- In this video, I'm going to quickly and clearly
show you how to fit and remove bike pedals.
Now before I do,
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To fit and remove bike pedals,
you will need one of the following tools:
a dedicated pedal spanner or pedal wrench.
But, if you don't have one of these,
then you can also use a 15 millimeter flathead spanner
or most modern pedals are designed to be removed
by an Allen key or hex wrench.
This is most commonly eight millimeters.
However, some other ones can use six millimeters.
Optional bonus tools are a rag to clean the pedal threads
and some grease for the threads.
How to do it:
well the first thing to realize
is that pedals are left- and right-specific.
So you have to make sure you get the correct one
for the correct side.
Now if you're unsure which is which,
then pedals like this often have an L and an R
printed on the pedal axle to tell you.
Something which can cause confusion
is that left and right pedals have opposite threads.
So a right-hand pedal has a clockwise thread
and a left-hand pedal has a
reverse thread.
The reason for this is to stop the left pedal unwinding
as you pedal along.
And a fun fact for you
is that this wasn't an inspired piece of engineering
that came about during the conception
of the original bicycle.
It was actually a solution to the problem
of stopping people's pedals unwinding
as they rode along back in the day.
If you're installing used pedals onto a used crank,
then a good idea is to get that rag
that we spoke about earlier
and wipe off the old grease and dirt on both surfaces
and apply some fresh grease before putting it in.
This isn't essential, but it's recommended,
as it can help stop the pedals seizing and getting stuck.
To install the pedal,
simply place the bike against a wall like this.
It's actually easier to use it against a wall
rather than to put it in a fancy workshop stand
because if you want to remove pedals as well,
you can put more weight into the bike
rather than if it's on a stand.
Now what we're going to do is rotate the crank arm
(arm cranks)
into the forwards position.
An easy way to remember which direction
you will tighten and loosen each pedal,
is by putting the crank arm in this forward position
and then thinking about the direction
in which you pedal and turn the cranks.
So, to pedal, we push down on the crank.
We're going clockwise,
which is the same direction to tighten it.
To loosen it, we would go upwards,
like we were pedaling backwards.
So to tighten it,
put the pedal in and start like that.
If you can start by hand, that's good,
'cause it means you're less likely to strip the threads
on the pedal.
You don't want to do that.
It should feel nice and smooth.
It should just go in
nice and easily like that.
To tighten it, take this end of the Allen key,
insert it, and then just push down,
while pulling up a bit on the pedal.
(arm cranks)
It doesn't have to be super, super tight.
That's tight enough.
If you're using a pedal spanner or a wrench,
then it's just the same as you would with an Allen key.
There's a little notch here next to the threads
where the spanner can fit in like that.
So I'll move the crank into the 3:00 position,
facing forwards again,
put the pedal in, so I start it by hand.
I can actually get it on most of the way.
And then I'll finish it
to tighten it
with the spanner.
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Sorted.
If you've got a really tight pedal
and you're struggling to get it off
with the Allen key you've got,
a hack you can do is to get a tube or a piece of pipe
and put it over the end of your Allen key
so that you create a longer lever
and generate more leverage
and hopefully get it off more easily.
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There we go.
And that got it.
(upbeat music)
I hope you found this video useful and informative.
If you have, please give it a thumb's up.
And if you'd like to watch a video on how pedals are made,
you can do it there.
And if you'd like to watch one
that explains the differences between
road-specific pedals and mountain bike pedals,
we've got that, too,
just down there.