Given the fact that everyone over-tightens their pedals to the crank arms, one needs a long lever to get too much torque. Rule #94 decrees using the correct tool and using it correctly. While the proper tool has always been available, it is up to us to evolve, to understand the difference between right and wrong, between vice-grip and open-ended wrench. And to understand that there is a large gulf between the right tool for the job and the best tool for the job.
Early in the Velominatus life cycle, the bicycle and its pedals arrived as one, fully formed. We were not removing and rebuilding our tricycle pedals. Our first “starter bike” ten-speed also came with “starter” pedals but the pedal, as an obvious point of contact with the pavement, might have demanded replacement. Replacing a pedal would happen long before rebuilding one. Removing the ruined one would only require a wrench and assuming the V-father was not a mechanic, the adjustable wrench was the only tool in the box. Here the Pedalwan uttered his or her first curse words. The jaws of the adjustable wrench may have been a bit too fat and a bit too loose to do the job. Turning the left pedal ever tighter (the wrong direction?), instead of looser, a wrench might slip, a pedal surface damaged and perhaps blood was spilled. What better reason to curse your god? What better reason to wonder about a better tool while holding your bloody hand under the faucet?
If you had a savvy father who owned a set of open-ended wrenches and entertained the possibility that a pedal could be reverse-threaded, you were of the chosen few.
The correctly sized open-ended wrench is the right tool for the job.
Campagnolo made a bottom bracket fixed cup/pedal tool. Though not their most beautiful one, it was the right tool. When over-torquing a pedal, one gripped the fixed cup end of the tool. Biomechanically, it was imperfect. Park Tool improved on it by including a comfortable and longer hand grip for efficient over-torquing. Not unlike General Motors, at some point Park Tool quietly modified their pedal wrench. I don’t think they came right out and said “For the unfortunate many who now have permanent scarring on their right hand from driving the big ring teeth deep into your flesh, we are sorry.” If the Velominati were still “saving themselves” from using the worst kind of anglo-saxon curses uttered in their lives, misusing the Park pedal wrench would guarantee a trip to Father Flavin’s Confessional Booth. “For fuck’s sake Father, pardon me Father, but I’ll have a greasy tattoo scar across my knuckles forever because of this shiet, pardon me Father, wrench”.
Incorporating a beer bottle opener into various tools did not occur to the engineers at Park Tool. And this is why we love Lezyne so much. Yes, it is more expensive and yes, it is a better pedal wrench and yes, they mill a beautiful bottle opener into it. To hold it is to love it. It is Rule #94. It is not just the right tool for the job, for there are many functional pedal wrenches available but it is the best one for the job. Even without the bottle opener it would still be the best pedal wrench. Its handle and heft make it an item one would happily wield to slaughter the advancing hoards of the undead. If, in the slaughtering, either the handle or the business end gets worn down, it comes apart and one end or the other could be replaced. When the slaughtering is done, at least for now, (because that job is seemingly never really done), one can open a fine cold beer with it and debate if this tool is the correct one for this job.
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Interesting post, but pedal wrenches are about as useful as a chocolate teapot to those millions of SPD users who can only tighten their pedals with Allen keys.
so it may be the best and the right tool for one job, but that job is not fitting pedals.
If you've ever used a torque wrench on a hex Pedals do require quite a few Nm, wouldn't be surprised if there's plenty of people who under-tighten their's probably as a result of using a shiny undersized bottle opener ;)
Nah really I imagine most pedal wrenches are so long for getting the damn things off. Putting the chain on the big ring helps the knuckles.
@tessar
Back at you with the highlighting.
@Ccos
To quote Martha Stewart, it's a good thing.
@Haldy
Absolutely it is. I don't know why I'm so fixated on lezyne combining the two operations. It's like combining a Glock handgun and a bottle opener. It makes no sense, yet it works.
@Tim Shears
Yes, but if you use Speedplay pedals, on all your road bikes, you are going to need a pedal wrench. Personally I believe pedals just need to be snugged down anyway. No need to tighten them way down because then getting them off is a chore. I travel with my bike so I do have to remove pedals more than once a year.
@Gianni as recent Speedplay convert, I have to agree, though I have opened beers competently with the park tool knuckle-wrecker too.
@Rhodri
Absolutely. You are right about the long lever for removal. I wish the idea of putting the chain in the big ring had dawned on me, even once. But I guess that is saying "yep, I'm probably going to put my fist right over this crank when I do this." I'm never that clever.
@Gianni
It's when we start combining tools that we run into problems! Right tool, right job, keep it simple. I even shy away from the tri-allen wrench in most cases and just use the single size I need at the time. But of course, I do have the luxury of an array of tools at my disposal.
And with the Pedros...I have one in the utensil drawer at home as well, as it's kinda hard to justify the Lezyne pedal wrench in the utensil drawer, the VMH just wouldn't have gone for it.
I used to use Pedro's pedal wrenches when I worked in my LBS, or a Cyclo which was offset, and had a 90 and 45 degree jaw. The offset wrench was great for not ripping hands apart on chainrings.