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Home | Product Reviews | Pedal | Crank Brothers Smarty | ||||
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Submitted by
Jhonny Ringo
a Weekend Warrior
from San Diego, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: 5/11/2008 7:54:14 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $35 |
| Purchased At: | Performance |
| Strengths: | Price |
| Weaknesses: | Cheaply made. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Candy SL, Shimano XTR, Frog |
| Bike Setup: | Cannondale F3 Hard Tail |
| Bottom Line: | Do not waste you money the Smarty pedals. You will get what you paid for. Mine was hardly spinning after 1 month of use. Released prematurely occasionally. Spend an extra buck and go with the Candy SL. |
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Submitted by
Scott
a Weekend Warrior
from Oklahoma City, Ok, USA
Date Reviewed: 4/23/2008 5:30:29 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | the one I'm on at the time |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | Pedals do not release accidentally or when they hit an object on the trail. Come to think of it they don't release at all. Great weight loss program lose lbs. from the outside in by shaving off layers of skin with every crash. |
| Weaknesses: | OUCH!!!!!!! The 6" bruise on my thigh. The skin that used to be on my elbows and sides. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimanl spd 520's |
| Bike Setup: | 2008 Stumpy elite. Stock except for the crank bros pedals I have replaced with my old 520'S. |
| Bottom Line: | I read reviews on this page to see if the pedals were as bad as I suspected or to see if maybe it was my lack of skill. I was excited to try crank bros. product when they came with the bike but that lasted 1/4 mile into my first ride. The bearings were so stiff on the left pedal it kept backing out. Ended up walking the bike back to the trail head for fear of cross threading the cranks. The LBS replaced the pedals but the new set has expanded my base language skills due to difficulty clipping in and clipping out when I really needed to. If you by a stumpy or any other bike equiped with these pedals ask for an upgrade even if it costs you. These pedals will get you hurt. |
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Submitted by
Scott
a Weekend Warrior
from Pacific Northwest, WA
Date Reviewed: 4/17/2008 12:46:55 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Anywhere off road |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $30 |
| Purchased At: | Came stock on bike |
| Strengths: | The pedal minus the cheap plastic seems to be structurally sound. |
| Weaknesses: | Plastic on one side of the pedal is very cheap and sometimes falls off if your not clipped in. |
| Similar Products Tried: | none |
| Bike Setup: | iron horse warrior 6.0 (stock) |
| Bottom Line: | I would not recommend these pedals to anybody! But as in my case they came with the bike so I didn't have much of a choice, they make due... Replacing these SOON! |
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Submitted by
Brandon
a Racer
from Virginia
Date Reviewed: 4/7/2008 6:19:13 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $40 |
| Purchased At: | ebay |
| Strengths: | none so far |
| Weaknesses: | material used. soft plastic, cheapo metal, like tin or something. |
| Similar Products Tried: | eggbeaters, SPDs |
| Bike Setup: | 07 Stumpy FSR |
| Bottom Line: | Cheaply built, impossible to predict. I have been racing on a pair of eggbeaters for years and love them, so I bought a set of these for my city ceater road bike. I figured they'd be just as nice but with some plastic around the guts. Wrong. The plastic is soft and since the spring comes out so often, it cuts a groove through the middle of the pedal. Hard to describe, but if you own a set, you know what I mean. I used them for a week and tried to clip in once and couldnt because the springlet loose of one of the wings that engage the cleat. Crap. I thought I bought a conterfeit set off ebay since they sucked so bad, but then I read the reviews, and am both dissapointed and relieved. I will be buying a set of eggbeaters to replace these POS's soon enough. Bad move, Crank Brothers. |
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Submitted by
mateo
a Cross Country Rider
from warsaw, poland
Date Reviewed: 3/1/2008 2:36:47 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Strengths: | weight, looks |
| Weaknesses: | crisp-less, excessive play on the axle, not predictable in cliping in or out |
| Bike Setup: | 08 Stumpy FSR Expert |
| Bottom Line: | don't buy them. not only cliping in or out is unpredictable, but also after firts 100km I got a huge play on the axle. servicing helped for another 50km. I'm changing them to Time. |
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Submitted by
Jonathan
a Cross Country Rider
from Harrisburg, PA
