French thread pedal adaptor?
- Thread starter Rothchild
- Start date
LondonClassic
Retro Guru
I know you say you dont want to tap them out but its the quickest and easiest way to increase the pool of pedals you can use. I was scared or lunching a class piece of Stronglight chainset when I did mine but it was very easy in the end.
Every other way is faffier and more limiting.
Every other way is faffier and more limiting.
I appreciate the reassurance, thanks!
I can get access to a tap kit so it is on the agenda, it just seemed that an adapter would be an obvious (reversable) solution and, beyond sourcing it, not faffy at all; metric bolt goes in metric hole, imperial bolt goes in imperial hole.
As for mashing the thread, seeing as it came with a 9/16 pedal in it that may have happend already! I'm just rooting around for an M14 bolt to see how flappy it all is now (as that will probably force my hand anyway).
I can get access to a tap kit so it is on the agenda, it just seemed that an adapter would be an obvious (reversable) solution and, beyond sourcing it, not faffy at all; metric bolt goes in metric hole, imperial bolt goes in imperial hole.
As for mashing the thread, seeing as it came with a 9/16 pedal in it that may have happend already! I'm just rooting around for an M14 bolt to see how flappy it all is now (as that will probably force my hand anyway).
LondonClassic
Retro Guru
Yeah, I have seen some heroes just mash the 9/16 in there and cut a new thread by brute force. The same guys that pop a headset cup on a head tube and slam it into a brick wall. I'm not sure there would be enough meat to get an adapter in there to bridge the two threads. It would have to be very thin.
non-fixie
Senior Retro Guru
BITD, when I knew even less than I do today, I have once forced 9/16" pedals in 14mm threads. Only halfway through I realized what I was doing. Since going back wasn't really an option, I decided to finish the job and accept the consequences, whatever they'd be. The bike is still in use and still works fine, so you may get lucky.
A much smarter approach in such a case, though, is to get French-threaded pedals. The best vintage pedals (and chainsets, for that matter) are French anyway, and the French-threaded versions tend to go for much less money than the "regular" ones, on the international market.
I recently bought a pair of French-threaded Spécialités T.A. pedals for about half of what their 9/16" brethren go for:
A much smarter approach in such a case, though, is to get French-threaded pedals. The best vintage pedals (and chainsets, for that matter) are French anyway, and the French-threaded versions tend to go for much less money than the "regular" ones, on the international market.
I recently bought a pair of French-threaded Spécialités T.A. pedals for about half of what their 9/16" brethren go for:
Apple Tree
GT Fan
I take it the chainset is alloy ? I doubt you can remake the threads if steel. Either way, going French threaded pedals is easiest and most secure. There are fine French pedal manufacturers - TA, Lyotard etc.
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
There’s no adapter to go from M14 to 9/16” or vice versa. The two threads are so close together that they pretty much already thread into each other. An M14 pedal loosely goes into a 9/16 and if you get lucky it doesn’t strip when you tighten it. Likewise, a 9/16 pedal will go into a worn or knackered M14 crank thread. It’ll be tight, but it’ll go. You can kind of see how people have mistakenly done it, anyway!
This is my main problem, I'd already decided to ditch the retro in this area and have a lovely pair of Look X Tracks to go on there (French pedal at least, if not French thread).
I'm stalling for now (LondonClassic was exactly right that I don't really want to tap them out) but I think this will be the way things go with them.
You see now .... all the dirty washing is come out in the public eye 
Just joking. It is an issue. I did a mid-50s French build a while ago and I will be truthful, the damn pedal thread is the single element I can't fudge and move to and fro modern comfort and ancient bondage contraptions. Plus cotter-pins. Plus steel crank. I have previously rammed in early Look pedals with a breaker bar in steel cranks from the 1920s as an experiment - it sort of works. Then try to follow on with Shimano, and the whole thing is a no go. Re-tapping may be more available to you, but where I am in deep France that service ironically is long long long gone at the LBS 60km away. It is a nightmare.
The honourable thing is not to molest vintage parts. Re-sell them as-is. As seen above, there is a market.
Try to source some French cranks with the right taper and pedal thread and move on is a happy compromise.
TA and Stronglight often get mentioned, but still Nervar did some nice things too.
https://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2006/05/what-about-nervar.html
Failing that, just sack it all off, and go for some older Sugino. Sugino Mighty something or other. Sugino was most certainly used by the French bike industry, and they did a lot of OEM stuff to keep up the with the pace of sales of Pugs, Motobecance, Gitanes 10 speed racers - even with French pedal threads. Solida may have done something, but there later alloy stuff is nothing to write home about.
This must be - in my eyes - the greatest and oddest thing in the bike industry. 1985-ish Look thanks to Bernard Tapie had the clipless pedal produced by saving, oddly, a company producing ski stuff away from any mountain region in Burgundy. 1986 everyone wants them.
Never produced in a French thread. Tapie in a nutshell perhaps. Didn't give a stuff what was earlier if there was no future in it.
Just joking. It is an issue. I did a mid-50s French build a while ago and I will be truthful, the damn pedal thread is the single element I can't fudge and move to and fro modern comfort and ancient bondage contraptions. Plus cotter-pins. Plus steel crank. I have previously rammed in early Look pedals with a breaker bar in steel cranks from the 1920s as an experiment - it sort of works. Then try to follow on with Shimano, and the whole thing is a no go. Re-tapping may be more available to you, but where I am in deep France that service ironically is long long long gone at the LBS 60km away. It is a nightmare.
The honourable thing is not to molest vintage parts. Re-sell them as-is. As seen above, there is a market.
Try to source some French cranks with the right taper and pedal thread and move on is a happy compromise.
TA and Stronglight often get mentioned, but still Nervar did some nice things too.
https://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2006/05/what-about-nervar.html
Failing that, just sack it all off, and go for some older Sugino. Sugino Mighty something or other. Sugino was most certainly used by the French bike industry, and they did a lot of OEM stuff to keep up the with the pace of sales of Pugs, Motobecance, Gitanes 10 speed racers - even with French pedal threads. Solida may have done something, but there later alloy stuff is nothing to write home about.
This must be - in my eyes - the greatest and oddest thing in the bike industry. 1985-ish Look thanks to Bernard Tapie had the clipless pedal produced by saving, oddly, a company producing ski stuff away from any mountain region in Burgundy. 1986 everyone wants them.
Never produced in a French thread. Tapie in a nutshell perhaps. Didn't give a stuff what was earlier if there was no future in it.
