Couple of weeks ago, George found out about 14 mm vs. 9/16" pedals, by asking our esteemed listmates why his Berthets had trouble threading into his cranks. Having long ago tapped all my Stronglights and TAs out to 9/16ths, I was happy to offer to trade pedals or spindles, so I could get George's 9/16th and he could get some proper 14 mm. I even offered to swap out the spindles if his pedals were much nicer than my sets.
Unfortunately, they were. Much nicer than mine. So, I took down one of his pedals (with nice, new, Phil greas), opened up one of mine, cleaned all the parts from mine, and swapped the spindle. "Mine" (9/16) was over 3 mm longer than his, with nominally identical bodies. By the time it was all over, I had measured 7 spindles, and figure that all of them were made Monday. Or after a good French lunch. From 72.3 (two at that) to 75.5 mm. To get the 14 mm spindles to work in their new homes, I had to grind down the ends -- and deepen the washer groove on one. To get the 9/16 to work for me, with their short spindles, I had to use 1/8" balls instead of 5"32 on the inboard side. Yessir, the parts interchange about like those from Eli Whitney's first rifle factory at Harper's Ferry. Stamp them, forge them, machine them, and then file to fit.
By the way, I found no correspondence between pedal thread size and the presence, absence, or language of any letter stamped on the wrench flats. Any of the rest of you occasionally surprised with this vintage stuff, when the 6 mm allen key won't find a purchase on the end to pull the pedal off? :-)
Memory may trick me, but this stuff comes from an era when pedals did get worked on, when shops saved parts, when folks didn't have money. My memory does not include comparable issues with even the early Japanese products. Good prices and better quality, even as low as the Shimano "Lark" derailleur.
End of rant -- and please, this is not George's fault. I made the offer to swap, and I'm glad to have another set of English berthets. I was just surprised at the discoveries.
harvey "likes stuff machined better than I can do with a file and
grinder" sachs
mcLean va