If the threads were fine, it might be wrong to blame the gorilla. I've replaced a lot of cranks because of pedals installed not tightly enough, which causes thread damage as they come loose. Talk of the pedals' thread orientations causing "self tightening" does not match my observations. Rather, I think the reverse threads on the left, standard on right, are helpful for avoiding the need for absurdly high torque of the nature of that required for the fixed cup of an Italian BB, but the pedal-to-crank interface is perhaps the least well- designed one on *classic bikes, and I think they need to be darn tight. Anti-seize is obviously called for, though grease might be a decent substitute, and dry is BAD. I wish we'd gone to Mr. Brandt's proposed taper here a long time ago.
Granted, those whose pedals fall off are usually pretty clueless people who ride the thing until it's trashed, even though it was surely making noise, etc, that would have stopped most of us.
*By "classic" I allude to the fact that some newish boners have been added to the pile, including early Shimano Octalink and these predictably often-creaky outboard-bearing BB's. Give me square-taper any day, so far.
jeff slotkin charleston, SC USA
On Nov 26, 2008, at 5:48 PM, Jan Heine wrote:
_snip_
>
> A bigger problem are those gorillas who overtighten pedals. I once
> bought a bike where the pedals did not come off, come Liquid Wrench
> or Cheater Bars. It finally came down to sacrificing one or the
> other. The pedals were cheap, so I cut off the axles with a bandsaw,
> then machined off the stubs until the threads released. The threads
> in the crank were fine, by the way.
>
> Jan Heine
> Editor
> Bicycle Quarterly
> 140 Lakeside Ave #C
> Seattle WA 98122
> http://www.bikequarterly.com