Date Reviewed: 1/22/2008 9:25:58 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Fawn Kill (Weiser State Forest) |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Purchased At: | Trailz End Multisport and Bicycle Shop |
| Strengths: | Easy to find with foot while riding on rough terrain, relatively inexpensive, and comfortable |
| Weaknesses: | Grime seems to find it way inside easily, destroying the bb's, cups, and spindle. I purchased mine sometime around may, they only lasted till about October. I noticed they had excessive play and I opened them up and sure enough the cups were pretty much ground to nothing. Also, the bb's were the smallest I have ever seen in my life, I mean we are talking smaller than a pinhead! Anyways, normally I hear that crankbrothers is great with their warranty stuff, but they took so long that I gave up trying and haven't heard anything since. *I have purchased their eggbeaters and I love them, so we'll see how long those last. |
| Bottom Line: | Unless you are a weekend rider that doens't get into hairy situations and muck I would not purchase these. |
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Submitted by
Jarrett Ellis
a Weekend Warrior
from Richland MO
Date Reviewed: 11/18/2007 2:07:18 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | bittersweet |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $35 |
| Purchased At: | Jensonusa |
| Strengths: | none |
| Weaknesses: | Pedals lasted 2 rides. Well, 1 and a half. Halfway through second ride today, pedal bent and on my way back to my truck, ripped out of crank arm. Need new crank arm and pedals now. |
| Similar Products Tried: | n/a |
| Bike Setup: | doesn't matter |
| Bottom Line: | Bought these as my first clipless pedals. Not much experience with clipless but seemed very inconsistent clipping in and out. Bent pedal riding technical rooty climbs, had to pedal back to my truck with one pedal. Pay the bucks and get something else. |
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Submitted by
Dan
a Cross Country Rider
from Maple Grove, MN USA
Date Reviewed: 10/27/2007 11:06:11 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Santa Ana River Trail |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $60 |
| Strengths: | They didn't give my grandmother cancer. |
| Weaknesses: | Everything. Absolutely no consistency. Clipped out when a mosquito sneezed on my shoe. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Frogs, Shimano 520 |
| Bike Setup: | Stock Cannondale Caffeine 2 with COMPLETELY CONSISTENT SHIMANO SPD PEDALS. |
| Bottom Line: | This product is absolutely garbage. I'd have had more fun swallowing them and waiting for them to come out the other end than to use them on my bike. |
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Submitted by
PAUL
a Cross Country Rider
from Fort Collins, CO
Date Reviewed: 9/29/2007 1:07:08 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | the ones with my friends right behind me |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Purchased At: | 40 |
| Strengths: | Easy in and out Wet conditions |
| Weaknesses: | Cheap crap. My friend likes eggbeaters but told me he went thru several sets of bearings a season. My "Smartys" started getting stiff after a few rides. I have had the same trouble as Duke... this causes the spindle to loosen itself out of the crank and the pedal comes off. Ouch! |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano, Frog, ATAC and Nashbars |
| Bike Setup: | Yeti 575 |
| Bottom Line: | If you even ride semi-hard, look somewhere else. I am surprised a good company like CrankBros would put their name on this POS. A light eggbeater with a platform is a good idea, but they didn't pull it off with the Smarty. It isn't a good value when it doesn't work. I got several seasons out of my Nashbar cheapos... that was value. Too bad I left them on my old bike when I sold it! |
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Submitted by
Geoff
a Cross Country Rider
from Seattle
Date Reviewed: 9/23/2007 9:43:12 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Anything steep and technical. |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Purchased At: | Gift . . . whooo hooo free stuff!!!!! |
| Strengths: | Multiple ways to clip in (toe in, heel in and straight down). Light-weight. Excellent in mud and wet sloppy clay. Platform is great when you start on an extreme uphill and can't waste the effort to clip in, you actually can stand on it unclipped quite comfortably. Effortless to clip in once you get the feel for it. Much closer to the pedal, I actually can tell a difference over my M520's. The float is great. I've always struggled to keep my SPD's aligned right to keep my knees and feet happy, these pedals have eliminate my need to keep readjusting. |
| Weaknesses: | I thought the bearings were a little stiff at first. There's a rubber seal on the spindle where it meets the cage body. If you put some grease on it, it smoothes out that stiffness (and probably prolongs the life of the pedal. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano 737's (the original MTB clipless), 1st generation Ritchey clipless, Shimano m520's, Time equipe road. |
