Stripped Pedal Thread

Mike Howarth

Been using a Kona Smoke to commute to work for the past few months.

Unfortunately I've managed to strip the pedal thread on one of the crank arms, in part due to being cack handed and have little patience.

Anyway I'm wondering whether to just straight replace the crank arms with some standard square taper crank arms like the FSA XC or biting the bullet and upgrading to the LX Hollowtech cranks.

Part of me thinks that upgrading is probably a bit of an extravagance given the bike has only covered a couple of hundred miles and is a work horse rather than a plush ride.

Anyone have any thoughts on decent replacement square taper crank arms or should I just bite the bullet?

nicklouse

you can get the threads replaced.

common job that most LBS's can do.

Mike Howarth

To be honest the thread is stripped and severely ground out, to the point the pedal is moving freely in and out.

I would imagine its beyond economic repair, hence looking to replace.

However it is extremely worthwhile knowledge should I have any problems in the future.

nicklouse

sounds still fixable.

but back to the question if the bb is ok leave it and fit new cranks.

stumpyjon

Nick

for interest how would an LBS fix something like this? Surely they would need to tap a new thread but this would be of a larger diameter?

Do they insert something (last place I worked we had a big piece of equipment with steel bolts into PVC blocks, we were always stripping the threads, we found a product that looked like a spring, you tapped out the PVC to a large diameter, the spring section then screwed into the new holes and the inside of the spring became the thread for the bolt, very clever but bl**dy expensive for the kits)?

nicklouse

the thing that you will have used at work would have been a helicoil or a threadsert.

Just been googling for the pedel thread ones but i can not find them now.

you used to get a kit with one drill, 2 taps and about 5 inserts for each side. But i suppose in the throw away world we now have a lot of people are not interested now....

Mike Howarth

Being a yorkshire man I absolutely hate spending money so it brings a tear to my eye to part with cash for something I've been hamfisted with. If I can reuse something I will much to the frustration of my partner.

After you posted the reply I had a quick read about Helicoils which is really good knowledge should I ever be in a similar situation, but as I say I really think the crank is way beyond any feasible repair short of a miracle.

I'm unable to get to my LBS for best part of a week given I'm back late most evenings and away at the weekend. Ideally I want to get back to commuting asap so need to bite the bullet.

Found a cheap FSA crank for £20 which I'm going to stick on and run it in to the ground, once I've had my wear I'll think about upgrading after all it is a cheap hack bike used to do my 16 mile commute most days.

nicklouse

A West Yorkshire man? living somewhere near Town?

Mike Howarth

Aye a west yorkshire lad alright.