one of the retention bars on each side of each pedal also functions as the spring that provides the tension to keep the cleat and shoe in place. This means that there’re 2 springs for each pedal. Contrast with the Eggs: each pedal only has one spring, which is separate from the retention bars. One pair of the bars is an integral part of the pedal body, whereas the other pair of bars (or “wings”) slips over the spindle and pushes against the spring that is wound over the spindle. The advantages of this design is twofold:
- having only one spring per pedal saves weight;
- more significantly, the retention bars are not being asked to perform two divergent functions that would need vastly different material characteristics. A spring should have a high elastic limit, requiring a ductile material that is able to flex without undergoing plastic deformation. But the retention bars also need to be hard wearing because it will be in constant friction with the cleats and the silicates in soil, requiring a material with a high surface hardness, which would also mean that the material will be brittle and inelastic — ie poor spring material.
The Time were excellent pedals, superior in performance to anything that Shimano has to offer. I’d rate them even higher than the Speedplay Frogs, due to more consistent entry in muddy conditions and more durable bearings. But after about 3 years’ use, the retention bars had worn down to such an extent that they had tapered down to less than half their original diameter.
The Eggs differed in 2 other significant respects from the Time: each retention bar is equidistant to its neighbour, giving the pedal 4 sides. You never have to flip the Eggs to clip in: just step in and go. The 4-sided design should also mean that the rate of wear on the retention bars should be halved. Secondly, the Eggs haven’t got a “body”, which means that it’s very difficult if not impossible to clog the pedals. Step on the pedal with a muddy shoe, and the mud just pushes right through to the other side.
The cleats, like Time, are brass. Some have complained of premature wear due to the softness of the brass. I’ve used the pedals since April 02 (a year and a half at the time of writing) without problems. In any case, far better to have change cleats than to change a worn retention bar.
Performance
The Eggs are as good as if not better than the Time ATAC in mud. Regardless of how muddy it gets — and it gets seriously muddy here in tropical Malaysia — the Eggs, like the Time, clip in and out with metronomic consistency. They have about 6 degrees of float, sufficient even for riders with dodgy knees like me.A principal difference between the Eggs and Time is that pedal release on the Eggs is much easier with new cleats. When using the Time with new cleats, release tension can be a little high, often releasing with an emphatic “F-twanngg!” that reverberates up the tibia.
So, what’s there not to like? Just two things:
- because Eggs lack a “body”, they’re not easy to ride unclipped. For riders whose style demands a large pedal platform, these may not be suitable. To these riders, Crankbrothers now offer two new pedals: the Candy and the Mallet. The former has a fibre composite platform and the latter an oversized aluminium platform.
- for the same reason, hitting your shin or calf on the pedal can be painful. Riders who like bushwhacking through remote and overgrown trails will have to take care that the pedal does not strike their legs when pushing the bike.
The one-spring design has a potential drawback: if you happen to hit the underside of the pedal against a rock or similar obstacle, the pedal will release your foot. Although in my 1.5 year’s of use with them this has only happened once, your mileage may vary.
Conclusion
IMHO, never since the introduction of the 1995 XTR groupset has there been a bicycle component that promised so much fulfilled all expectations so comprehensively. The Eggs arguably perform better than the Time ATAC, weighs 120 grams lighter and is just RM20 (8%) more expensive.Just one caveat, though. More abuse will tell how well the bearings and bushings on the pedals hold up.
At the time of writing, the original 283g model is still available from good bike shops in KL for about RM270. The newer model, the Eggbeater S is slightly lighter at 266g due to a slimmed-down spindle, now made out of stainless steel. (Consequently the new design lacks the flats at the base of the spindle which means that you can’t install the pedals with a 15mm pedal wrench but must instead use a 6mm allen key.) 4 new models have also been introduced, from a budget OEM model to a gold-coloured triple-Ti model that weighs just 185g and retails for a whopping USD400.
Links
- Crank Brothers website
- User reviews of Eggbeaters at mtbr.com