| Bike Setup: | 05 Stumpy fsr comp 100, Crank Bros Smarty Pedals, Selle Italia TurboMatic 3 saddle, WTB Velociraptor Front, IRC MythosXC rear. All other stock for now. New wheel set soon if I can scrap the cash together. |
| Bottom Line: | So far these pedals have been great for me. I was a little worried at first because I had trouble getting used to them on the street and on my first ride. Now it has become second nature to get into them. I really like steep technical uphill, I'm used to starting on tough slopes. These pedals are easier to get into than my Shimanos and much better to stand on and pedal when I miss the clip in. I can ride these unclipped comfortably until I can spare the concentration to clip in. My last 3 rides with them have been in the mud. I've never had a pedal clip in this well in the mud. As a test, I shoved my foot in the mud and dirt until the cleat was packed in with mud. It clipped in as easily as when there was no mud. The blades of the beater work to clear the mud off (I think). I've seen some posts about spindle breakage. I'll take a 4-5ft drop at most so I don't anticipate breaking a Chromoly spindle. If I do, I'll re-post. Some have posted that they've bent the eggbeater arms on the pedal. I could see how that's possible. I've knocked mine on some head sized boulders, but so far there's no sign of fatigue. As far as not having a positive feel for clipping in and out, it is less positive than the Shimanos, but after one ride I knew right where the limits were. Not being able to clip out seems implausible, these things are so easy to clip out of. I'd attribute that to rider error (that ought to get somebody fired up). |
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Submitted by
Jeremy Provencher
a Weekend Warrior
from NH
Date Reviewed: 9/14/2007 11:03:43 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | jeremyp111@hotmail.com |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $30 |
| Purchased At: | Performance |
| Strengths: | Cheap |
| Weaknesses: | Just an all around terrible pedal. Build quality is garbage. clip in/clip out consistency. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano 540, 647 and 520 SPD's |
| Bike Setup: | Yeti 575, Pike 454 Air UTurn, Mavic Crossmax XLs, XT cranks & FD, SRAM X9 shifter & RD, Avid Juicy7's 185F/160R |
| Bottom Line: | Where do I start? The worst built pedal I've every seen. One ride and both end caps blew out. Seals are terrible. Totally a throw away pedal. If you buy these, throw them away...Get some REAL pedals. The inconsistency of clipping in and out is just unbelievable. Just pedaling uphill and WHAM, foot comes flying out on it's own. Need to get out on a really tech section? Praying has brough better results. I've got more banged up body parts due to these pedals not unclipping when needed than I ever had in the past year on Shimano SPD's....I wanted to try something new as I was getting kind of frustrated with the SPD's coming unclipped everytime the pedal hit a rock...These made me long for those days again. At least the Shimano's were totally consistent. I was totally confident in the Shimano's clip in/clip out. Not these at all. DON'T BUY THESE PEDALS!!!!!SMARTY'S ARE THE WORST PEDAL EVER!!!! |
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Submitted by
Adam Button
a Cross Country Rider
from Hereford, UK
Date Reviewed: 8/23/2007 12:10:08 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Forest of Dean |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $40 |
| Purchased At: | Pearce Cycles, Ludlow, UK |
| Strengths: | Easy to clip in, simple twist out, quiet bearings, nice design with small platform |
| Weaknesses: | None yet |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano SPD |
| Bike Setup: | BeOne Team Replica with Rock Shox Dart III |
| Bottom Line: | Its like this - You spend $2000 on a bike then these probably won't float your boat, but then I wouldn't put re-moulds on my £25,000 car either!!! I found them a bit tricky to clip in for the first 2 mins, then hey presto were there! All I can say is take the time to set them up properly, i.e. read the instructions, then you can't go wrong. At $40 they are throw away money, even if they last me just 3 months! It was either these or the Eggbeaters and I like the Smartys for price and looks as well as all round good performance |
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Submitted by
Bill Duke
a Cross Country Rider
from Tennessee
Date Reviewed: 8/22/2007 8:37:23 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $39 |
| Purchased At: | Performance |
| Strengths: | Price |
| Weaknesses: | Hard to clip into Not durable at all |
| Similar Products Tried: | Original Eggbeater pedals |
