Broken pedal! 🤯

[Ravenkeep]

They appear to be on the correct side.

[Ravenkeep]

@Duff

Once you get it threaded on properly I’d back it off and apply some loctite before retightening and then make a habit of checking your pedals every week or so.

Loctite? As in glue? Won’t that ruin it?

[Ravenkeep]

Unbelievable!! I wanted to get a better view of my crank/pedal. So, I decided to unscrew the other pedal. That thing had almost come completely off! No wonder the other one broke! It must have been hanging by it’s last thread.

I had no ideal that the pedals would come unscrewed on their own. I guess it was due to all of the falls.

[Gockie]

@Ravenkeep

I had no ideal that the pedals would come unscrewed on their own. I guess it was due to all of the falls.

They shouldn’t unless you are riding backwards a lot.

[Ravenkeep]

Backwards!! No way. I can barely ride forward.

[Unigoof]

When the uni falls, do you notice one of the pedals hitting the ground and spinning at Mach something? I’ve noticed that before when falling a lot on pavement and I would think that could loosen a pedal if it happens so that it spins it the wrong way. Seems to be more so a thing of rounded edge pedals like the ones you have than on rectangular pedals.

[Ravenkeep]

@Unigoof

Seems to be more so a thing of rounded edge pedals like the ones you have than on rectangular pedals.

Ahhh, you just helped me make a decision. I was going to get the cheaper pedals, but with that bit of information I will definitely get the upgraded ones, because they are square shaped.

Thanks @Unigoof you just saved me additional needles expenses. Thank God I haven’t bought them yet, or history would have repeated itself.

[Unigoof]

Rectangular pedals also have more surface area and you should feel more connected to them with or without pins. I suppose a rectangular pedal could also do the mach spinnification thing if the outer edge was decently convex, but a higher quality pedal will have more resistance to spin since it will have good grease and lots of it in the pedal.

[Duff]

There are different varieties of loctite. Blue loctite is meant to prevent nuts or bolts from loosening, but should allow for their removal later on. That’s the stuff you want. Red loctite is permanent.

Normally, you don’t use loctite on pedals, but if you’ve already lost a bit of the threads on your crank then I’d go ahead and use it.

Also, don’t just tighten your pedals down crazy tight. You can break out all the threads at once that way. Speaking from experience on that.

[Ravenkeep]

@Duff

Also, don’t just tighten your pedals down crazy tight. You can break out all the threads at once that way.

Thanks for mentioning that. After this experience I would have done just that.

[Siddhartha_Valmont]

@Duff

Blue loctite is meant to prevent nuts or bolts from loosening, but should allow for their removal later on. That’s the stuff you want. Red loctite is permanent.

Another possible way to do light thread locking on the cheap is to use the most basic nail polish: doesn’t cost much and does the same service to resist vibration loosening while being easy to disassemble. And there is no risk of fusing parts together even if you put too much of it

[JimT]

@Gockie

They shouldn’t unless you are riding backwards a lot.

The mechanical precession effect tends to tighten properly installed pedals in normal level and up hill riding with a unicycle or bicycle. However when riding a uni down hill the effect is reversed and that tends to unscrew the pedals. So if you ride a unicycle down hill a lot where you hold back on the pedals you could run the risk of your pedals unscrewing.
The inverse is also true, if you ride backwards down hill the pedals will tend to tighten rather then loosen.

[finnspin]

Pedals can come loose from dropping on the ground a lot. Just give it a good tightening next time and check for it occasionally.
Don’t jump around on the pedal wrench or use extensions (as duff said, you can pull the threads if you go crazy on it), but if you are using a normal 15 mm wrench, you can apply a decent amount of force.
Shimano says something like 30-40 Nm, which translates to 17+ kg worth of force on a normal 20 cm wrench. (37 lb and 8 inches for Americans…)

[lobbybopster]

@Duff

Red loctite is permanent.

Well not actually, by applying heat, (heat gun/hair dryer) red #262 loctite softens and you can then release them.

[Duff]

True. I misspoke for the sake of brevity. Generally however you don’t use red loctite on something you intend on disassembling in the future.

[lobbybopster]

You did not miss with your statement, it is for “special circumstances”, but as a fellow uni rider/maker I will share that all is not hopeless if we find ourself in that “circumstance”.

[Ravenkeep]

OH! Well that is what I do. I drop it a lot. Now I know to check the pedals often.

[Ravenkeep]

I am only riding on a tennis court. It was the only place I found to learn.

[lobbybopster]

Hello, I have a new pedal/crank problem that has not been discussed, I have literally thousands of miles on this muni without any problems until todays morning ride. I have never before seen this so I know I am one of the lucky ones.

OK, not the best pictures but what I’m showing is the pedal wobbled, I tightened but e few hundred yards later the pedal and insert in the crank pulled out, Apparently the lock ring worked loose and ate up the soft aluminum threads in the crank, not the pedal, its still good. Crank is trashed. So when I thought I new it all…

[lobbybopster]

This is a little better.