I Heart Eggbeaters

It's no secret, I DNF'ed Bear Brook because of a pedal malfunction. This has brought the Eggbeater haters out of the woodwork. Both Colin and Keith have taken jabs at my equipment choices in their race reports. Being as important and well known as I am, there are probably hundreds of similar race reports out there that I just haven't read yet.

As I was sitting in my basement this morning rebuilding my collection of pedals, and pondering all this Eggbeater related negativity, something occurred to me. I looked down at the pile of pedals in various states of disassembly in front of me and though, "I'm a blogger now, there are probably other bike dorks on the internet that could dork out to this". Then I ran and got my camera. The rest of this post is an ode to the awesomeness that is the Crank Brothers' Eggbeater line of pedals, and I dedicate it to the haters.


That picture is only about 15% staged, I really am anal retentive enough to lay everything out in a very organized fashion. So what you're looking at is three pairs of Crank Brother's Eggbeater SL pedals, and one titanium short spindle kit, which includes a pedal rebuild kit. There is a fourth pair of "emergency" eggbeaters on my cross bike, but they're cromo, so they don't deserve any attention from the camera. They're like the ugly duckling of my pedal collection.

Let's meet the contestants:

Eggbeater pair #1: The love affair started here, they have lasted through 3 mountain bike seasons, and 1 cyclocross season. That's a shit-ton of miles and abuse. They have been in critical condition since Opening Day at the Fells, when one of the bearings exploded, causing the cage to separate from the spindle.

Eggbeater pair #2: These were purchased after my first cyclocross season because I got tired of moving my one pair of awesome pedals from one bike to another. They have been through 2 seasons of cyclocross, and 2 seasons of the dreaded base training/winter commuting. Winter commuting in New England is pretty much the worst wear and tear you can inflict on a bicycle component. It should be noted that these pedals are still going strong, and besides a drop of lube every now and then, have never seen any maintenance.

Eggbeater pair #3 "The new guys": These were purchased shortly after Eggbeater pair #1 exploded in the Fells. They have seen about a month of use. These are the pedals that lead to my DNF at Bear Brook. I do not hold it against them.

Eggbeater pair #4: (not pictured) The cromos that only get called up when there is a devastating injury to two or more of the 3 pairs mentioned above.

We started things out with some disassembly, and a trip to the hot tub...

That's a jar of boiling water, with a dollop of dish detergent, and about an ounce of pure Colombian Simple Green. After a good long soak, a through scrubbing, and another soak, the cages and spindles came out and got towelled dried. The spindles were then treated to a grease bath, before reassembly began. Pair #1 got the new titanium short spindles, new bearings, bushing, o-rings and end caps. Pair #3 got the spindles from pair #1. Pair #2 is on vacation, awaiting the arrival of another rebuild kit.

I now have two pairs of good-as-new pedals. Pair #1, with it's sexy ti short spindles was introduced to my cross bike. The cranks on this bike just aren't scuffed up enough by my shoes, the short spindles should give the crank that "low resale value" look that I love. Pair #3 was put back on the race machine, along with a big fat Crank Brother sticker. I'm representin' for all you haters out there.



And just because this is the squirt gun show, no post about gear is complete without a shot of the scale...




Titanium short spindles, 20 grams lighter per pedal. Improvement in Q-factor, off the charts.

In summary:

Dear Haters,

Shimano XTR, 325 grams, MSRP: $179.99.
Eggbeater SL, 262 grams, MSRP: $130.00.

Love,
Kevin

ps. Suck it.