| Bottom Line: | I bought these because I had good luck with the original Eggbeater pedals I bought several years ago and these pedals were not expensive. Clipping into these pedals was always difficult, especially compared to the ease of clipping into my old Eggbeters. After only 3 months of use the left pedal seized up and it would no longer turn. I have not found a way to fix them. |
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Submitted by
Rob
a Cross Country Rider
from Boulder, CO
Date Reviewed: 7/26/2007 3:27:27 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Ned, Hall, CB, Mtn Lion |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $35 |
| Purchased At: | Ebay |
| Strengths: | Light weight, sheds mud/ dirt well. No need to adjust like SPDs. Able to color coordinate with your bike, if you're into that sort of thing :) |
| Weaknesses: | Like everyone else said, yes, they can be hard to clip into once in awhile but no problems clipping out. I had a hard a time at first but then decided to read the directions and now I have not had as much of a problem. Though seems harder to clip into the left more than the right. |
| Similar Products Tried: | SPDs |
| Bike Setup: | Gary Fisher Rig, Ferrous 29er |
| Bottom Line: | Unfortunately these are disposable pedals. This can be a good thing or bad thing however you look at it. The constant adjustments with SPDs made me want a change. The frustration that came with not being able to clip out and embarassingly and painfully falling over in technical sections was the final straw with the SPDs (no, I'm not a rookie). Though I've never tried any real high end pedals I will say I am relatively happy with these. I like to color bling my bike and this was the cheapest way. |
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Submitted by
Bill Duke
a Cross Country Rider
from Tennessee
Date Reviewed: 7/23/2007 2:06:46 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | The one I'm on |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $39 |
| Purchased At: | Performance |
| Strengths: | Weight. Cost. |
| Weaknesses: | Poor durability Hard to clip in |
| Similar Products Tried: | Time ATAC Shimano SPD |
| Bike Setup: | 2003 Gary Fisher Mt Tam |
| Bottom Line: | After my good experience with my older pair of Eggbeater pedals I thought I would save some money when I switched my 2nd bike to Crank Brothers pedals. It turned out to be a mistake. I never could get clipped in as easily as I could on my old Eggbeaters. After 3 month on the bike, my left pedal seized up during a ride today. It wont turn easily now and in fact it backed up and actually came off of the crank arm while I was riding. Don't waste your money on these. |
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Submitted by
Jason
a Weekend Warrior
from Ohio
Date Reviewed: 7/18/2007 10:51:34 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $35 |
| Strengths: | Ease of clipping in and out once I fixed the clips. |
| Weaknesses: | Poor design of the clips making them almost unusable. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano |
| Bottom Line: | I used these for about a week without the supplied steel washers and I never had a problem with clipping in and out. I then put on the washers after finding them in the box and reading the instructions and had all sorts of problems getting clipped in at all. Or taking forever to get clipped in. I took the washers off an it went back to working fine. I then put on a shimano steel spd washer buy mistake and a miracle happened they work fine? It looks a little thiner than the crankbrother supplied one? Don't know if thats the reason or not. I wonder if there premium cleat works any better. If so it should be sent with all of there pedals. |
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Submitted by
scott
a Cross Country Rider
from Orange, Ca
Date Reviewed: 7/12/2007 2:34:29 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Purchased At: | performance |
| Strengths: | none that I can see |
| Weaknesses: | difficult clip in and even harder clip out. First time out with these couldn't clip out on a hill and went down fracturing my hip. Needless to say when I get better I will be going back to my shimano pedals |
| Similar Products Tried: | shimano |
| Bike Setup: | Mongoose Canaan |
| Bottom Line: | Dont use use these pedals if you know whats good for you |
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Submitted by
Forest Kelly
a Cross Country Rider
from Boulder, CO, USA
Date Reviewed: 6/28/2007 9:43:26 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Hall Ranch |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Purchased At: | Performance |
| Strengths: | Light weight. Buy these if you're interested in the 50 grams. |
| Weaknesses: | Difficult clip in. Don't buy these if you're doing any technical riding... It's literally taken me 2-5 minutes to clip in... |
| Similar Products Tried: | Many Shimano SPD's and Time. |
| Bike Setup: | Mongoose Canaan. |
