Classic & Vintage - Question about replacing pedals

Hi all:

I recently acquired an '83 Motobecane Mirage Sport in pretty nice condition. I think it'll make a good daily driver. It has all original equipment. I'm not too crazy about the pedals, which seem to me nothing special (according to the catalog, they're Maillard RA500). Besides, they're showing signs of stress fractures along the outer edge of the cages, and I'd like to replace them with something period-appropriate before I have any problems.

I'm a newbie at this sort of thing, so I'm wondering, how can I tell what kind of threads these pedals have? Is it safe to assume they're French-threaded? The cranks are Nervar 3020. I've done some searching online and in the forums, but it seems like in this era Motobecane was all over the map in terms of the kind of threading they were using.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

I looked at your other threads to see if you have another bike to compare the pedals with and see you have or had a Moto Grand Jubile as well (dented tube thread, I think that was you). If you still have that bike, or another bike, just pull the pedals off and try them on the Mirage Sport. I believe my Grand Jubile has "normal" threads so any modern adult pedal will/should work with it. Do a search on French Pedal Threads to get a feel for when the transition occured.

Pedals are one of those items that are usually easy to change, so just use what you like unless you want to stay strictly stock with the bike. If you really want to know what you have then remove the pedals and take them down to a local bike shop or hardware store and try some comparisons.

There are lots of options out there for pedals, for example: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/pedals.html

Good suggestion, I'll try that, thanks!

I'll answer a question with a question, and hopefully one of the Francophiles will chirp in: didn't most French bikes switch over from French pedal threads in the early 1980's? I was thinking Peugeot had abandoned the French thing by '84 at the latest. BTW, I could be way off base here, which is why I raise it as a question. Perhaps it will help the OP and also provide another valuable resource for everyone.

I'll answer a question with a question, and hopefully one of the Francophiles will chirp in: didn't most French bikes switch over from French pedal threads in the early 1980's? I was thinking Peugeot had abandoned the French thing by '84 at the latest. BTW, I could be way off base here, which is why I raise it as a question. Perhaps it will help the OP and also provide another valuable resource for everyone.

I would love to know the answer to that, myself, for general purposes. My love affair with French bikes is just getting rekindled, and I intend to keep looking for a higher-end model. It'd be great to know what to expect in terms of upgrading and refurbishing.

I'm pretty sure that Motobecane switched to mostly standard components on most of there models when they started putting Japanese Suntour and SR components on most of there models in the late 70's around 77-78. Peuget switched around 83-84 on most of there models. One does need to double check by bike because some higher end model French bikes still had some French stuff as late as 1985 maybe even 1986 and stanards where often different even on the same models depending on where they where original sold.

IME The surest way to find out if your bike has french-threaded cranks is to try some 9/16-20 pedals.

This is what Sheldon had to say:

Older French bicycles used a different, smaller diameter where the pedal screws into the crank, 14 mm x 1.25 mm.

The vast majority of French bicycles imported into the U.S. used standard 9/16" x 20 tpi crank threading, but if you find an older bicycle that was bought in France, you may run into this problem. The French-thread cranks can be tapped out to 9/16". This is much easier (and more worth the trouble) with aluminum cranks. Start the taps from the inside of the cranks,so any possible thread damage occurs where it doesn't matter. French pedals will often be marked "G" (Gauche=left) and "D" (Droite=right).

+1 to what Azorch suggested; I'm going to be pretty surprised if they're French threaded on an '83 bike. But those French can sometimes be mysterious.