You may remember a thread I started a couple of months ago about the current TA road pedals. I had received a couple of pairs and found that they are marked BSC, but a note in the box says they are metric thread, but fit both metric and BSC cranks. Measuring with calipers gave a diameter typical of old French-threaded pedals. When I installed them in modern Japanese cranks, they seemed a bit too loose, as one would expect of French pedals in English cranks. Perhaps not quite as loose as an old French Lyotard would have been, but this is a pretty subjective judgment. I installed them in an old pair of French Nervar cranks without any damage to the cranks, but after a few turns had to use a wrench, and was a little nervous in that the required wrench force was more than typically required to install pedals in a crank with matching threads.
I speculated then that, although the diameter was typical of French threaded pedals, perhaps TA had played with the thread pitch and profile a bit to make it a snugger fit in English cranks. I also speculated that perhaps the current TA Cyclotourist cranks were actually French thread like the pedals, or at least a bit smaller thread diameter to fit the TA pedals. I said I had some Cyclotourist cranks on order and would investigate further when I received them.
I recently received two pairs of new TA Cyclotourist cranks from Martin Coopland, along with a Bates frame. Trying the new TA pedals in the new TA Cyclotourist cranks yields good results. The pedals go in by hand, but without slop or play, until the last few turns then require only modest wrench pressure. This is pretty much the fit one expects on correctly matched pedals and cranks. A pair of French threaded Spanish made Olympic pedals, however, was loose in these cranks. Might not fall out, but probably shouldn't be used. English threaded pedals, on the other hand, tightened up after about three turns, much as English pedals do in French cranks. They actually didn't seem quite as tight as the typical English pedals in French cranks, and I suspect I could have installed them with a wrench, but like the new TA pedals in the Nervar cranks, the wrench force would have been enough to make one nervous about possibly damaging the cranks. I found this to be true both with old Campy Record steel track pedals and their new MKS Sylvan clones.
My conclusion is that the new TA Cyclotourist cranks are indeed made with a thread diameter and/or pitch a bit smaller than typical for English/ISO cranks, to fit well with the current TA Metric/ISO "one size fits all" road pedals. The fit of the new TA pedals with the new Cyclotourist cranks seems excellent. Typical French threaded pedals will probably be too loose in the new Cyclotourist cranks, as will the new TA pedals in typical English threaded cranks. Typical English pedals will probably work OK with the new Cyclotourist cranks, but will give some anxious moments due to the wrench force required. The same is true of installing the new TA pedals in typical French threaded cranks.
Anyone else experimented with the new TA road pedals and new Cyclotourist cranks? Anyone else noticed that it takes a higher than expected force to install English pedals in the new Cyclotourist cranks? Anyone know if this also true of the TA Alize, Zephyr, and other modern TA cranksets?
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX