removing pedals

[andrew_s]

Pedal spanner is better than allen key if there are flats.
a) pedals can get on very tight, and you get more leverage.
your knuckles are further away from the chainring teeth. Hint: it hurts less if you put the chain on the big ring first.

 

[betty swollocks]

Just remember that both pedals come off by winding them towards the back of the bike. This means r/h pedal = anti clockwise
l/h pedal = clockwise

 

[montage]

your knuckles are further away from the chainring teeth. Hint: it hurts less if you put the chain on the big ring first.

Haha....I learned this one the hard way

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Eh? Is that a Keo thing? I use a spanner on all my Deltas as the allen key thing is a bit of a fiddle with a multitool.

It might be. I use Look Keo carbons and they do not have spanner flats.

 

[Mr Pig]

Just remember that both pedals come off by winding them towards the back of the bike.

Guy next door bought a bike from Edinburgh Bike Co-op. One of the pedals fell off, turned out they'd destroyed the thread in one of the cranks, most probably by forcing the wrong pedal on. And that's a good bike shop...

 

[02GF74]

Guy next door bought a bike from Edinburgh Bike Co-op. One of the pedals fell off, turned out they'd destroyed the thread in one of the cranks, most probably by forcing the wrong pedal on. And that's a good bike shop...

that is why I do all my maintenance/repairs myself .... cheaper too once you have bought all the tools that is ....

 

[Mr Pig]

that is why I do all my maintenance/repairs myself...

Too right. I remember years ago taking my turntable (record player! ;0) into a hi-end Hi-Fi shop for a service, which cost £50, which was a lot of money back then. Basically they bodged it. Turned out that the guy who worked on the deck was about seventeen with no mechanical background whatsoever.

I thought, this is crazy. I service and repair machines worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and I'm paying a spotty child to mess around with my record player! since then I've built turntables from scratch, I actually built the one I'm using now, and I'm about to built a turntable power supply.

I think people just get it into there heads that there must be some kind of secret to fixing things. There isn't. A bolt is a bolt, whether it's on a bike, car or chieftain tank, and bikes are not complex machines.

 

[montage]

It is the lack of tools which puts me off - they are damn expensive aswell!

 

[Mr Pig]

It is the lack of tools which puts me off - they are damn expensive aswell!

Get one of tha ALDI tool kits, or one like it. Costs about £30 and the tools are fine. Ok, they're not Park quality, but for occasional use they're more than good enough.

 

[thomas]

ah bugger - how much is one of these going to cost?

A normal spanner should do. Swapped pedals with a neighbour ages ago. Always go into a shop and ask them to loosen it/remove them - just be careful not to cycle home (whoops - ended up buying a new crank).

 

[youngoldbloke]

FWIW: I prefer to use a ratchet wrench and hexbit - more control, fewer skinned knuckles!

 

[andrew_s]

It's not too bad - you don't have to buy the lot at once. Just buy stuff as you need it to do the job, and think of what you've not paid in labour charges.
The main thing is to get decent quality proper tools. Using cheap ones or pocket/multi tools you are more likely to damage the components or round off bolt heads and cause more trouble.

The really expensive stuff (like frame preparation tools) isn't justifiable for the use you'd get, so there's always going to be sometimes when you have to go to the bike shop.