Given the fact that everyone over-tightens their pedals to the crank arms, one needs a long lever to get too much torque. Rule #94 decrees using the correct tool and using it correctly. While the proper tool has always been available, it is up to us to evolve, to understand the difference between right and wrong, between vice-grip and open-ended wrench. And to understand that there is a large gulf between the right tool for the job and the best tool for the job.
Early in the Velominatus life cycle, the bicycle and its pedals arrived as one, fully formed. We were not removing and rebuilding our tricycle pedals. Our first “starter bike” ten-speed also came with “starter” pedals but the pedal, as an obvious point of contact with the pavement, might have demanded replacement. Replacing a pedal would happen long before rebuilding one. Removing the ruined one would only require a wrench and assuming the V-father was not a mechanic, the adjustable wrench was the only tool in the box. Here the Pedalwan uttered his or her first curse words. The jaws of the adjustable wrench may have been a bit too fat and a bit too loose to do the job. Turning the left pedal ever tighter (the wrong direction?), instead of looser, a wrench might slip, a pedal surface damaged and perhaps blood was spilled. What better reason to curse your god? What better reason to wonder about a better tool while holding your bloody hand under the faucet?
If you had a savvy father who owned a set of open-ended wrenches and entertained the possibility that a pedal could be reverse-threaded, you were of the chosen few.
The correctly sized open-ended wrench is the right tool for the job.
Campagnolo made a bottom bracket fixed cup/pedal tool. Though not their most beautiful one, it was the right tool. When over-torquing a pedal, one gripped the fixed cup end of the tool. Biomechanically, it was imperfect. Park Tool improved on it by including a comfortable and longer hand grip for efficient over-torquing. Not unlike General Motors, at some point Park Tool quietly modified their pedal wrench. I don’t think they came right out and said “For the unfortunate many who now have permanent scarring on their right hand from driving the big ring teeth deep into your flesh, we are sorry.” If the Velominati were still “saving themselves” from using the worst kind of anglo-saxon curses uttered in their lives, misusing the Park pedal wrench would guarantee a trip to Father Flavin’s Confessional Booth. “For fuck’s sake Father, pardon me Father, but I’ll have a greasy tattoo scar across my knuckles forever because of this shiet, pardon me Father, wrench”.
Incorporating a beer bottle opener into various tools did not occur to the engineers at Park Tool. And this is why we love Lezyne so much. Yes, it is more expensive and yes, it is a better pedal wrench and yes, they mill a beautiful bottle opener into it. To hold it is to love it. It is Rule #94. It is not just the right tool for the job, for there are many functional pedal wrenches available but it is the best one for the job. Even without the bottle opener it would still be the best pedal wrench. Its handle and heft make it an item one would happily wield to slaughter the advancing hoards of the undead. If, in the slaughtering, either the handle or the business end gets worn down, it comes apart and one end or the other could be replaced. When the slaughtering is done, at least for now, (because that job is seemingly never really done), one can open a fine cold beer with it and debate if this tool is the correct one for this job.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@Gianni
Agreed, but if I'm in my shop, there is always some handy edge around to open with. I can express my creative impulses Fabian style:
Or New Zealand style:
@Nate
I assume so, but no matter the reason, a pedal with a hex-keyed axle is wrong. I'm willing to give up a few grams of weight or two millimetres of width for the peace of mind that my pedal will remain easily removable.
I once borrowed a friend's bike when I flew to visit him and brought my own shoes - which gave me the questionable pleasure of attempting to remove a pair of pesky Look pedals off his grimy rain/commuter bike. After many bloody knuckles, we went to the shop, where they resorted to taking their best key and strapping it to a 1.5m long metal tube to get enough leverage. The key got bent in the process.
@Ccos
No, you are beyond comment #5 and now not obliged to read the post at all.
@tessar
How can the hex axle be wrong? It allows the mechanic to tighten the pedal to proper torque. It also gets the knuckles away from the chainrings.
@Gianni is it a good thing or a bad thing that I think "yep, this'll come in handy during a zombie apocalypse"?
@tessar Of course, I should also acknowledge that I need a wide enough Q that I have to go with long axle DA pedals, which is sort of silly.
@Gianni -
Well that's why I have one of these at the bench at all times. Right tool, right job. :-)
@Gianni
I do have the other half of the Pinarello Montello fork -- Cyclops made two bottle openers.
Conversation has reduced the Lezyne tool to competing with bottle openers.
@Nate
Highlighted the two problematic parts. I'm less concerned about torque at installation, since pedals are one of the only interfaces on the bike where you can safely torque (quite a bit) higher than strictly necessary (especially since over time the pedal self-tightens). I'm more concerned about removal, since there's no compelling reason to do so regularly - I haven't removed pedals on one of my bikes for two years now - which can get hard without the leverage of a proper wrench once the threading seizes.
Also, it's far more difficult to reach the inside of the cranks than the outside, and I still managed to bash myself on the chainrings.