SB_Greg

I just read this article. Has anyone tried this?

https://www.cicle.org/nuts-n’-bolts-...aded-bicycles/

CliffordK

It looks like an interesting option.

I was wondering about making custom short spindles to use with the IQ2 power meter (standard threads).

A couple of things. I tried to regrind a Campagnolo bottom bracket. Whew, it was HARD!!!

Customizing the spindle would be much easier to do with sealed bearings than loose bearings. No need for a super-hard spindle, and easier to adjust positions.

Although, thinking of the traditional pedal shape, the inner cone (crank end) would be fixed, and the outer cone would be with an adjustable cone, thus the threads as in the article.

So, you just need to match the cone sizes (or threads) and relative positions.

SurferRosa

I've never thought of using french pedal spindles in standard pedals, but I never needed to do that, either.

The problems I've had with french pedals were crumbled cones, not the cages or bodies.

CliffordK

It might be an option, however, if one wished to use SPD or other clipless pedals, or more modern flats.

Did Look make a 14mm French clipless pedal? Now relatively rare.

Salamandrine 

Yes they did, for the first couple years or so. If patient, it'd probably be possible to pick some up on French Ebay. I doubt they were ever sold stateside.

JohnDThompson 

I once picked up a NOS pair of Lyotard mod.23 "Marcel Berthet" pedals dirt cheap because they had 1/2" spindles. I had a pair of more widely available mod. 45 pedals with English thread i wasn't using, so I decided to try a spindle swap. It turned that the spindles were pretty much identical, and the swap worked perfectly:

SB_Greg

I might need to give this a try.

jcb3

I was in the same situation that @JohnDThompson discussed and I picked up a broken set of mod 23 lyotards with english threads to swap the 1/2 spindles.

Curiously, one of the 9/16 spindles (left one) was shorter than all the others I had and the locking nut only half way threaded on.

That was last year and after Eroica, the bearings were a bit tight, so I messed around with trying to tighten it up and stripped the nut (or spindle) before Eroica this year.

I put in a french threaded spindle (from my mod 45s) and french threaded arm on the left side and completed the ride.

I discovered the threads are M7x1 and yesterday I picked up a die and a few bolts.

Now I'm looking for some old lyotard pedals and thinking maybe I can get one with a longer spindle and grind it down and tap it to fit.

crank_addict

^Had no idea there were French pedals with 1/2" thread axles.

Wanted an older pedal with cornering clearance for my Schwinn fixed gear and Ashtabula crank (1/2" threads). Ended up finding an odd axle adapter pair French 14mm to 1/2". Using old Lyotard's, the set up works. Only issue was the adapters were a bit too long for what I liked, so did shorten by cutting threads off the female side.

jcb3

PM me if you are interested in the 1/2" spindles, I really don't have any use for them. Bonus- they are chromed on the crank end for extra bling.

Will fit mod 23 and 45

63rickert

Lyotard made only two axles, the short one and the long one. Swap any short for any short, any long for any long. At least that works for 60s and 70s and the 50s pedals I've tried. What jcb3 ran into sounds like an error. Loose tolerances.