Some to tap French cranks to 9/16" pedals

[hatofthecat]

Does anyone know of a bike shop in Oxfordshire/Berkshire that will retap some French cranks to take standard 9/16" pedals ? I've tried a few local ones and only one was willing to "give it a go"... not really inspiring confidence as they'd not done it before only cleaned up mashed threads.

Buying a set of of the L/R pedal taps for myself is not really justifiable as (1) they cost a fair bit and (2) I didn't even do CSE metalwork

I'm trying to do this as I have a faulty Stronglight TS Bis right crank (is probably warped spider, have tried refitting in other positions on BB square taper, greasing the heck out of it when fitting and torquing to its max in case it was just fitting that was the problem, can't see any wear at all on the square crank hole but the cranks had been completely machine polished before I got it). Will be a lot easier to find a set of these cranks with French threads than English I think.

Pete

[hamster]

Try Highpath Engineering.

www.highpath.net

[timdownieuk]

Does anyone know of a bike shop in Oxfordshire/Berkshire that will retap some French cranks to take standard 9/16" pedals ? I've tried a few local ones and only one was willing to "give it a go"... not really inspiring confidence as they'd not done it before only cleaned up mashed threads.

Why not let them practice on the warped one? It is supposed to be fairly straightforward.

Alternatively, DIY it.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/x-tools-pro-pedal-tap/rp-prod55945?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_name=UnitedKingdom&gs=1&gclid=CMr_o-DCocACFdSWtAod0S4Atg&gclsrc=aw.ds

[hatofthecat]

The warped one is already 9/16" and as I said DIY'ing it would require purchasing the taps & wrench... not exactly worth it for a one off job.

[Brucey]

I'd suggest that you buy the cranks before you worry about the retapping overly much. It isn't a big or difficult job in any event; if an LBS has a tap, it can be done.

cheers

[hatofthecat]

Unfortunately as per my original post, none of my LBS have ever done this and I'd rather find a shop that has experience in actually doing it. I can get a set of French threaded cranks in days and would like to get some use out of the bike before the summer is over...

[thirdcrank]

Some years ago, I had a version of this problem and I wrote to CJ who gave me one of his helpful replies and (with my agreement in spite of certain reservations) published it in the CTC mag. If anybody can tell me how to retrieve CJ's published replies to readers it would be helpful. They used to be easy to find on the old website but I can't see them now.

IIRC, I bought a new TA Cyclotouriste crank stamped with the correct marking for the UK. A UK pedal wouldn't fit and when I tried, it damaged the start of the thread, luckily only a tiny bit. Also IIRC, CJ recommended re-tapping of the kind you are considering now. Back to the supplying shop where they re-tapped it to the right size and everything was tickety boo, although I was a teeny bit miffed to be charged to have it put right. As you seem to have found, there aren't many bike shops in the UK with any knowledge or expertise in this sort of thing and in spite of CJ's "no names" policy, I fear it was obvious to all concerned who was who (hence the reservations I mentioned.) The shop's next ad in the CTC mag included the correct tap for this job, which I presumed was a gentle dig at YOS.

Anyway, you're "down South" and my lbs's are all up here, so no point in my suggesting that you could try them to get this done.

[hatofthecat]

Thanks thirdcrank. Actually if any suggestions are around Leeds then suggest away as can get my sister in the loop... am sure she'd like a day out at an olde worldey bike shop (that's how I'll sell it to her)

[thirdcrank]

Thanks thirdcrank. Actually if any suggestions are around Leeds then suggest away as can get my sister in the loop... am sure she'd like a day out at an olde worldey bike shop (that's how I'll sell it to her)

I'll send you a PM (for legal reasons )

[timdownieuk]

Unfortunately as per my original post, none of my LBS have ever done this and I'd rather find a shop that has experience in actually doing it. I can get a set of French threaded cranks in days and would like to get some use out of the bike before the summer is over...

Sorry, I missed that.

I'd look upon it as an opportunity to buy a new tool and learn a new skill. Double bonus!

Tim

[johnt]

I may be wrong, but I think it is only the pitch of the thread that is different. I think it might be possible to re-tap the cranks by using an old 9/16 pedal and long pedal spanner to get lots of leverage, and lots of WD40 or similar, backing it off half a revolution after every revolution to clear the swarf from the threads. I am sure I did this once many years ago.
Good Luck
johnt

[hatofthecat]

The French crank pedal holes are slightly smaller at 14mm than the 9/16" standard. This simply makes the existing hole a good starting point. You can start screwing a 9/16" pedal into a French crank... it'll soon get stuck though and the pedal threads are not hardened in the way a tap is so its less cutting and more mashing its way through I do really want to do it properly so that I'll have no issues taking pedals off an on in future as this is a restoration project.

[Jingle Jangle]

I had a similar problem some time ago with some TA cranks. Despite my enormous mechanical incompetence, I bought some pedal taps and converted the cranks from French to English threading. It really was incredibly simple. If you have a local bike shop that doubts their ability to do this, they must be completely hopeless.

I will have a look in the shed to see if I can find the taps, and if so I am happy to post them to you so you can sort this out.

Best

[Pandaz]

I tapped mine out with a £4 tap bought on ebay.
You could buy it, offer it to the local bike shop for keeps afterwards and they would likely do the job for free.

[Valbrona]

You need a tap, tap handle, cutting oil and a vice.