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.
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8mm hex makes so much more sense - it's a common tool which you probably have on a set with other keys used elsewhere on the bike.
If you need more leverage it's because you over-tightened them or didn't grease them.
I find this Speedplay love quite fascinating - it's more of a series of excuses. No you can't walk on them but I like that, yes they wear out but you can rebuild them, OK they don't work if a speck of dust gets in but you just carry a Dustbuster in your pocket, and by the way you need a special tool with no other purpose apart from opening beer (because those are hard to find) and killing zombies (because we do a lot of that) just to remove the fuckers, during which process you may gouge your hand to the bone, but it's character-building.
Have I missed any of their other special advantages?
@ChrisO You need mount a "sub-cleat" adapter plate to your shoes because instead of the standard three-bolt setup they insist on four.
And you can get them in Lollipop Pink:
@Nate
Noooo! You're in Oz? You need #realperoni... Anthony D'Anna should be able to sort you out with a list of stockists.
@andrew
Nah Nate's in the good old US of A, but the midget (who seriously should know better) that he's questioning is in Melbourne.
@ChrisO
I still don't understand how crouching to reach inside the two crank sides is in any way superior to standing next to your bike and using a simple, straightforward interface to get the cranks off 100% of the time, regardless of condition, easily. When I tried removal using the inner hex , all I ended up doing is moving the cranks back and forth since there's not much counter to the leverage. Mounting with a proper pedal wrench is also so much faster, because once you thread the first bit in, all it takes to finish the job is spinning the crank backwards with the wrench. Another light squeeze and it's done.
P.S: Garmin's Vector pedals rely on being torqued properly - that's 34-40Nm. Quite high for a plain short hex key.
@Mikael Liddy Ah, ok thanks, thought it might have been reference to the swill brewed under licence in Australia... A mate and I once spent an evening going through every bottled beer in a local pub and real Peroni came out as one the top few in the refreshing beverage stakes.
Pedals on a normal roadie don't need to be pit on too tight, as they continue to tighten themselves as we ride. I spin em on, then give them a quick nip.
On a fixed track bike, different story, as you might need to slow suddenly on the first lap.
For removal, getting the crankshaft in the right position os at least as important as using a good tool.
After taking skin off knuckles with both the chain ring and the front mudguard (on my commuter bike), I have started using a standard spanner and my foot to loosen pedals. Arrange the crank so that the spanner is below the chainring, and also so that applying downward force doesn't move the cranks backwards. Apply the rear brake, then apply gentle force with your foot. The pedal loosens nicely, and no stripped knuckles, or any danger of banging your face off the frame (hasn't happened to me, but I could see it happening if applying force with my hands....)
@tessar
Stand over the top bar, tranquilo.
To loosen, the key is coming up when the pedal is forward.
Hold the key in both hands, push down with the foot (gravity and guns combined) and bingo. Rotate cranks and do the other pedal.
Works every time.
No possibility of hitting hands on anything.
Lots of force if you need it, not that you should.
But obviously not as good as the Speedplay system.
@ChrisO Might try that once to see then.
However, I'm sticking to my Ultegra SL - shiny silver, bulletproof, and with wrench flats. Can't see a reason to replace them (though I did manage to get the cleats gunked up when I stepped in rotten dates by accident - I'm sure you're able to picture that).