Originally Posted by
bikemig
That would be my guess. I'll bet there's no damage and pedals will now thread in easily to the crank.
Okay, I forgot that my digital calipers have a dead battery. So I tried threading on one of my known-good Shimano A600 pedals -- from the back side of the crank, just in case. It presented no unusual resistance, but I saw some very fine aluminum shavings, too. I think RH is erring on the side of giving us the maximum amount of beef to start with since the crank threads are bound to wear, but those VP pedals might still have sharp or excessively-tall threads for the same reason.