crow foot for Pedal wrench

[Rickyboy]

Hi folks, I'm a soon to be new Rad Rover 6 Plus owner and new to the forum. I want to be prepared for when the 2 bikes I ordered arrive and wanted to ave all the tools for assembly. Can someone tell me what size the pedal nuts are ? I want to purchase a crow foot attachment for my torque wrench. { which I need to also purchase }  Thanks ... and I look forward to reading more on what you owners have to say about the Rad bikes

[CG31]

I just tightened mine down until they were good and snug with the wrench provided with the included toolkit. I have 900 miles on my RR5 and they are still fine.

[sc00ter]

I also used the supplied wrench and it did just fine. I normally carry a dedicated pedal wrench in the glove box of my car (to reduce space when buying thrift store bikes) but my car was in the shop.

Funny story. When I had a Pedego I wanted cool pedals. So I track down some FBM Ride the Lightning pedals. I go to remove the Wellgo pedals and broke a wrench! Wow, that was weird. Got a better wrench and ended up starting to round out the pedal shaft. So I take it to a bike shop. It took the bike shop 2 wrenches and almost 45 minutes to get the pedals off! I end up stopping by the shop that sold the Pedego and asked about the pedals being "Crazy tight!' and was told they were that tight because he had a pedal come off of a bike as a kid! Note that most Wellgo pedals are spaced to use a cookie cutter box end wrench from pretty much any toolbox. But those Ride the Lightning pedals looked so good!

[RadJohn]

The pedal spindles on most modern bikes with 3-piece cranksets have 15mm tightening flats. You could also probably get away with using a 19/32" wrench if you have one. The OEM folding pedals on my 2020 RadMini 4 certainly conform to that spec. I don't have any other Rad models here now to verify, but can't think of any logical reason for them differing.

Most of the "pro brand" pedal wrenches (Park, Pedro's etc.) are made thin for a reason. You may find that a lot of conventional open-end and crowfoot adapter wrenches are too thick to fit between a fully tightened pedal and a crank arm without scarring one or both (they may fit in the gap to start, but may actually get trapped before the pedal is fully tightened). 

I'll assume you understand the correct orientation off crowfoot adapters when using then with a torque wrench, or how to adjust torque values accordingly using a formula if using them "straight".

Rads also conform to industry standard pedal spindle thread sizes and thread handedness: Right pedals loosen by turning counter-clockwise (right handed threads, righty tighty, lefty loosey), Left pedals loosen clockwise (backwards of left handed threads).

Also, many pedals (Rad included)  have a 6mm hex socket on the pedal spindle end that threads into the crank arm so pedals can can be tightened/loosened that way (it's often packed with dirt), but putting enough torque on the pedal that way with most Allen wrenches (even "long handled" ones) would be a challenge without a "helper pipe/cheater bar" of some sort.

[Rickyboy]

The pedal spindles on most modern bikes with 3-piece cranksets have 15mm tightening flats. You could also probably get away with using a 19/32" wrench if you have one. The OEM folding pedals on my 2020 RadMini 4 certainly conform to that spec. I don't have any other Rad models here now to verify, but can't think of any logical reason for them differing.

Most of the "pro brand" pedal wrenches (Park, Pedro's etc.) are made thin for a reason. You may find that a lot of conventional open-end and crowfoot adapter wrenches are too thick to fit between a fully tightened pedal and a crank arm without scarring one or both (they may fit in the gap to start, but may actually get trapped before the pedal is fully tightened). 

I'll assume you understand the correct orientation off crowfoot adapters when using then with a torque wrench, or how to adjust torque values accordingly using a formula if using them "straight".

Rads also conform to industry standard pedal spindle thread sizes and thread handedness: Right pedals loosen by turning counter-clockwise (right handed threads, righty tighty, lefty loosey), Left pedals loosen clockwise (backwards of left handed threads).

Also, many pedals (Rad included)  have a 6mm hex socket on the pedal spindle end that threads into the crank arm so pedals can can be tightened/loosened that way (it's often packed with dirt), but putting enough torque on the pedal that way with most Allen wrenches (even "long handled" ones) would be a challenge without a "helper pipe/cheater bar" of some sort.

Ok thanks for the info. Yes I wondered if the crowfoot adapter for the pedal nut might get "trapped" towards the end. So what you're suggesting is to just go ahead and use the wrench supplied for assembly ? and that will be adequate ?  Thanks for the response.

[RadJohn]

The supplied wrench is kind of crappy and uncomfortable to use, but obviously can get the job done (if not just barely) since that's all a lot of people use. A real bicycle pedal wrench with a long, rounded, comfortable handle would be nice to have for anyone planning on doing any kind of routine bicycle maintenance/checking (used more than once of twice).