I have searched the archives a bit but I am looking for something very specific: Good pin pedals (with replaceable pins) that have sealed bearings that can be purchased in Canada.
Why? Well I love my MEC pin pedals but the not-so-sealed bearings have taken a beating after too many dunks in the deep mud puddles of recent MUni rides. Today the pedals started to creak alarmingly.
Kindly my uni pal Mike has offered to try dismantle the beasts and see if he can lube the offending dry and possibly rusting bearings…
Nevertheless, if the operation is unsuccessful or only a temporary fix, I will be shopping for better pedals.
I love the pinned pedals and wouldn’t be without them on the MUni but those noisy bearings just gotta go!!!
The pedals I have are the Wellgo B-37’s from MEC. They are in fact great pedals in terms of grip - the pins are slice-your-shins sharp.
But the clerk at MEC warned me that bearings on these pedals, as well as those in their slightly more expensive ‘sealed’ cousins, are just not very sealed and that there could be problems if they got wet and muddy a lot. And the indeed they have gotten pretty wet in the muddy rides of the past few weeks.
Do they ever make a rattle as I ride now. They creak and rattle constantly and it isn’t music to my ears.
Do you know how to get into your bearings, Erin? Perhaps they weren’t adeqeutly greased in the first place?
I just got a bearing puller from canadian tire (get the $15 one…the $6 SUCKS!), and am about to pull my bearings apart…but damn, that 12 pack of Red Cap (any canadians out there…next trip to the beer store, get Red Cap…100% Sofa Garunteed!) was between me and my unicycle, so now I’ll have to wait till tomorrow
My cool new DVD (not Into the Thunder Dragon…BackTo The Future) is in, and that’s more important ,in this druken stuper, than wheel repair.
BTTF fans…when Marty is holding up the newspaper in BTTF2 (after Griff and the gang fly into the building on their hoverboards - watch the stunt double on the left of your screen smash into the pillar on her way in through the glass), you can freeze frame+zoom in on the Newspaper headlines. One reads ‘Queen Diana visits the US’
a bearing puller really wont work on pedal bearings. depending what kinda of pedals you have, the first thing to do will probably be to take the pedal cap off. then there’ll be a 12mm locknut, take it off, spacer, take it off. then check if the bearings are ball of cartrage. if there ball make sure not to lose any, if cartrage, yank em off. if there ball you can just take off the cone (next boltish thing) John C has reccommended doing this in a shoe box, which is a good plan. take the pedals off, the balls will fall right out if its dry. clean the bearing races off, grease em up and put them back together. should work again if they have dry ball bearings.
The Wellgo B-37s should be sealed bearings. I don’t think that pedal comes in an unsealed flavour.
A sealed pedal does not mean that it is immune to contamination by dirt and water. Sealed just means that it uses sealed cartridge bearings instead of loose ball bearings. Sealed cartridge bearings aren’t immune to contamination.
A “sealed” pedal usually has an O-ring near the crank to help keep out dirt and water. The only seal at the other end of the pedal is the end nut. The “sealed” part in a sealed pedal just means that the cartridge bearing has a seal and is not loose ball bearings. It’s easy for dirt and water to get into the inside of a “sealed” pedal. It’s a little harder for dirt and water to get into the sealed cartridge bearing, but the bearing is not immune to contamination.
Most sealed pedals spin on a bushing near the crank and a sealed cartridge bearing near the endcap. A bushing needs grease to turn smoothly. A cartridge bearing will eventually wear out. Sealed pedals still need grease and maintenance. On my muni, my sealed pedals get overhauled every month or two, depending on how wet and dirty the conditions are where I’ve been riding. If you ride through deep puddles and streams then the pedal is going to need to be overhauled more often.
Fortunately it is easy to overhaul a sealed pedal because there aren’t any loose ball bearings. Just remove the endcap, pull the pedal body off, clean off the old grease, check the cartridge bearing to see if it is still good, put new grease in the pedal, and put the endcap back on. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to overhaul a pair of sealed pedals (including cleanup time). It takes much longer (and much more frustration) to overhaul a pair of unsealed pedals.
When I overhaul a sealed pedal I put a layer of grease on each side of the cartridge bearing. This puts a layer of grease on the bearing seal which helps to keep water and dirt from getting into the bearing.
Bottom line, if you muni in wet or dirty conditions or ride your uni in wet conditions you will need to overhaul your pedals much more often than if you just do freestyle indoors.
Even sealed pedals will rattle if the grease around the bushing gets washed away. Sealed pedals still need maintenance if ridden in wet or dusty weather.
For everyone riding in the snow, plan on an overhaul of your pedals soon. Snow is very good at forcing itself into the inside of your pedal and washing away the grease from the bushing and eventually the grease inside the sealed bearings.
Fortunately sealed platform pedals are easy to maintain.
Thanks for your detailed explanation John. My friend Mike kindly overhauled the Wellgo B-37’s for me last night and, lo and behold, these Wellgo’s are indeed not sealed bearings. In other words the ball bearings, all 26 of 'em, were loose - not in a sealed cartridge. Unlucky me… Also, it seems that quite a few of the ball bearing were quite worn in place… hummm, wonder if I should be finding a source for replacement bearings as it probably would be wise to replace the worn ones next time the pedals are taken apart and greased. What do you think?
Well, now that I know that the pedals will need regular maintanence, I’ll keep a better eye on them.
if the ball bearings are worn, replace them. Not only will they not spin as smothly, they will score the race (the concave surface that the bearings sit in)
An LBS (Local Bike Store) can give you a handful for a buck or two. Bring in a sample, as there are many close sizes
Or, PARK TOOL makes a bearing sizer…it looks like a ruler (for measuring chain wear) with different sized holes down the centre. The smallest hole your BB will fit into is it’s size
