#262 - Time Atac XS Absalon Pedals

Pic from ChainReactionCycles.com to show the pedal while it
was still clean and shiny.

 Ahhhhh these are purportedly Julien Absalon's pedal

of choice. Why he uses this instead of the more expensive

(and lighter?) versions, I still couldn't fathom. But the white

color and Absalon's signature is enough to let our test rider

go and buy these pedals.

 

 

 

The pedal after a few weeks. The Orange 'spray paint' is the
platform area. Compare with the platform area of XT pedals.

 

Just a bit of a background, the tester's first clipless pedals

are XT pedals (the older ones). He changed to Eggbeater 2s

because there is this fad in our group to lighten our bikes.

But after a while, his Eggbeaters got spoiled. He bought the

bearing package from Crankbrothers and this time around he has

started to feel all those things that I told him he will feel

(e.g. feels like standing on a wire). Why he didn't feel all

those during his first months is beyond me.

    

We have always lusted after these Time pedals with Absalon's

signature and he decided to give them a try. In short he agreed

to be a guinea pig hehehehe. But it looks like I will follow

his footsteps? Read on....

 

   

  

So on with the review! The pedals were delivered to the

office with the rest of the stuff that was needed to build

NoLights Louie's Scott Contessa.

   

The pedals came in a box with instructions and cleats.

The instructions say that if you mount the right cleat (marked

with a capital 'R') on your right shoe and the left cleat

(marked with a capital 'L') on your left shoe then you will

have to twist your foot 13degrees to release it.

   

If you find that 13degrees releases your feet too easily,

then you can mount the right cleat on the LEFT SHOE

and the left cleat on the RIGHT SHOE which gives you

a release angle of 17degrees.

   

Since our test rider, Bal, is used to a 20degrees release

angle on his Eggbeater, we mounted the Time cleats to give

him a 17degrees release angle.

     

As you can see from the picture above where I spraypainted

the platform area in orange, the platform is a lot wider than

XTs. It is even wider than the new XT's platform. So that is

definitely a plus.

    

The arrow shows that the adjustment screw is no
longer flush with the pedal body.

 

Also, the spring tension is adjustable just like XT pedals

and this adjustability is missing in all CrankBrothers pedals.

The only thing that XT pedals have over this adjustability is

that XT pedals have a wider range of adjustment whereas these

pedals seem to have only three settings (there are adjustment

marks of 1, 2, and 3 in the pedal body). The adjustment

screw can be turned by using a small flat tip screw driver.

     

The pedal is NOT as freely spinning as Shimano pedals.

Also, the surprising bit is that even if the pedal body is

composite (plastic?) it is nearly as heavy as the all metal

XT pedals. We were not able to weight it BUT manufacturer's

claimed weight is 350g per pair.

    

Clipping into the pedals will give you a very loud 'Thunk'.

This is good as you don't have to pull on the pedals just to

check if you are already clipped in. Anyway, no big deal as

both Shimano and CrankBrothers pedals give an audible

sign when you clip in.

   

Clipping out of the pedals is what surprised me! Clipping

out also generates a loud 'Thunk'! Time Atacs have similar

retention system as Crankbrothers BUT you will not hear

any sound from Cranbrother pedals when you clip out.

    

After a few rides, Bal the tester also complained that although

the release angle of Time Atacs is just 17degrees, it is harder

to unclip than the 20degrees release angle in his Eggbeaters!

So we remounted that cleats in the correct Right-Left fashion

(i.e. Right cleat to Right shoe) which then gave us a 13

degree release angle and now our tester is much happier.

    

Again, after a few more rides, our tester then complained

that the spring tension of the retention system coming from

the factory is soooo stiff that he is scared that there will

come a situation where he will be unable to unclip. Easy.

I just unscrewed the spring tension screw (counterclockwise).

No surprise that the turning is notched such that the 'notch'

coincides with the 1, 2, 3 mark on the pedal. What surprised me

is that I was ABLE to unscrew the spring tension screw past

the #3 mark! See the picture above. I was able to unscrew

it such that the head of the screw is not flush with the pedal

body anymore. I think I can even unscrew it further.

But I didn't do it for fear of not being able to put it back

just in case it is possible to unscrew it all the way.

    

Anyway, now that the spring tension is weaker, our test

rider is happier as he can now unclip easily.

   

Also, I seem to remember reading somewhere that Shimano

cleats will go into Time Atac pedals. We tried and it didn't

work. We then tried to clip in with CrankBrother cleats

and we were able to clip in.

    

There you have it. Now the question is will I follow

our test rider's lead and get the Time Atac XS Absalon

pedals? Basically, it is as heavy as XT pedals. You can adjust

the release angle like CrankBrothers. You can adjust the spring

tension like Shimano pedals. The float is good for people with

bad knees (like Crankbrothers pedals)... So in short, it is a

combination of most of the good points of Shimano and

CrankBrothers pedals... I think my next pedals will be

Time Atacs :-)