Cyclocross - Crank Brothers Smarty Clipless Pedals

hi do anyof you use Crank Brothers Smarty Clipless Pedals ?if so what do you think to them are they the same has egg beaters?

They are essentially the same as Eggbeaters with a platform. They are slightly lighter that the Candy, but the Candies are rebuildable and the Smartys are not.

I've mountain biked w/ eggbeaters and Candys and once clipped in w/ a stiff shoe, you can't tell the difference. I ride eggbeaters now and would recommend them.

Smartys are junk. I bent the bail on the trainer my first time using them. They came on my new cross bike. Total waste of money imo. I have never had a problem with eggbeaters or candys and I've used both for years. For cross get the eggbeaters

I am just now looking at these for my new MB FantomcrossPro. I've never used clipless pedals before and was leaning towards to Candy or Smarty pedals. Do they have enough platform to them to be used occasionally with normal shoes/sandals? Like when I just want to pop a couple blocks away to a friends house. That would be my reasoning to get the Candy over plain eggbeaters (or even get the Smarty which are larger but I did notice the non-rebuildable aspect of them). Thanks,

I've used the Candys before w/ regular shoes. Its a little strange because you feel the wings sticking up through the platform through your shoe soles. If its just a few blocks, etc itd probably be fine, but its not a real platform pedal for sure. Might be easier to just swap pedals as needed.

hi do anyof you use Crank Brothers Smarty Clipless Pedals ?if so what do you think to them are they the same has egg beaters?

I have the smarties on my commuter rig. Being an eggbeaters fan I got these 'cause the price was right. After 250 or so miles over 1 month I can tell these won't last the winter (bearing play/pedal chatter already and wings getting beat to h3ll, i'm 6'3" 200# for reference). Cleat engagement isn't as easy as the eggbeater, most likely due to the fact the you can't push/roll the wings easily due to the platform (that being said I find the eggbeater obnoxiously easy to engage).

I will probably swap these out for the eggbeater SL (forged instead of formed wings, etc.).

The smarties might be fine with moderate mileage and fair weather riding. For heavy use (or heavier rider) you might want something a little tougher...

I agree Smarty's are crap. I had a pair and the wing bent on the first rock it hit and I couldn't clip into that side any more. Crank brothers replaced them without any trouble, but you will be without pedals for a couple weeks everytime this happens. Eggbeaters are much better and even easier to clip in/out of. I have had and know several people who have had clipping in/out issues with smartys. Never had a single problem with eggbeaters. I love them!

I have both Candys and Smartys. I find the Candys to be better. I like the larger platform and I am able to clip in and out better. I am in the process of phasing out Smartys on any of my bikes. I won't be going Eggbeater because I like a platform for my size 50 gunboats.

Smarty's are not so "smart" the bearings suck and they're not rebuild able. You can't go wrong with the Egg or Candy

Can anyone who has had both the Eggbeaters and Candy's say which is easier to clip into? Also, does the platform on the Candy's give you something to stand on until you've clipped in, e.g. if you're leaving a stoplight and want to just stand on the pedal before clipping..

I have both eggbeaters and candys. The candys are better for pedaling without being cilpped in like starting out or no cleats and somewhat easier to find the wire bails to get clipped in. The eggbeaters will shed mud and snow/ice more effectively but are a little tough to pedal when not clipped in.

I have both eggbeaters and candys. The candys are better for pedaling without being cilpped in like starting out or no cleats and somewhat easier to find the wire bails to get clipped in. The eggbeaters will shed mud and snow/ice more effectively but are a little tough to pedal when not clipped in.


I would have to agree with this point. I to use both and have issues with either..... just sometimes finding the clip on the egg-beater can be a bit clumbersome some times when in a hurry.

Just to follow up on my earlier post. One of my smarty pedals is dead, I haven't opened them up and they don't appear serviceable. It feels like the bearings disintegrated and the pedal knocks around on the axle. 2 months and ~600 miles of riding. They were cheap so I'm not really frustrated. Time to shell out the extra $ and look at a set of SL candies or eggbeaters...

