Commie frame Diamant track bike build.

[Woz]

I used a French cottered crank set that I had laying around. I forced on a set of 9/16 pedals into the French threads. I’ve done this several times without problems and it is done by others, but not a common practice. Use whatca got.

Pretty amazed at this to be honest. I did manage to force in some old beefy steel axle Look pedals in old French steel cotter pin cranks (crank arm in the vice, breaker bar on the spanner) but even after it was still a no go for a Shimano pedal. I gave up - I'm too tight arsed to buy imperial pedal taps and the not so local bike shop doesn't bother with this kind of service anymore. It's a shame; there are still many good cranks out there but pedals in a good condition at reasonable prices much less so.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I used a 1/2 inch pitch small motorcycle chain. Heavy and it’s the first thing people notice about this bike. “Look at that heavy chain”.

Ummmm....
Bike looks great.
I like the idea of the airplane turnbuckle.
Look at that heavy chain!
(At least it's the third thing)

I can see why you didn't post it over at the American forum

 

[Nabeaquam]

Pretty amazed at this to be honest. I did manage to force in some old beefy steel axle Look pedals in old French steel cotter pin cranks (crank arm in the vice, breaker bar on the spanner) but even after it was still a no go for a Shimano pedal. I gave up - I'm too tight arsed to buy imperial pedal taps and the not so local bike shop doesn't bother with this kind of service anymore. It's a shame; there are still many good cranks out there but pedals in a good condition at reasonable prices much less so.

I have the pedal taps, somewhere in all my junk. I gave up looking for them, bought another set, I also lost those. I can find a lot of my stuff, it’s floating around or junk somewhere. I’m currently looking for a lost quill.

 

[jim haseltine]

Years since I saw a VAR 07. It takes me back to working in a LBS in the 1970s/80s. I've still got a VAR 13 adjustable pin wrench in my drawer of cycle tools - can't remember the last time I used it though.

 

[Nabeaquam]

Pretty amazed at this to be honest. I did manage to force in some old beefy steel axle Look pedals in old French steel cotter pin cranks (crank arm in the vice, breaker bar on the spanner) but even after it was still a no go for a Shimano pedal. I gave up - I'm too tight arsed to buy imperial pedal taps and the not so local bike shop doesn't bother with this kind of service anymore. It's a shame; there are still many good cranks out there but pedals in a good condition at reasonable prices much less so.

My crank was also steel. I use a lot of oil and a professional pedal wrench, which is longer than most. The pedals threaded right in, they got fairly stiff the last 1/4. I put them on right on the bike, no vice. Actually pretty easy. It sounds like you may have had bad crank threads and the pedals went on a little cross threaded. Cross threaded pedals in a steel crank usually won’t thread on all the way. A lot of these old cranks have worn pedal threads from people taking off and putting on pedals and that can make them notoriously hard to thread on straight, let alone something that wasn’t designed to go in there in the first place. It shouldn’t have been that difficult as the French and standard threads are pretty similar.