Who the fuck uses red Loctite on pedals?

Coopz

Coopz

Likes Dirt
Bought my dad a second hand Trek hardtail for his birthday in a few weeks. It came with SPD pedals and he will just prefer flats so I went to take them off and fuck me what an adventure that was ..The original owner had some paranoia about the pedals coming loose as they were zip tied to the cranks, the hex end were capped as well. Trying to undo them with an Allen key was impossible, WD-40 on the bolts then a heatgun, with an extender, it snapped the fucking Allen key trying... Ended up rigging a torque wrench to a 15mm spanner, about 60+cm of extended leverage, neighbour came and helped, just for the record I'm a big bloke, 6'4 105kg, neighbour is 6'3 and over 120kg, it took a monumental effort but after a shit ton of wrenching we got them off, the threads were absolutely caked with red Loctite that even the heatgun couldn't crack it.

In my 25+ years of riding mountain bikes I've never had a pedal come loose and I don't even tighten them much... Sent the original owner angry text, his reply 'lol' grr moron.
 
ForkinGreat

ForkinGreat

Knows his Brassica oleracea
Coopz said:
Bought my dad a second hand Trek hardtail for his birthday in a few weeks. It came with SPD pedals and he will just prefer flats so I went to take them off and fuck me what an adventure that was ..The original owner had some paranoia about the pedals coming loose as they were zip tied to the cranks, the hex end were capped as well. Trying to undo them with an Allen key was impossible, WD-40 on the bolts then a heatgun, with an extender, it snapped the fucking Allen key trying... Ended up rigging a torque wrench to a 15mm spanner, about 60+cm of extended leverage, neighbour came and helped, just for the record I'm a big bloke, 6'4 105kg, neighbour is 6'3 and over 120kg, it took a monumental effort but after a shit ton of wrenching we got them off, the threads were absolutely caked with red Loctite that even the heatgun couldn't crack it.

In my 25+ years of riding mountain bikes I've never had a pedal come loose and I don't even tighten them much... Sent the original owner angry text, his reply 'lol' grr moron.
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May I suggest that a vigorous and repeated kicking of the original owner's groin would convey your disgust more succinctly, in a way that even he could understand. ;)
 
Chriso_29er

Chriso_29er

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I swap peddles around a bit from flats to spd, same as you they're basically finger tight when I put them on. If they end up on the bike for a while they can still be a prick to remove from time to time. And that is after greasing the threads!
 
rowdyflat

rowdyflat

chez le médecin
Yeah previous owner must be mad.
Pedals self tighten
I only own blue loctite and only use it where something falls off repeatedly like my too short brake caliper bolts did.
Also this from Wikipedia.
Bicycle pedals
Bicycle pedals are left-threaded on the left-hand crank so that precession tightens the pedal rather than loosening it. This may seem counter-intuitive, but the torque exerted due to the precession is several orders of magnitude greater than that caused by a jammed pedal bearing.

For a pedal, a rotating load arises from downward pedaling force on a spindle rotating with its crank making the predominantly downward force effectively rotate about the pedal spindle, opposite to the rotation of the pedal. What may be less evident is that even tightly fitting parts have relative clearance due to their elasticity, metals not being rigid materials as is evident from steel springs. Under load, micro deformations, enough to cause motion, occur in such joints. This can be seen from wear marks where pedal spindles seat on crank faces."[1]

Shimano SPD axle units, which can be unscrewed from the pedal body for servicing, have a left-hand thread where the axle unit screws into the right-hand pedal; the opposite case to the pedal-crank interface. Otherwise precession of the pedal body around the axle would tend to unscrew one from the other.
 
The Duckmeister

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
rowdyflat said:
Yeah previous owner must be mad.
Pedals self tighten
I only own blue loctite and only use it where something falls off repeatedly like my too short brake caliper bolts did.
Also this from Wikipedia.
Bicycle pedals
Bicycle pedals are left-threaded on the left-hand crank so that precession tightens the pedal rather than loosening it. This may seem counter-intuitive, but the torque exerted due to the precession is several orders of magnitude greater than that caused by a jammed pedal bearing.

For a pedal, a rotating load arises from downward pedaling force on a spindle rotating with its crank making the predominantly downward force effectively rotate about the pedal spindle, opposite to the rotation of the pedal. What may be less evident is that even tightly fitting parts have relative clearance due to their elasticity, metals not being rigid materials as is evident from steel springs. Under load, micro deformations, enough to cause motion, occur in such joints. This can be seen from wear marks where pedal spindles seat on crank faces."[1]

Shimano SPD axle units, which can be unscrewed from the pedal body for servicing, have a left-hand thread where the axle unit screws into the right-hand pedal; the opposite case to the pedal-crank interface. Otherwise precession of the pedal body around the axle would tend to unscrew one from the other.
Click to expand...
Pedals that are not tightened enough initially will likely strip the thread out of the crank before they tighten themselves. No need for loc-tite of any colour, just do the bloody things up properly!
 
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