Dear CR List and Jerry Moos
Thank you so much Jerry for this discussion. I am a longtime bicycle mechanic, working for my living in my store, where my customers think high end is currently $400. So, I live vicariously through you and all the CR list with their obsessions with the top end of product. I love the international feel with this group, and treasure the posts from Europe, Australia, and other places.
I have a 74 Paramount, 84 Sarroni and other vintage bikes, and worked with a couple of opionated frame builders in shops before I started my own in 1977 but I love hearing about all the things people obsess about on these pages.
I just really enjoyed this post and everything in it.
Robb Rasmussen
Sioux River Bicycles
http://www.501main.com
Brookings, SD 57006 North Central United States.> Date: Thu, 13 Nov
2008 17:44:59 -0800> From: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: Re[2]: [CR
]Loose pedal threads> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org; johnb@oxford.ne
t> > We've discussed this before, but the French nominal 14 x 1.25 and th
e Engli> sh nominal 9/16 x 20 TPI are extremely close. In practice, the
pitch dif> ference is insignificant, and the only difference that matters
is that the > English thread diameter is slightly larger. Most French ped
als will actu> ally thread fairly well into English cranks. They will be s
lightly loose> , but not nearly as loose as some accounts lead one to bel
ieve. In fact,> one can almost always use French pedals in an English cr
ank as long as one> is careful to keep them well tightened. Conversely,
many English pedals> can be installed in French cranks without formally ret
apping the cranks.> Essentially, using noticeably, but not massively
, more force, one can i> n effect retap French cranks just by installin
g English pedals. Again, m> any accounts greatly exaggerate the difficul
ty of doing this. Indeed, I > suspect that thousands of French cranks in
the couple of decades since they> ceased to be widely available have been
retapped in this way by teenage bi> ke shop employees who did not even know
they were doing it and who never ev> en heard of French thread. Ignorance
is bliss.> > A few years ago TA actually sold pedals whose thread dimensi
ons more or les> s split the difference between French and English, and w
hich TA claimed to > be suitable for either type of crank. I have a couple
of pairs. On an> English crank they were just slightly loose, but still
quite usable. On> French cranks they required a bit of extra force to ins
tall. And what T> A did by design, Lyotard did accidentially. I like Ly
otard pedals a lot,> particularly the Berthets, but they are famous for
the wide variation in t> hread dimensions, to the point that French and
English thread for them are > only statistical concepts. On average, Fre
nch threaded Lyotards are smal> ler diameter than English ones, but only
just. I'm still convinced that > Emerson's (or was Thoreau's?) quote that
"Consistency is the demon of littl> e minds." was stolen from some French p
hilospher.> > Regards,> > Jerry Moos> Big Spring, Texas, USA> > >
> --- On Thu, 11/13/08, John Betmanis <johnb@oxford.net> wrote:> > From
: John Betmanis <johnb@oxford.net>> Subject: Re: Re[2]: [CR]Loose pedal thr
eads> To: "Classic Rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>> Date: Thur
sday, November 13, 2008, 5:32 PM> > At 05:05 PM 13/11/2008 -0500, D
mitry Yaitskov wrote:> > >Sorry, I should have made this clear(er): I hav
e two pairs of Chater> >Lea pedals, they both (or rather, all four of t
hem) fit those cranks> >(also Chater Lea) similarly. Both those pedals fit
another English> >threaded crank normally. And I have a TA French-threaded
crank that> >these pedals do NOT fit. Also, I don't know but I assume tha
t French> >threading has a different TPI, doesn't it? (If it does then> >
French-threaded pedals probably won't go all the way into> >English-threade
d cranks even if they have smaller diameter, no?)> > Both French and Engl
ish threads are close in diameter and pitch, which> makes it possible to
easily tap out French cranks to 9/16 x 20, but> Sutherland's doesn't say
anything about doing the opposite, which is> why I> thought a French tap
(or pedal) would be sloppy in an English crank.> > In your case I suspect i
t's just a tolerance problem. Even if the pedals> were tightened to where t
hey felt solid, they might still rock under load,> loosening or causing
damage. I think a weak grade of Loctite, like 222,> would prevent this
from happening.> > John Betmanis> Woodstock, Ontario> Canada> __________
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