Bicycle Mechanics - Getting pedals off

Should be easy right??
I have a pedal wrench but I cant get the damn things off. It's a 2005 Trek 1000. The left one is reverse threaded right? I cant make it budge. Is there something counter-intuitive about taking these damn things off? I can brace the crank arm and hold it steady...then apply a ton of pressure and nothing. ARG. Hints?

Do you have one of those longer wrenches or a short one? I have a short one, but the lever just isn't long enough to apply enough torque to get the pedals off. I got the professional one from Park Tool and it works just fine. I never have issues.

If you have the short wrench, you may have to take it in to a bike place and let them take the pedals off instead.

Koffee

If you have the short wrench, you may have to take it in to a bike place and let them take the pedals off instead.

Koffee

You could also use a cheater bar, just place a section of pipe over the end of the wrench handle to make it longer. Just be careful!

It's a long wrench, but I got it figured out. Just took a LOT of force. I guess the LBS really torqued them down. Got my Speedplay Xs on there now :)

(Thanks for replying, kind of a...awkward question...).

Did you grease up the threads on your speedplays and clean out some of the gunk from the crankarm's pedal threads? Bike pedals are tight, but it sounded like you needed some extreme measures to get them off. It's possible the LBS just overtorqued them, or it's possible they didn't grease the pedal threads at all.

A little grease and some cleanliness on the installation will make your job a lot easier should you ever need to take your new pedals off.

A little grease and some cleanliness on the installation will make your job a lot easier should you ever need to take your new pedals off.
I second that.

Thirded

Yep, major torque needed here. Left one removes clockwise. Remember the "never-seize" on the threads and this will never happen again.

Glad you solved the problem, but let me throw in two little suggestions for the future and for other readers... Using grease on the pedals when you install them is a good thing, but if you didn't install them, try using a little PBlaster, which is a penetrating lubricant you can get in auto parts stores (the packaging looks like its out of the 50s or something), and it just rocks the pants off of WD40 for penetrating and loosening corroded or rusted threads.

Also, forget the 'reverse threaded' and 'lefty loosey lefty tightey' business. Here is how I remember how the pedals are threaded. Put the wrench on the pedal, and turn it towards the front of the bike to tighten, and towards the rear of the bike to loosen. That is true on both sides of the bike, no matter what. Should be helpful to other numbskulls like myself who kept forgetting which side was threaded in what way. To the front = tighter, to the back = looser.

peace,
sam