I used to buy nothing but time atac pedals years ago, but had to give up on them as they started going downhill.
I have some of the original ones from the mid 90’s, and a couple of the pairs prior to their reorganization a few years ago. They are all great, but I heard the latest ones were not as good.
Really interesting to see this development and consider the recent admission that SRAM was dropping the current PowerTap pedals and hubs. Not sure if anything is connected, but seems possible.
What advantages do they have, if any, over the likes of Shimano SPD-SL or the various LOOK style out there
Are their MTB cleats and/or pedals better than Shimano?
They have stated that they are keeping the brand and tech alive…but the fact that they killed the existing product line w/o new products seems curious.
The obvious inference is that SRAM wants to introduce a power-based pedal system, but no everything they do is re: component companies is about power meters. Sometimes they just acquire companies that have a good rep but are available (Rock Shox, Zipp, Avid, etc)
If they bought Time pedals with the hope of developing a power-based pedal, they may have made a mistake. See Wahoo and Speedplay as an example. Now SRAM has a helluva lot more experience running a component company than Wahoo, so that is a good thing.
As for advantages of Time vs. Shimano, back in the 90’s they were clearly superior to Shimano in the mud, etc. But once the redesigned SPD came out, they lost much of that advantage…and Crank Brothers offered similar benefits. I rode ATAC’s for awhile, but eventually tired of the feeling that my foot was “sliding off” the pedal (a common complaint of ATAC pedals). I haven’t heard of Time having any great market presence in quite awhile.
Will be interesting to follow…first to the market with a reasonably priced power-based MTB platform will have a massive * market advantage.
Something about an MTB power pedal worries me, pedal strikes and such. Not only is it pricy on its own but also only works with XX1 carbon cranks IIRC (which are also expensive and not something I want to bash on rocks)
I’ve had one pair of ATACs about 15 years ago and went back to SPD.
They’re okay. Definitely not going to upend the market even with SRAM’s influence.
I actually was the “tip” in DCR’s article and I just found the one from CT today:
Realized I left my though incomplete here…as noted, if they bought the pedal business in the hopes of developing a power-pedal, that may be challenging. If, OTOH, Time had already developed a good amount of a power-pedal but lacked the resources to finish it off, then it is a different story. If that is the case, it could be a great purchase.
ETA - wait…duh. They already HAVE a pedal-based power system that they just discontinued. So do they move that tech over to Time pedals? If not, then this purchase makes even less sense to me.
But if they just plan to move it over, I’m not certain what they get from it. Time pedals have very limited road presence right now, so you’d have to either adopt a 3-bolt system for Time (which destroys the whole uniqueness of the brand) or you have to get people to adopt a whole new pedal-platform.
Hmmmm…
PowerTab is basically dead now.
My guess is they they moved all personal assets to other power meter companies…like quarq (replacing the C1 - which i also own) and probably making a time power meter on time pedals…
who knows!
Hopefully their power pedals have more success than LOOK. Then again with the rumors churning about those Assioma Spindles, if those pan out they will change the marketplace
Not in the loop with this rumors…
is it that Assioma will sell the spindle so it can be put on mostly any pedal ?
Meanwhile, Wahoo seems content to let Speedplay fade away to slow death. 
Yeah, that whole thing is beyond odd to me. I never liked them, but there are plenty of people who really do. And Wahoo seems content to have done a purchase and just slowly decommission SP silently with dropping production and availability that used to be common.
This…
LOL. Also this.
They were usually fine if you rode with a shoe that had really hard lugs (e.g. Specialized) but they just ate through shoes with soft lugs. (e.g. Shimano)
Also, I once ponied up the extra cash for the carbon body ATACs and had the right-hand pedal explode about 3 hours into a 5 hour ride. Made for a tense loooong technical downhill.
Just to add a little extra value: I did pick up a deeply discounted pair of Time road pedals on clearance a few years back. They seemed fine, but the cleats must’ve been molded from baking chocolate or something, because they lasted about six weeks before they wore out. Replacements were like $30. I guess it was along the lines of the Inkjet Printer business model.
I think they used to be, but they’ve declined and shimano has improved at pedals. I think their claim to fame was float and they were very easy to get into and out of which is important for mountain biking. Also relatively easy to adjust and clean. my XTRs seem to have enough float for me, so i don’t think i’ll be going back. Plus it’s SRAM.
This would be cool, some kind of AI to optimise the shifting. Maybe they could dip into Trainerroad ride logs to classify the rider into a particular category (masher v spinner)…
"However, a fully automatic shifting system is not something we have seen. If a new power meter pedal offered the pedalling analysis capabilities we mentioned earlier, combined with the analysis capabilities of the AXS app, this might now be a possibility. Theoretically, an automatic shifting system could understand from a rider’s force on the pedals, position on the bike, road gradient and speed, which gear they’ll need next, perhaps even before the rider knows. "