Crank Brothers Stamp 11 Large Pedals: Rider Review

There is no shortage of pedal choices out there these days. It's an integral part of your connection to the bike. Coming to us once again is our buddy Jeff Hoskins with his take on his new Crank Brothers Stamp 11 pedals. Check it out! 

 Overview

I tried using clips several times but to no avail, I keep going back to flats. I’ve been riding flats most of my riding life and just feel more secure for the riding I do. Recently I decided to get a new pair of pedals and went with the Crank Brothers Stamp 11 Large pedals. I have been using Hope’s F20 pedals, which are really great pedals, and I still have them on my other bikes but really wanted to try something else out.

Why I chose the Stamp 11 pedals? Several reasons; Crank Brothers is an awesome company and make great products, and they offer a 5yr warranty on all their pedals. The 114mm x 111mm concave platform, which is a massive platform and allows to just throw tons of leg torque into each rotation as well as super easy to find if your foot somehow could manage to come off.

Speaking of feet coming off, the Stamp 11 has 10 adjustable pins on each side of each pedal to keep that foot from slipping off. The Stamp 11 pedals have a very slim profile as well, my micrometer says 13mm at the thickest of which my Hope’s are almost 16mm thick (excluding pins on both brands), in which means about 1.5mm of extra space between the pedals and that root that wants to take you off the bike (pedal strike... lol). Another reason was obviously the titanium spindle, and yes I’m a weight weenie and the claimed 325g per pair made a huge influence on my decision over my 400g Hope F20’s, as well as I just love the word TITANIUM.

Another decision maker was that the Crank Brothers Stamp 11 pedals can be completely rebuilt, of which many other brands can be as well. Finally, the Stamp 11 are about the most rad looking flats out there. The forged T6 aluminum body is a super dark flat finish, with a brilliant gold finish on the pins and the titanium spindle... Sick theme Crank Brothers... love it!

My initial thoughts upon receiving my Crank Brothers Stamp 11 pedals from Worldwide Cyclery were everything I expected. My large size pedals weighed in at 324g. The finish was impeccable and the pins were already installed into the body (I’ve never received any pedals before with the pins already installed, including Hope’s). The pedal bearings felt extremely smooth and silent. The platform size was... wow! They feel like I’m standing on the ground. Installing the pedals were no different than others but I do recommend using ti-prep instead of regular anti-seize for the Stamp 11 titanium spindle pedals.

My results and feedback, I installed my Crank Brothers Stamp 11 pedals on my 2018 Santa Cruz Tallboy CC to power my Cane Creek eeWings cranks. Installation went superbly as expected. Took some time for me to get used to the feeling of the huge platforms just pedaling around a bit. The pedal bearings rolled extremely smooth while riding, and the platform size started feeling more and more comfortable as I rode, and really liked that I was able to have much more foot on the pedal. I decided to get on one of my favorite XC flat trails with a lot of flow and switchbacks (as well as pedal striking roots). In the long straight-aways the pedals didn’t behave any different than my others, but coming out of the hole or switchbacks I was able to really get more thrust into my acceleration. In curves and high root areas, I’d keep pedaling to see what kind of reaction I’d get from strikes. The slim profile of the pedal did help prevent strikes where I thought I might get them (like I had with my other pedals) but didn’t prevent all of them :(. However during some strikes, I noticed the pedals didn’t grab the roots/ground as I have had happen before, but instead they seemed to glide over much smoother. Don’t get me wrong, pedal strikes are not smooth. The Stamp 11’s just had a smoother strike.. Later riding on some black trails, I did some slow roll 12-16 inch drops And never lost footing nor did I have any issue coming off the pedal... Jumping the same drops with some speed I had the same results, so I tried them out of a nice 3’ lipped tabletop several times and never lost the pedals.

Final Thoughts

In final, I’ve been riding the Crank Brothers Stamp 11 pedals for about 3 weeks with secure and responsive pedaling. It took me a bit of time to get used to the oversized platform compared to the Hope F20’s, but I do notice my acceleration has improved with the Stamp 11’s on XC trails. The weight loss, yet marginal is still weight loss. The pedals feel nice and stiff while standing or sitting, and during techie trails. I’ll most definitely keep my Hope F20’s on my other bikes, at least till they need to be replaced, and then I’ll probably really consider replacing with the Crank Brothers Stamps.

Pros: Large platform, weight, titanium spindles, warranty, re-buildable, look awesome

Cons: Pricey