I run Candys , Eggbeaters and Mallets. I'm happy with all.

have a pair of the smarty pedals (use eggbeaters and candies on my other rides)... the smarty set now has about 2,500 miles on 'em and still no problems... but as others have pointed out, they are NOT rebuildable, so when they go, they're gone... i got 'em at a good price, so i popped for them at the time...

i notice no difference between the smarty and candy pedals... OTOH, eggbeaters gave me hotspots on my previous shoes (661s)... i now use stiffer-soled shoes, so this hasn't been a problem...

p.s. i'm beefy, but i'm not a masher, so YMMV...

Smarty pedals are actually rebuildable...
...if you want to spend some time rebuilding them. It will cost you ~$4 in parts.

Mine were trashed in no time after caps were lost, it seems that caps are designed to be lost pretty quickly. I realized that if I would have put something around the pedal to keep caps in place pedals would last much longer but it was too late, out of two pairs I have only one pedal retained cap and was usable but 3 others were ruined (as I thought initially).
I used electric tape to hold remaining cap in place, put ends of tape under side clips and cut the excess, this way tape will not fall off.

Then I took them apart and realized that they are actually rebuildable regardless of what Crank Brothers want you to think. So instead of paying another 60 or so dollars for better model (I know CB want me to) I did some research and came up with the instructions for you. Keep in mind that I only rebuilt outer bearings since inner bearings were just fine. It is much harder for dirt to get to the inner bearings that's why they survived.

All you need besides tools and grease is two 6x12x4 mm bearings - get them on ebay, they are dirt cheap and used in RC cars.

Steps are basically the same as to rebuild CB Candy pedals you can find on YouTube. After taking pedal apart and cleaning, examine inner bearing for wear, and make sure nuts and axis thread are fine. Then assemble inner bearing, replace beads of outer bearing with 6x12x4 bearing, screw inner nut in the same position it was originally, you don't want to over-tighten, check how freely pedal rotates. The key point here is to have no interference of inner nut with the bearing, nut has raised ring inside which will hold the inner ring of the bearing properly. Put washer and tighten outer nut.
If you don't have grease gun, lube bearings as you assemble them.

Make sure the surface of inner nut which faces the bearing is level, mine was uneven which would have caused bearing to wear much quicker, I sanded it to make smooth.

Just a final note, I replaced lost caps with tips of Ni-MH rechargeable batteries, the diameter is just right and they hold in place much more tightly compared to original plastic junk. You can use whatever you want, share your thoughts with me because batteries' caps are not easy to saw off

Thanks and enjoy you good-as-new pedals!

I tried a pair of these for a while. I have to say I wasn't too impressed. The construction seems a bit on the flimsy side, almost like toy pedals, with an O-seal on it that almost seems like an afterthought.

I don't even see the point of having an eggbeater clip-in mechanism (which is an infinite 4-sided system for easy clipping and good mud-resistance on a mountain bike), and then surrounding it with a cheap, plastic platform that essential turns it back into a 2-sided pedal. If you want a good 2-sided SPD-shoe compatible pedal with that kind of mechanism, I would suggest it would be better to go with Time ATACs. Crank Bros are basically the same thing, with two added "sides". But like I said, having the plastic "platform" around it negates that anyway.

I also dislike pedals that don't have wrench flats. A slot for an Allen key is fine, handy even, but I like to have both that and a wrench flat.

I know they are cheap to buy, but in this case, you pay cheap and you get cheap. You also get a pedal system that requires more frequent replacement of the cleats. By the way, don't think you'll be using these as platform pedals with ordinary shoes. The mechanism sticks up beyond the plastic platform, as it must on any SPD-compatible system, and so they are no different in that regard than a Shimano mtn SPD pedal.

FYI: Crank Brothers discontinued Smartys a while back. But they are still available AT FULL RETAIL. :eek:

I've used Egg Beaters for almost 5 years. Great pedal.

Really? Discontinued? Mine came on my Giant road bike.. it's a 2009