i really like crank brothers release and "float" and have heavily modified some of my pedals.
Their road pedals hold on the main bearing as well so not as much force is put into the tiny 686 bearing.
I have had other pedals end bearings fail on me, and had the pedals come off the spindle... it can be very dangerous. but not a crank brothers yet..
It is only an issue when you have sleeve / bushing pedal, and so the tiny end bearing has to take all the axial force.. couple good side hits too and that bearing is probably toast.
I have modified crank brothers with a needle bearing now (LOOK also sold them with needle bearings) and also have modified some to take nice larger ball bearing in place of the sleeve. with a little green loctite it takes the axial force too. Free spinning eggbeaters !
I use the quarttros which are fairly nice except for the plastic body that i can flex the crap out of. Wish they would use a fiber filled polymer instead of the soft milk jug plastic(or whatever it is).
But the easy release and yet secure hold are just too much of an advantage to give up on. I have never accidentally come out of these.... this is partly due to the location of the pivot of the arms.... the harder you pull, the harder the bars grab the cleat.
There are making a huge profit on these pedals. I would guess it doesn't cost even $5 to make one pedal. That's one reason they use a sleeve, using a better main bearing would cost another buck or so..
Anyway OK how to fix the issue. I was thinking maybe a enduro MAX 686 bearing is made, but i don't see one. (MAX packs in another ball or two? and so could handle a little more axial force).
So what i would try is use Two 686 bearings in the end. It appears as though there is enough room for two bearings then get a longer bolt. you could probably only do this with spindle that take a bolt into the end and an eggbeater body that take a screw-in outer seal plug. Couldn't do it with the snap ring eggbeater bodies or the need-a-nut spindles.
VXB sells bearings cheap . A good hardware store like Parkrose has a very nice selection of metric bolts.
The other option that someone might think of, but won't work in a single ball bearing system, is an angular contact bearing (they can handle a lot more axial force).
--- On Thu, 8/7/08, Chris Brandt wrote:
From: Chris Brandt
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Crank Brothers
To: obra@list.obra.org
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008, 11:44 AM
I watched it happen to Geoff Kabush at a NORBA National race in Sandpoint, ID a
few years ago. He finished strong using only the spindle on one side!
Interestingly, it was kept pretty hush-hush and out of the media.
A few years ago, I was on a factory CX team that was sponsored by
Crankbrothers. In fact, I am still using that product. I had one pair that I had
damaged. Not being aware of their easy customer service program, I first posted
to this OBRA list w/ a link to a photo of my damaged pedal, and a request from
other members if they had any advice on how to fix it. My posting, though
intended to be a harmless request for advice in repairing a pedal I had damaged,
unintentionally made their product look bad. Not more than 1.5 hours had passed
before my email posting had made it's way to Crankbrothers headquarters, who
then immediately contacted my team manager threatening to cancel their
sponsorship due to my personal "poor judgement" in making a public
posting. My manager was on the war path, hunting me down and demanding that I
delete my photo from the web immediately, or be canned. I broke rule #1 of
Sponsorship 101: Don't make someone who is giving you FREE stuff look bad.
Common
sense.
Regardless of that history, I thought I'd share this tidbit:
I've had all 5 pair of my Crankbrothers MTB pedals (both Candy and
Eggbeater versions) rebuilt by CB for FREE at least 3 times each! They maybe
have a "semi-disposable" product when used+abused, but have really
good customer service. There are design flaws that make these pedals a bad idea
for some folks, but also design elements that make them amazing for other folks.
You can be sure though that CB will make an honest effort to help you out if you
have any problems.
I've never had the nut come off the end of a spindle, but have had the
bearings disentegrate enough to create some pretty sketchy play. I'm sure
plenty of people have had major issues with these pedals, as have plenty of
other people w/ other brands. It's just part of the business of bike parts.
In general, they won't explode on you if you take reasonable care of them.
Just don't use the "Smarty" version of their pedal. :)
Chris
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