At 08:54 AM 11/20/2000 +0000, Hilary Stone wrote:
>These [Lyotard Marcel Berthet pedals] were made from at least 1935
>onwards* though I don't think there's any
>evidence that they were made as early as 1923. The earlier ones had a
>different style pedal cap with light knurling. Lyotard pedal models were all
>numbered 460D were the double sided aluminium pedals so favoured by
>cyclo-crossers for many years. The numbers don't have as far as I can see
>anything to do with dates unlike some other French bits of kit. The allen
>bolt/hexagon axles were a pretty late mod probably from the early 80s. The
>earlier style of axle had two lengths of thread introduced sometime I think
>in the 70s to be used with either steel cranks (short) or aluminium cranks
>(long).
> One problem that arose quite often in use was the top flat plate
>becoming loose or detached from the rest of the body due to the riveting
>being a bit duff.
>* There was an ad in Cycling about this time which displayed the wide range
>of Lyotard pedals available.
>Hilary Stone
I'd second that. In the summer of 1975, Beloved Spouse and I rode from Cleveland to Atlanta, bike camping. Her bike had 14 mm Berthets... a bit of negligence on my part. They got Really loose about half-way. In that era, there was little hope of finding 14 mm pedals along the route (western VA, eastern W.Va, East TN, W. NC...). FedEx was not yet a business plan, I believe. Ah, but radiator clamps actually held them together for the rest of the trip. Your mileage may vary...
Harvey Sachs