Crankbrothers may be one of the most archetypal American mountain bike companies out there but its products reach far beyond the discipline. The Candy is Crankbrothers’ clipless pedal for gravel and day-to-day riding as well as trail and cross-country mountain biking.
We took a look at the entry level Candy 1 to see how it performs against the best gravel bike pedals and ones for commuting.
(Image credit: Rachel Sokal)
Crankbrothers Candy 1: Construction
The Candy uses Crankbrothers’ clipless cage surrounded by a decent sized pedal body for a good platform of support. The Candy 1 is the entry level pedal which has a composite plastic body around the steel spindle and cage. Our pedals weighed in at 302g with an additional 42g for the cleats, within a few grams of the Time ATAC XC 2 pedals we’ve also been testing recently. For a little joy the Candy 1 comes in four colours; blue, pink, red and black.
Crankbrothers market the Candy as having four-sided entry (the more entry points, the easier it is to clip in), and indeed the cage does. But given this cage is surrounded by a pedal body entry is actually limited to the standard two sides. This isn’t to say that ‘only’ two-sided entry is an issue, more that the four-sided entry doesn’t actually apply. If you want true four-sided entry then you’ll need to go for the Crankbrothers Eggbeater 2 pedal which has the same cage mechanism but does away with the pedal body.
There is no tension or release angle adjustment on the pedal which is the case across all the Candy models. To adjust float and release angle Crankbrothers offer four brass cleat options which determine the release angle (10 or 15 degrees) and float (0 or 6 degrees). The Candy 1s come with the clipless beginner-friendly ‘Easy 6 degree Cleats’ which have a release angle of 10 degrees and 6 degrees of float. As the cleats are brass they will wear so you’ll need to replace them from time to time regardless of which option you settle with.
The pedals are easily serviceable with complete kits available.
(Image credit: Rachel Sokal)
Crankbrothers Candy 1: fitting
The pedals need a 8mm hex key for fitting. The cleats take a little more working out as there are a series of shims and bolt lengths depending on how deep the tread on your shoe is but all that is actually required is a bit of instruction reading and a 4mm hex key.
(Image credit: Rachel Sokal)
Crankbrothers Candy 1: the ride
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