[CR]Pedals for steel cranks...was Was Pedals

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2007)

Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 06:06:06 -0500
From: "HM & SS Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Pedals for steel cranks...was Was Pedals

Yesterday, I posted a request for info on what I thought were "Was" pedals.* One list member asked why I thought mine were made for steel cranks.

It turns out that aluminum cranks have a thicker section than steel ones. The Aluminum ones running around my house, like Campy, tend to run 12 - 12.4 mm thick. My steel cranks (Stronglight, Duprat) tend toward 10 mm. Of course, I have two rusty Magistronis at 11 mm, and it isn't the rust.

So, some pedals have threaded lengths to match, falling into 10 and 12 mm. groups. Why didn't they continue using 10s with the new-fangled alloy cranks? I could only speculate: (a) Whoever started with "modern" aluminum cranks made them 20%thicker, since the material is not as stiff. (b) Still, they discovered that Super-Jacques was stripping out alloy cranks made with the early alloys (although he said he was Just-Riding-Along, not that he slid out and hit a curb with 'em). (c) Esthetics. Just looked crappy with short threads. Hey, maybe that's why the early Campy and TA cranks caps to look closed.

No, I've never seen a short-pedal-shaft Campy quill pedal.

harvey sachs mcLean va * With thanks particularly to Aldo Ross, who identified the manufacturer of my pedals as Way Assauto of Turin, and to Jay Sexton who just got a pair like mine on EBay, item #7141215579, so you can see pix.