Received today three pairs of the new TA pedals, purchased from Jan Heine (thanks, Jan). We had a thread a couple of weeks ago about the actual threading of these pedals. As other list members had described, these are marked "BSC" along with D & G, on the wrench flats, yet a note in the box says they are metric thread 14 x 125, but "can be fitted on both BSC or metric crank standard."
In fact, these are definitely French. I tried them on the Nervar Star on a 1972 Follis mod 172, which had French threaded Lyotard 45D's and on a mid-range Sugino trank crank. The TA's were definitely tighter in the Nervar than Lyotards, but not nearly as tight as a Shimano clipless pedal from the Sugino crank. Both the Lyotard and the TA threaded easily into the Sugino arm by hand and showed detectable play until the last few turns. The TA was perhaps a bit snugger than the Lyotard, but both were clearly a bit too small for the Sugino arm. Would probably work OK if one was sure to keep them well tightened, but this is not an ideal fit.
With calipers accurate to 0.1 mm, I measured the TA and Lyotard threads both at 13.8 mm, versus 14.2 for the Shimano pedal. Though the TA definitely was a tight fit in the Nervar crank, I decided to install it, as the measurement showed it was the same diameter as the Lyotard to the nearest 0.1 mm. This took a little more wrench force than I was entirely comfortable applying, more so on the right pedal, where I even observed a very small amount of aluminum shaving. However, I threaded them all the way in with only a standard combination wrench, no need for a longer Campy pedal wrench. Backing them out again and inspecting the crank threads showed clean threads with no damage. Lyotards still fit fine, and the TA's went in again with only modest wrench pressure this time.
It may be TA has done something with the thread profile to make these pedals a snugger fit in an English crank, which causes them to require a little more than the usual force to install in a French crank, but based on the measurement and the above experience with French and English cranks, these are essentially French pedals. They probably would not fall out of an English crank, but at least based on the Sugino arm, they are a little smaller than ideal. It is possible European BSC cranks (meaning Campy) are a bit smaller then Japanese BSC cranks, so they might be a bit snugger in Campy arms.
Peter commented in the earlier thread that these pedals went snugly into a TA BSC crank, even requiring a wrench to run them all the way in. If this is typical, then I highly suspect that the new TA "BSC" cranks are really French, or at least a couple of tenths of a mm smaller than Japanese BSC cranks. I have two new Cyclotourists on order, so I should find out shortly.
The TA's are definitely an upgrade to the Lyotards on the Follis. In particular, they are much wider, so I can now ride in tennis shoes without the sole of the shoe pressing down on the top point of the quill as was the case with the Lyotards. This is important since this is primarily a commuting bike.
One odd thing is that, although this is definitely the classic TA design, and the packaging has the TA name and logo, I can't find the TA name anywhere on the pedals themselves. Other than the BSC and D & G on the wrench flats, the only lettering seems to be on the little allen head screws which secure the removable cage plates. These are marked "Mikalor". Could this be a subcontractor who is now manufacturing the pedals? One pedal at least had a rough area on part of the body which looked like a casting imperfection. Perhaps this is an indication of a subcontractor with slightly worse quality control, or perhaps TA pedals always exhibited occasional casting imperfections. I haven't owned enough old TA pedals to say.
Overall this is a wonderful pedal, especially if you have old French-threaded cranks. The worst thing about it is TA's insistence on marking it "BSC", which it is not. Some of us old farts who have worked a lot with French equipment will feel a bit uncomfortable threading a pedal marked "BSC" into a French-thread crank.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX