Eggbeaters

Yesterday I briefly commented on the most recent problems I have had with equipment, more specifically, my mountain bike pedals. Crank Brothers Eggbeaters are a great design. All the way from their elegant and simplistic appearance to their extraordinary ease of use.

The problem I encountered yesterday is not a unique problem. In fact this marks the third such problem I have had with this pedal in as many years. For whatever reason, the bearing and related internal parts on the Eggbeaters have a tendency to disintegrate and fall apart.

This same phenomena occurred to me again while riding yesterday. I initially felt slop or play in the pedal followed by some noise and finally the sounds of bearing falling to the ground. Having experienced this on three separate occasions with less than 5,000 miles on the pedals, it is no wonder that Crank offers rebuild kits for a mere 15 bucks.

Compare this with the fact that I have been riding my current set of Campagnolo Record ProFit pedals since 2003, having logged over 30,000 miles with them and I have yet to touch them with anything other than my cleats.

You will not find a rebuild kit for the Record ProFit pedal. What you will find are numerous reviews using words like "indestructible", "bullet proof", "reliability" among others. Crank, I can only recommend that you strive to create a product worthy of the kind of reviews that Campy elicits from it's users.

I am sorry to say, but as long as you offer a cheap rebuild kit for your users to leverage to fix a poorly functioning and ill executed design, you will not become a leader in this space or any other bike part manufacturing space for that matter. Do us all a favor and fix the product and stop band-aiding it with the re-build kit that only prolongs our frustration with your product.

Today's Ride