Where this would have helped was in the 1970's Bike Boom, when many French manufactures shipped bikes to the US with Stronglight cranks which seemed to vary randomly between French and English thread. At least they would have only had to have a single pedal thread. But then, as my 1973 Lejeune testifies, sometimes they simply didn't worry about and put whichever pedals were at hand in whichever crank, even on high end models. Probably more often French pedals into English cranks, since to do the opposite you need a large wrench or very good arm strength.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
> Jerry (not Liz) Moos wrote:
> >
> > (cut) A 1.25 mm pitch is extremely close to 20 TPI, so a thread
> > diameter just slightly larger than the nominal 14mm might indeed make it
OK
> > for BSC arms. This was no doubt the thinking of TA engineers.
Surprising
> > someone didn't try this years ago, when French thread was a lot more
common.
>
> Actually it would have been more surprising if someone _did_ try this
> years ago. Back then, the French, English, Italians etc. all had their
> own standards for bicycles (the bad old days).
>
> I think the appropriate quotation here is:
> "Tis with our judgments as our watches:
> None go just alike, yet each believes his own."
> --Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
>
> .