Pedals - how long are they meant to last?

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Hi satnav, have you a car you can put your bike in, im in winsford and can do what you want here.

nope, no car (at least not during the week - gets back tomorrow night along with its owner, my OH) my only transport are my bikes, but thanks for the offer.
Was meant to be in winsford today - college was cancelled due to staff illness, so had the day at home instead. Its just really annoying because I did all this to a really old steel framed mtb last weekend (that has been through the Hebdon Bridge floods during the summer) expecting hassle and working on something I could kill without issue and it all went smoothly and now I can't manage a 5 month old road bike that should have been easy! tad frustrating to say the least. thank you for your offer.

 

[andsaw]

If you or your fella gets stuck give us a shout, i could of come tomorrow but i have to stay in.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

My OH replaced the pedals last time, and he is renowned for overtightening everything, so I suspect I am not going to get them off at all at the moment without someone much stronger than me around... the pedals are a flat pedal this one in fact which only needs a standard cross-head thread but I can't get a single one of those to move at all either . I don't mind fiddly but simply can't get into these pedals without the cage area coming off first (and have done the wheel hubs on 6 sets of wheel so far, so have the hang of bearings). no major issue given I have a spare set available which I can swap out.
the bigger problem right now if not being able to get to the crank arm to remove them to get at the BB... and having spoken with my mother, my step-father is ill so its best I don't go tomorrow and father-in-law is also out - too far away... think this may be a £££ job at the LBS. Just one of the joys of cycling! normally I can manage most things, but the problem is with the LBS that I have to cycle there and walk around a town that has nothing in it whilst any work is done, which is going to be boring as hell... still I have to go that way tomorrow to collect a prescription so I might speak with him and see what can be done.

Those cross head bolts on the cage are usually threadlocked so seldom easy to shift. In fact it is critical to use good quality, good fitting tool and not slip damaging the heads or else they may never shift without being drilled out.

You might be able to get at the bearings without removing the cage (the black plastic cover at the end of the pedal spindle can usually be pried off with something sharp), but I agree it is likely much easier with the cage off.

Am unsure why you can't get at the BB. Afaik all crank arms can be attached or detached from the BB with or without pedals. Perhaps you meant you haven't got the right tool (e.g. crank extractor) to remove the chainset so you can bring the chainset with pedals to someone to get the pedals removed? Due to of the nature of the (brutish) method I described above (which in fact doesn't require much strength) I prefer to remove pedals while the chainset is still on the bike.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Those cross head bolts on the cage are usually threadlocked so seldom easy to shift. In fact it is critical to use good quality, good fitting tool and not slip damaging the heads or else they may never shift without being drilled out.

You might be able to get at the bearings without removing the cage (the black plastic cover at the end of the pedal spindle can usually be pried off with something sharp), but I agree it is likely much easier with the cage off.

Am unsure why you can't get at the BB. Afaik all crank arms can be attached or detached from the BB with or without pedals. Perhaps you meant you haven't got the right tool (e.g. crank extractor) to remove the chainset so you can bring the chainset with pedals to someone to get the pedals removed? Due to of the nature of the (brutish) method I described above (which in fact doesn't require much strength) I prefer to remove pedals while the chainset is still on the bike.

The pedal removal was incidental to the BB removal. I had started to investigate some really bad creaking noises and ascertained it was the BB which having dealt with the wheel hubs recently, I decided would benefit from removal and regreasing/replacing. I then noticed that the pedals also had some play in them as well, so was trying to deal with that in addition - I was just amazed that they had issues after less than 4 months on the bike, but from above it seems that that may be 'normal'.

Without being able to remember bike part names (sleepless nights play havoc with my dyslexia - normally people don't even know I am dysexlic) there is an allen key nut over the bit where the crank arm remover has to go. i can't even get that removed to be able to use the crank arm removal rool which I have (and used sucessfully last weekend on another bike). I also can't get the pedals to come off, or undo any of the screws around the cage - I'm not normally this pathetic and usually a compentant mechanic (I used to be a senior IT Engineer used to stripping and rebuilding servers, desktops, laptops etc - the sort that could make 2 working laptops out of 3 dead ones - hence my frustration)

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

If you or your fella gets stuck give us a shout, i could of come tomorrow but i have to stay in.

thank you, the offer is much appreciated. Nice to know of someone slightly closer to me...

 

[lulubel]

I've just done a similar job on the Surly (except that it's a hollowtech II bb, and I replaced it and the pedals rather than servicing them). Fortunately, since I built the Surly, nothing was done up too tight for me to undo, although the biggest problem I had was finding the tool to remove the bb cups, which had mysteriously hidden itself in a corner behind a box!

I didn't have a pedal wrench when I put the pedals on, so I just tightened them as best I could with a spanner that had come with something from Ikea. The left one had worked itself quite tight, and I needed the pedal wrench to get it off. The best way I've found is to put the bike in a corner, so it's leaning against one wall, and has the front wheel against the other wall. Put the pedal in the 90 degree position pointing forwards and put your foot on it. Position the wrench so the handle is pointing towards the front of the bike, so you can push down on the pedal with your foot (stand on it if necessary) and pull up on the wrench with one/both hands.

The right pedal practically fell off in my hand!

I've just taken a pair of really cheap, flat pedals off the Surly (that I put on when I built it because I couldn't decide what sort of pedals to go for) and replaced them with Shimano M324 single sided SPDs. My OH has had M324s on her bike for over 2 years (at least 10,000 miles) and they haven't been serviced at all. They were mostly dry miles, though.