Seized on pedals

[Slick]

PLusgas not touching it !! Will have another bash over the weekend !

You know that it needs left to soak?

 

[simongt]

This is why you grease the threads.
Beat me to it - !
I've always greased pedal threads before replacing back onto the cranks. Obviously make subsequent removals a doddle.

 

[boydj]

It's 2 weeks ago that a dealer told me that pedals should be tightened with sufficient force and that one I mounted losened too easy, this related to a crank break around the pedal hole.

I suspect a loose pedal is more likely to be caused by a cracked crank than the other way round.

 

[Ian H]

I got my friend to mount her bike and stand on the pedals whilst I wielded the spanner with a big extension-tube attached. With a loud crack, each pedal was loosened.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I got my friend to mount her bike and stand on the pedals whilst I wielded the spanner with a big extension-tube attached. With a loud crack, each pedal was loosened.

And the rest of the bike lay in a thousand pieces at your feet...

 

[Ian H]

I wasn't going to mention that bit.

 

[silva]

I suspect a loose pedal is more likely to be caused by a cracked crank than the other way round.

The thing is, the story has a cause and a consequence, question is what is what.
It's said that a pedal tightens (further) due to pedaling (thread direction).
It's also said that a losely mounted pedal can turn abit forth/back in its mount, causing the steel of the pedal to fret out the aluminium of the crank, which results in cracks that subsequently grow, and worsen this process.
Now, my case may be "special", because I ride a fixed gear and have the habit to slowdown/brake by pushing back. Maybe there is some truth in both.

 

[Globalti]

PLusgas not touching it !! Will have another bash over the weekend !

Penetrating oil doesn't do anything until you've broken the bond and got the thing moving. That's why folk have got 45 year old tins of Plus Gas in their sheds.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I had the same problem a year ago on a second hand fixed wheel bike I bought. I tried every thing I knew and it would not budge, in the end I took it to a shop and it took the guy nearly half an hour to break the seal with the pedal clamped in a vice.

 

[Ian H]

I have always just nipped up pedals with a short spanner. I do not recall ever having one come loose.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I have always just nipped up pedals with a short spanner. I do not recall ever having one come loose.

Same here.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I volunteer at a community bike workshop and we get to work on loads of old bikes, many with apparently unremovable pedals. All of the above procedures will work in most cases but when these have proved unworkable the method that always works for us is removing the cranks, fixing them in a strong vice (protecting the arms with wood) and using a pedal spanner with a length of scaffold pipe over it if necessary for extra leverage.

 

[MrGrumpy]

You know that it needs left to soak?

Errr yes I am aware lol .

 

[Slick]

Errr yes I am aware lol .

That's good, you'll get it then.