Well, I've investigated this before, measuring a lot of Lyotard axles. What I concluded is that there is just a large variation in thread diameter from one set of pedals to another. The ones that are nominally English, i.e. 9/16" or 14.29 mm do seem to average larger than the nominally French 14 mm ones. The nominal French ones are marked D and G or unmarked while the nominal English ones are marked R and L. But the variation is enough that a small "English" axle can be closer to a large "French" axle than it is to the largest "English" axle in a sample.
This explains to me the original Lyotard 45D pedals on my 1973 LeJeune, which I bought new. After riding them for a year, I upgraded (to what I can't recall). When I removed them I found they were marked D and G, but had worked fine with the Stronglight 93 cranks, which were marked as 9/16. Evidently this pair was larger than average for nominal French Lyotards, so worked for English.
TA did a similar thing a couple of years ago, selling pedals that came with a note in the box saying they worked for either French or English. I bought a couple of pairs of these. They required more force than typical to install in French cranks, while going in by hand with only light wrench force the last couple of turns in a English crank. Evidently TA "split the difference" of 0.29 mm between French and English dimensions with these pedals. This seems to have worked OK because of TA's typical tight tolerances. This sort of design with sloppy tolerances like Lyotard would probably be a disaster.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Fred Rafael Rednor <fred_rednor@yahoo.com> wrote: One aspect of this story reminds me of a theory that I've had for a while, relating to Lyotard pedals. That is, all Lyotard pedals have the same threading, regardless of whether the markings indicate French or English. If this is true, you're always taking a bit of a chance when using them with an English threaded crankset.
I base this on my observation that every Lyotard pedal I've ever handled seemed very loose while being installed in the crank arm. This was the complete opposite of things like Sheffield pedals, which always felt a bit tight.
But, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary... Cheers, Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
> Craig wrote:
> << Stripped out the threads on my
> Stronglight 49D! Lyotard 460 pedals. How it happened is
> beyond me.
>
> What are my options? >>
>
> A good bike shop (!) can install a heli-coil and restore that
> crank. At
> least as long as it's not Metric threading (still possible
> for sure but
> no one here stocks French threaded helicoils)
>
> Dale Brown
> cycles de ORO, Inc.
> 1410 Mill Street
> Greensboro, NC 27408 USA
> 336-274-5959
> http://www.cyclesdeoro.com
> http://www.classicrendezvous.com
> Giant, Specialized, Orbea, Bianchi, Felt, Litespeed,
> Landshark,
> Colnago, Townie and other exotica.
> National Bicycle Dealers Association Board member
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cmontgomery
> To: ClassicRendezvous
> Sent: Mon, 22 May 2006 19:49:54 -0700
> Subject: [CR]Stronglight 49D Tragedy
>
> Took my ASC equipped Viking Road/Path out for a 45 mile
> spin on
> Sunday. Got 9 miles into it when I heard/felt an "thunk."
> Next thing
> you know my left leg is spinning away and my right is
> dangling there
> with a pedal and toe clips attached. Stripped out the threads
> on my
> Stronglight 49D! Lyotard 460 pedals. How it happened is
> beyond me.
>
> What are my options?
>
> Craig Montgomery
> Tucson
> It was a rough 9 miles back.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com