Warning: Snapping Eggbeaters

Philip Whiteman · Post by **Philip Whiteman** » 10 Jan 2007, 9:42am

This is just a warning to riders who use Eggbeater pedals.

The central metal axle (or spindle, whatever you prefer to call it) of my road eggbeaters snapped in half the other day. The forged metal which was around 7mm thick broke clean in a heavy fall off the bike and consequential knee injuries.

Upon inspection, the break was old but could not be seen due to the plastic sheaf covering the axle. Their had been no previous impacts upon the relatively new pedals so I can only assume it is a manufacture problem. Speaking to an internet dealership recently, they too had heard of this problem with Eggbeaters and have in fact stopped dealing with them.

Despite their ease of use, I will never buy this product again.

D.TEK HPVS · Post by **D.TEK HPVS** » 10 Jan 2007, 2:22pm

Have you contacted "Eggbeaters" Crank Brothers
or the shop or Mail order company to express your concerns ?
What was the response ?

Philip Whiteman · Post by **Philip Whiteman** » 10 Jan 2007, 2:27pm

No response as to date from Cranks and the shop has changed ownership.

Interestingly, I placed a similar message on another message board and received two responses. The first mentioned that the problem of failure was known about three years ago and Cranks were meant to have resolved the issue. The second message from referred to the respondent witnessing two cyclists coming a cropper in the same cyclosportive.

If it were a product anywhere else, these would have been recalled. Perhaps cycling products are less liable to such action.

D.TEK HPVS · Post by **D.TEK HPVS** » 10 Jan 2007, 3:20pm

Just to be clear ...
did the pedal break and as a result caused the accident ?
or
broke during the accident due to impact damage ?

Philip Whiteman · Post by **Philip Whiteman** » 10 Jan 2007, 3:24pm

There were no impacts involving the peddle between purchase and the accident. Whilst I am not a metallurgist, the break appeared to be old with only around 1mm of fresh break. The old break could have been there since manufacture or through poor forging or casting.

The 1mm and the plastic sheaf were the only thing holding it together. My accident was caused by the pedal failing whilst pedalling and not through impact.

andrew_s · Post by **andrew_s** » 12 Jan 2007, 1:11am

I had an axle of of Look 4x4 eggbeater clone snap in the middle as I was accelerating into a roundabout on fixed. Definitely an "interesting" experience!
I'd never crashed on it, as far as I could remember. The break showed about 2mm (of the 7) looking like an old crack, the rest looking fresh.

The other problem I've had three times with actual eggbeaters is the small sealed bearing at the end of the pedal disintegrating. This allows the pedal body to shoot off the end of that axle, still attached to your shoe. It's easy enough to mend, and I've not had it happen with one of the replacement bearings from the local bearing shop.

Philip Whiteman · Post by **Philip Whiteman** » 12 Jan 2007, 10:02am

Hmm - that is interesting. I was speaking to a major internet supplier recently and told me they had swapped to Look Eggbeaters on the basis of the problems with the Crank Brothers version. Apparently the Look version was being produced under license but was a stronger design.

Glad you got away without coming off.

andrew_s · Post by **andrew_s** » 12 Jan 2007, 7:30pm

The Look version has a proper roller bearing at the inboard side, rather than a plastic sleeve, but the axle dimensions look the same (without taking an eggbeater apart to compare).
By the time it broke, I'd decided I preferred Candys, so I didn't ask about replacements or guarantees.

axel_knutt · Post by **axel_knutt** » 17 Jan 2007, 12:10pm

Philip Whiteman wrote: Whilst I am not a metallurgist, the break appeared to be old with only around 1mm of fresh break. The old break could have been there since manufacture or through poor forging or casting.

This is metal fatigue! Metal that fails from overload deforms before it breaks, so that the two parts will not fit back together again. By contrast, components that have failed from metal fatigue are not deformed, so the two sides of the break fit back together like a jigsaw puzzle. This is how air crash investigators tell the difference between damage that caused the crash, and damage caused by the crash.
Are you sure you haven't grounded the pedal on a corner in the last few months? Sudden shock loads can serve as a seed for premature metal fatigue. I once grounded a pedal and thought nothing of it. Several months later the spindle failed like yours except that the last little bit of non fractured metal bent instead of breaking, so I didn't come off. Even then the penny didn't drop, and a while later I had a painful accident when the crank went too.

Philip Whiteman · Post by **Philip Whiteman** » 25 Jan 2007, 5:27pm

An interesting point Axel Nutt and this could obviously be a cause of failure. However, the failure rate would also depend upon the type of metal used.

Incidentally, after placing my rant on other message boards, I have managed to build up quite a portfolio of other cyclist that have suffered similar experiences with Eggs. This perhaps leads to me to the question, why do eggbeaters have a greater propensity to fail more so than other types of pedal?