eljayski 

yesterday, Oct 16. LBS guy said he didn't tighten it enough during assembly. Does this happen very often?


the bike in question

Bald Paul

Hopefully not, and hopefully the threads on your crankarm weren't damaged.

79pmooney

Often happens when the bearings are in poor shape. With good bearings, the torque you apply to the pedals gets reversed and tries to tighten the threads. (That's why left side pedals are left-hand thread.) When those bearings aren't working, your torque is now trying to unscrew the pedal. (On a fix gear, if that pedal actually freezes up, you better either have no foot retention or hope that mechanic didn't give the wrench that last tug because you will be unscrewing the pedal with the bones in your foot.)

Rick_D

You okay? Depending on when, that can be a dire thing.

Not a pedal but once snapped a crank arm with basically the same result: planting my clipped in foot on the pavement going at speed. Do. Not. Want. Again.

Agree it must have been frozen to the axle for some reason, as the threading is reversed to prevent inadvertently coming off.

eljayski 

thanks for your response! to my eye there was scuffing on the crankarm so I fear "minor" damage there.

wolfchild

This isn't supposed to happen...It's obvious that whoever installed the pedals didn't tighten them enough.

eljayski 

Bike is new this year so pedal bearings should be good, still. maybe just junk chinese $h*t.

eljayski 

No bad happened to me but I sure was surprised.

eljayski 

The bike shop guy was completely swamped with work--his single employee had just quit when I brought the bike in for assembly--so it's evident to me the guy didn't act with due care. On an earlier ride, the rear wheel slipped out of the drop and rubbed on the frame. Also, derailleur adjustments were not done right (2nd opinion from another LBS). Don't think this guy will see much of me going forward.

Thanks to all of you who responded!

icemilkcoffee 

Just get a some Allen wrenches or a pedal wrench and put it back on yourself. Pedal installation is not something you need to go to the bike shop for.

roadfix

no excuses, especially on a critical part like that…. HE’S FIRED!
Also, with the collection of bikes you have, you should be wrenching yourself…

LarrySellerz

Happens all the time, really freaked me out when I was a kid and it happened the first time, I thought the bike was falling apart! All it takes is someone who doesnt know how to properly tighten the pedal and installs it anyways. Heck, last time I put pedals on it took me a while to figure out how to use the other as a “backing wrench.” If I had to do it again, I’d have to figure it out again. I’m sure the Walmart employees are trying their best but it’s an easy mistake to make. It’s easy to figure out how to screw the pedals on lol.

LarrySellerz

IMO this is gross negligence and there is no excuse

mstateglfr 

Your rear wheel slipped out of a vertical dropout? Wild.


As for the pedal issue, no idea what brand those pedals are, but if they are junk then buy some higher quality ones that have smooth bearings and a quality spindle that tightens reliably.

MarcusT

Happened to me once, by my own work. Lesson learned, will not happen again

GamblerGORD53

That bike looks nice. But you need to check EVERYTHING regardless of price. Likely the only thing wrong was being not tight on the crank. Did the pedals feel grindy? Some now have crazy 1/16" loose balls. If so, do NOT use them.

4 years ago I bought a discounted new roadster IGH bike for $1000, from a very good LBS that sells midrange bikes of all kinds. Nobody else wanted to buy it for 2 years. LOL. I knew I would want to switch almost all the parts too.
>> Threaded headset was poorly set and half lubed at the factory, so it wouldn't ooze out I presume. Was a year before I got around to getting a 32 mm wrench to look at it.
>> Cruiser pedal loose bearings were tight, I took them apart OK, but needed better ones with pegs anyway. At least they had proper size bearings, 5/32" I think.
>> Spokes were not tuned. I straightened them out and rode them awhile until I switched the wheels for a diff SA IGH and dyno hub.
>> The Nexus 7i had tight bearings as well. Plus horrible roller brakes impossible to not have drag.
>> The bare alu rims looked like they were put thru a belt sander. OMG.
>> The grips were stupidly tight, to put my bells and mirror on. I cut them off and garbaged them. Slimy rubber like tires anyway. WTF
>>>> I ALWAYS ALWAYS have tools with me.

BobsPoprad

So I am trying to understand this situation...
You bought a bike online or something and brought it to a shop (overworked and understaffed). I am assuming there was a charge for this service. Also, 10 different mechanics will have 15 different adjustments to said derailleur.
I am not justifying poor work. I would and have bought from the LBS directly. But as you said, if they do poor work, take it somewhere else.

Jughed

Finding a consistent, reliable bike mechanic is like finding a good barber.

My hair/beard look great!! So far, I've only found one of the two.


I check everything after getting the bike back from the shop - even things on the bike that weren't supposed to be touched.

And the shop only sees the bike if it's a problem I can't fix myself.

Take the bike in for a wheel repair, sit on the seat and it bottoms out... they for some reason moved the seat and didn't re tighten it the seatpost.

I've found just about everything to be loose, not shifting properly, chain blobbed with mass amounts of lube, things over tightened...

Yan 

As the saying goes, you get what you're willing to pay for. Next time don't cheap out.

noimagination

I had a pedal come off on a ride, but it was 20+ years old and had 10's of thousands of miles in it (my first clipless pedals, purchased ca. 1992). The pedal body came completely off the spindle - it just wore out. It wasn't a big issue, I only found out when I tried to unclip at a light and had to use my other foot. When I moved my right foot outboard the pedal body slipped completely off of the spindle, still attached to the cleat. I slipped it back on, and finished my ride. I had to focus (1) on clipping out with my other foot, and (2) on keeping my right foot inboard so the pedal didn't slip off.

I agree with others who posted above, that you need to find a new LBS. There's no excuse for not doing a proper job when the consequences can be serious injury (or worse) for the user. I don't care how "swamped" he was, that is simply inexcusable.

(Gorgeous bike, by the way.)

DorkDisk

This could potentially upset me. Anyone building a silver bike with Campagnolo has to care about a scuffed crank from the get-go due to the builder's obvious neglect. How bad is it?

boozergut

I had this happen with a high end mountain bike from probably the most reputable manufacturer out there. Stuff happens!

big john

Happens all the time? I can't recall seeing a pedal come off, ever. Was following a guy through a turn and his crankarm came off and I ran over it.
Had 3 pedals snap off and I crashed twice. Had a Look pedal unscrew from the spindle while climbing a canyon. Suddenly my foot was out by the front wheel.
Friend snapped an Ultegra crankarm and crashed. Another snapped a Campagnolo crank and also crashed. I was following a big guy down a singletrack trail and when he landed from a small jump his BB spindle snapped off and he made a cloud of dust when he went down.
Was rolling my bike around the garage and a pedal fell off. Another Look pedal which came unscrewed from the spindle. I put Loctite on them now.

eljayski 

I appreciate everyone's comments. A bit more to the back story. The shop in question did the measurements for my David Kirk and set up the Kirk when it arrived. So far, so good. Using the same measurements I ordered the Sella Ronda from Marco Bertoletti in Italy. The Bertoletti U.S. distributor/dealer was going to build the bike for me but he hurt himself in karate or something and could not build. So, I accumulated the needed components and took them back to same shop for build up. That's when things went south although I didn't know it at the time; I trusted the guy to do the proper job

Being impetuous, I bought a third bike, a Tommasini Tecno from Italy about the same time as I bought the Bertoletti. When it arrived, I decided to take it to the other LBS I deal with and it turned out to be a great decision. Set up right the first time. Here are the Kirk and the Tecno:

indyfabz

Same here. Stripped the threads of my Bike Friday NWT crank. Almost fell over when I started up after a traffic light turned green.