Rajflyboy

Oh boy. Found a 10 year old quality road bicycle in the neighborhood (I was given). I was going to replace the pedals with a crank brothers set.

No standard pedal wrench but had to use a 6mm hex (I only had a small one without enough leverage). Spent an hour fooling with it and then decided to take it to the shop. Took heat and power tools to get the mofo’s off. The pedals did actually have grease on them.

Needless to say I now have a long very long 6mm hex now.

What techniques do you folks use to get stuck pedals off?

Bill Kapaun

For tougher stuff I use my 3/8" drive hex bits and whatever length breaker bar it takes.
Sure they weren't 8mm, a "standard" size?
6mm is mighty puny.

phughes

A quality 6mm hex socket on a ratchet or breaker bar. Don't mess with an "L" allen wrench.

Rajflyboy

Yes 6mm

bicycle shop said same thing

dsbrantjr

II use Tef-Gel and stainless pedal washers to help keep pedals from binding.seizing. You know that you have to turn the wrench the opposite handedness when wrenching on the inside of the pedal vs the outside, right? Hex bit and a breaker bar are the way to go.

Rajflyboy

I knew that. These were just hard to deal with I guess.

I will look into Tef Gel and pedal washers. Thanks.

madpogue 

I've been able to use a regular L-type allen wrench, by slipping a cheater pipe over it. Sometime I slip an even longer cheater bar into the cheater pipe. And yes, I've seen both 6 and 8.

I broke the open-end head of a nice old US-made Craftsman 15mm combo on one pedal. Haven't gone to get the free replacement yet; I just know it won't be as good. Oh well.

So I splurged on a slightly used Park PW-4, the bigeffer with the oddball asymmetrical offset 15s. Affords lots of angle options. So far, it's triumphed over everything I've thrown at it, including the above-mentioned Craftsman-killer.

Mad Honk 

I wound up using a four foot cheater bar and my vise mounted on my four hundert pound bench to break one pedal loose earlier this week.

DOS

A friend of mine had this problem with Look keo pedals. The 6mm hex was too flexy to get one pedal off. He had to have a shop drill that side out to get it off off. He gave them to me and I bought new spindles.When they arrived, I was surprised to find the new spindles were 8mm. I have them installed on a bike and so far so good.

Rogerogeroge

If you want a precision cheater bar on an allen key, use a 6 mm socket attached to a 1/4 inch drive extension. Simply attach the socket and extension to the short end of the wrench. This works especially well when the allen key is in a deep recess which makes you need to use the long end of the allen wrench to reach the bolt and you can't apply enough torque to the short leg of the wrench. (I've had to do this a few times, but never in a bicycle repair environment). But this will also work nicely removing pedals.

davidad

I found that if you pack an ice bag on the pedal and let it sit for 10 minutes it will come off. When I install my pedals I just get them snug and don't have a problem removing them.

79pmooney

Pedals have threads that self-tighten. They never need to be tightened hard. A 6mm with ordinary handle and modest hand pressure is plenty for tightening and if that is all you use, the same wrench (with perhaps another 8" of small pipe) will get them off easily. The big honking pedal wrenches in shops are only needed to take off pedals installed by strong oafs, not greased or allowed to sit outdoors for years (or often, a combination of these). You are never going to do that so your existing wrench is just fine.

I have 6mm hex pedals. Yes I prefer the 8mm ones but the 6s come off just fine.

Ben

Rajflyboy

You can take the crank off as well and try.

I have heard that as well. Sounds like a good idea.

madpogue 

True, ONCE you get the pedals off. But this is the C&V forum, and I'll bet most of us here have encountered pedals that were overtightened, un-greased and/or exposed to the elements.