Crank Brothers Egg Beaters Clipless Pedals
By James Sharp

Oregon mud kills pedals. Since it rains in the Pacific Northwest for 6 months straight, a good pedal design means the difference between dabbing and crashing. Two existing pedals that deal well with the mud are the Time ATAC or Speedplay Frogs. After riding on the new Crank Brothers Egg Beaters pedals in the muck a bit, I'm compelled to add it to that short list.

While there is no "wonder" metal used in the Egg Beaters, they are very light due to their minimalist design. In fact the axle, spring and locking mechanism is all stainless steel. The cleats are brass. The reason for brass cleats is to ensure that the cleats wear out before the retention bars on the pedal do. The cleats that I used, however, didn't seem to wear badly even with a bit of waking on them. Over all, I am very impressed with the Crank Bros quality and design. While biking in Moab I struck the pedal against the rock there many times with no damage to the pedal, if anything, the rock showed more signs of abuse than the pedal did!

The mechanism is very similar to the ATAC's, but there is no body to the pedals, only the locking mechanism. There are four bars making this the only four-sided pedal on the market. There are two release angles, depending on which cleat you put on which shoe. I used the 20-degree position but there is a 16-degree position as well. The float is 6 degrees rotational regardless of how you set up the release angle. Unlike the Time ATAC, there is no lateral float. There is no way to adjust the spring tension, though Crank Bros did a good job here as well and chose an appropriate setting. I never wondered if I was clicked in or not.

While I like the idea of variable release angles, I would like there to be a corresponding change in float. I feel that 6 degrees is not enough. I would like to see float closer to 8 or 10 degrees. I also feel that the nubs on the cleat to help keep it in place are too large. The indents they made in the shoe caused a little grief when I had to remove them and readjust them. After a few times readjusting it, the cleat wanted to fall back into the previous position's indents rather than make new ones. If I had mounted the cleats correctly in the first place this wouldn't have been an issue, though. The cleats never moved on me once I had them in the correct position.

Summary: At $120, the Egg Beaters are right in the price range for an upper end pedal system, and they deliver as such. If you live in the Northwest or Northeast, basically anywhere that sees a lot of rain, these pedals are for you. If you are interested in lightweight parts, these pedals are for you. If you like quality construction and design, these are your pedals. In short, unless you need gobs of float, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these pedals to anyone, they might be the best pedal design on the market.

James Sharp is a contributing editor to GearReview.com specializing in mountain biking.

For more information, contact:
276 Canyon Acres Drive
Laguna Beach, CA, 92651
phone: 949.464.9916
fax: 949.376.7010
email: info@crankbrothers.com
www.crankbrothers.com