Late 40s / Early 50s René Herse tip find

[Woz]

Pretty confident that headset will come apart with some WD40 etc. - the serrated washer may be of a very lightweight alloy and more fragile - it should just lift off but may need a little jiggle on the lower threaded knurled nut to help release it from the flat on the fork column.

Interesting engraving (and place!) on the BB axle. On a very early 20s bike I found wine corks were stuffed in the tubes at the BB area.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Some plus gas then careful heating with a blow torch with the stem out will ensure success. As @Woz says some parts may be light alloy.

 

[Woz]

I don’t seem to be able to find a 16mm pedal wrench which looks like it’ll be up to the job, so I’m tempted to take the pedals off the spindles and leave them be. I don’t really need to take them out. That said, I will need to use a bench vice at work to free the drive-side bottom bracket cup, so I could clamp the pedal axles between a couple of bits of square section steel to free them.

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=7621B246-452C-47BF-9908-D0367C7D11BB&Enum=109&AbsPos=5

Love the name of those pedals - Dura-Tank



There looks to be sufficient lard on them and flats reasonably wide. Personally I usually do it the other-way - crank arm in the vice between a wood sandwich and use a ground down spanner and breaker bar. Most pedal spanners I believe are not up to these jobs. When I had similar problems with ultra thin Lyotards I did go on the hunt to see what would have been used back then - FACOM and SAM made ultra-thin and long spanners which seemed to have been used on military equipment and then got used for pedal spanners: I've only ever seen one for sale; resembled more todays Unior / Cyclus pedal spanner but even longer, thinner and still chrome-vanadium.

 

[Jonny69]

Pretty confident that headset will come apart with some WD40 etc. - the serrated washer may be of a very lightweight alloy and more fragile - it should just lift off but may need a little jiggle on the lower threaded knurled nut to help release it from the flat on the fork column

I’m pretty sure it won’t put up a fight once I’ve got a hold of it properly. I’ll make sure I keep an eye on that knurled washer in case it’s alloy.

Interesting engraving (and place!) on the BB axle. On a very early 20s bike I found wine corks were stuffed in the tubes at the BB area.

Yeah I made sure that was in the picture in case it meant anything to anyone. I assumed it’s probably the part number?

 

[Woz]

A vintage (and knackered) SAM 15mm and 16mm pedal spanner. Just for reference.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Check with a magnet if you've got a small one.

 

[Jonny69]

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=7621B246-452C-47BF-9908-D0367C7D11BB&Enum=109&AbsPos=5

Love the name of those pedals - Dura-Tank

View attachment 806749

There looks to be sufficient lard on them and flats reasonably wide. Personally I usually do it the other-way - crank arm in the vice between a wood sandwich and use a ground down spanner and breaker bar. Most pedal spanners I believe are not up to these jobs. When I had similar problems with ultra thin Lyotards I did go on the hunt to see what would have been used back then - FACOM and SAM made ultra-thin and long spanners which seemed to have been used on military equipment and then got used for pedal spanners: I've only ever seen one for sale; resembled more todays Unior / Cyclus pedal spanner but even longer, thinner and still chrome-vanadium.

Good find with the Velobase link. I did a quick search but ‘tank pedals’ didn’t get me what I was looking for!

Regarding pedal wrenches, I’ve used normal spanners in the past and if the axles are really stuck in there the flats open up and it basically wastes a spanner. I was sort of hoping I’d find a 16mm version of my HUGE Park Tool one. I only need to get these off once so I’ll just use the vice and keep the shims in my tool box.

Check with a magnet if you've got a small one.

Good call. Pretty sure it’s chromed steel but definitely worth a check, since we’re basically dealing with early parts which might be sole survivors and cannot be replaced like for like!

 

[Jonny69]

I’ve got that Park FR-4. No idea how that fella managed to mash it up though - the faces are very hard and it’s got a lot of meat behind it. Without a sweat it undid the pedal that completely ruined my 15mm Halfords Pro spanner. That said, I’ve had mine a bit longer than that thread and people do complain about newer Park Tool stuff.

 

[legrandefromage]

My halfords pro (snapon) lasted about 10 years of pedal removal before giving up. It was firmly wedged right up a bent kalloy seatpost for comfynessness

 

[Jonny69]

These are looking 100% better. Only issue is I think the NDS crank is bent and I’m pretty sure I can see a couple of cracks below where the pedal screws in. So that’s a bit of a bummer.