| Bottom Line: | I've already ordered a higher end pedal. These pedals have been a horror for me. I have scars on both of my forearms due to not being able to get out while on a difficult uphill. And, I've spent tons of time trying to get locked in with no avail both while climbing and descending... DON'T BUY THESE!!! Spend the money to get into something more consistent. While appreciate what Crank Bros. are up to, I have not had success with their products thus far. |
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Submitted by
Rob Maybach
a Cross Country Rider
from Charlotte, NC, USA
Date Reviewed: 6/24/2007 10:38:02 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Anne Springs |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $39 |
| Purchased At: | Pricepoint.com |
| Strengths: | Super easy clip in, decently lightweight, simple, sheds mud, good float |
| Weaknesses: | not the smoothest spinning, no adjustment (if you need it, I don't) |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano 520, Crank Brothers Eggbeaters, Ascent Terra (don't try those...) |
| Bike Setup: | 99 Rockhopper, Single Speed |
| Bottom Line: | Great pedals for general MTBing, the platform is good enough for short periods without clipping in, although clipping in becomes instinct after a short time period. Can't be beat for $40 |
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Submitted by
Ben
a Cross Country Rider
from Oxford, UK
Date Reviewed: 6/12/2007 9:38:01 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $69 |
| Purchased At: | Wiggle.co.uk |
| Strengths: | Cheaper than Time ATAC. Float without fighting against any tension at all. The four sided design should be good for clipping in by moving foot backwards, which SPDs can't do. This would be good for clipping out for technical sections, then just sliding back to clip in. |
| Weaknesses: | However, on the Smarty pedals I have are very poor at clipping in- I have to use a lot of force, and it is very unpredictable- the cage doesn't rotate very freely, and it is easy to get one wing stuck straight up, blocking the cleat from entering. I have not yet tried the supplied spacer that goes under the cleat to make getting in easier. This will just make the tread of the shoe further from the cage though, so the advantage of the cage goes out the window, as you are not standing on it any more. Float without fighting against any tension at all. This feels weird after 10+ years of using SPDs. You cannot feel when the pedal is about to disengage- with SPDs, you fight against some spring tension that progressively increases before the cleat is released. These just spit out the cleat at the last minute, with no feedback. I also find that the angle of the foot has to be more extreme to release the cleat than with SPDs. The build quality is very poor- especially the finish on the wings. The bearings are not sealed like most other crank bros. pedals. Not much (sometimes no) sound feedback when you clip in. Also, the wings seem to rattle a lot when pushing/carrying the bike- may not be like this with the better made Crank Bros pedals. |
| Similar Products Tried: | I've had VP102 (SPD clones) for 10 years, ridden almost daily. I've actually had 2 pairs of them in this period- I replaced them with a new set of the same pedal as they only cost a tiny bit more than the cleats alone. Never had any problems with them. I'm going back to SPDs now, trying the 520. |
| Bike Setup: | An old hybrid from the mid 90's converted to a 'cross bike. |
| Bottom Line: | Probably quite good for someone starting out in clipless. Not good if you have lots of techniques for getting into SPDs quickly- you will have to unlearn them. |
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Submitted by
Thomas Schuyler
a Cross Country Rider
from Castaic, Ca, USA
Date Reviewed: 5/9/2007 8:06:24 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $30 |
| Purchased At: | pricepoint.com |
| Strengths: | Provides a pedal with a small platform to rest your foot on instead of the standard eggbeater and gives a stiffer feel when climbing. On descents you dont feel foot flex on harder landings. |
| Weaknesses: | Can be difficult to clip in with the spinning beater inside a spining pedal. It just takes some getting used to. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Spd and SPD 959, eggbeater mxr |
| Bike Setup: | Ironhorse warrior elite, high riser bar with ends. |
| Bottom Line: | For the price it is a great pedal and i really like the eggbeaters style pedal. To me they were much easier to learn to get in and out of, compared to the spd pedals. I also like the smaller body of the smarty pedal as it gives you just enough of a platform to stand on and not to much of a platform like the 959. the learning curve is steep and after about 3 weeks on the pedal getting in was no problem. If you are looking for a cheap and easy to use clipless pedal with at least a small platform this is a great pedal. |
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Submitted by
Nick
a Weekend Warrior
from Amherst, MA
Date Reviewed: 3/25/2007 8:28:44 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | |