Crank Brothers Egg Beaters - Cleat Installation

The following is a installation guide for the Crank Brothers Egg Beater C cleat. The pedal installation is here. The shoe is Shimano M086 and its review is here.

The pedals come with standard issue brass cleats.

After 2 weeks of wear

There is also a premium cleat available. I think its just a replacement cleat, not necessarily "premium".

Premium Cleats $19.80 10% off $22 msrp

The first step is locating the shoe plate. Its one sided and will mount flush to the inside of the shoe.

By removing the insole you will see the slots where the plate lies. On the sole of the shoe is were the cleat is mounted.

The cleats have round dots which indicate the amount of free play before disengagement. With dots on the right, the cleat disengages early at a 15 degree heel twist in either direction. With dots on the left the cleat diesngages at a 20 degree angle. The earlier the easier. If you are duck footed or have stiff ankles it can be a problem because the release angle is not manually adjustable.

The egg beater came with screws which fit perfectly into the sdp plate. The longer screw is for using the shim.

If your inexperienced with clipless then installation try positioning the cleat in the center of the shoe. It's a neutral position and can be adjusted later. If you are using your old shoes it would be smart to mark or measure where your old cleat position was. The green line is supposed to indicate horizontal free play.

Take the 4mm allen key and screw the cleat into the plate. There are torque settings available in the paper work, should you happen to own a torque measuring device. Make it nice and tight because if the cleat comes loose its difficult , if not impossible to clip out. I had this problem!!

Now the hell fun begins. With 6 degrees of float, the trick becomes to get comfortable without hitting the crank. Once you find the sweet spot, place the waterproof cover over the sdp plate and you're all done.

Week 1
I made 4 cleat adjustments and 2-3 seat post adjustments before I was satisfied. I still cannot easily clip out with my left foot using outward rotation. Although I just remembered I broke that ankle when I was in high school. I think duck feet is more the issue. An adjustable release angle would remedy this.


Month 1
I installed the pedals on a taller mountain bike and I'm having zero clip out issues on both sides. The Trek is 19' & the taller bike is 21'. I can clip out at any point of a pedal stroke; thus I conclude with this being a geometry issue more than a duck foot issue. I also oiled the bearing for the first time.