Originally Posted by unterhausen

That shows all evidence of a typical fatigue failure. I'm not sure that there is anything to suggest hydrogen embrittlement. I think they may have case hardened the spindle so the bearing surfaces didn't wear out too quickly. I'd be interested in seeing the other half of the axle to see if there is some obvious reason for the failure there, but this is probably just the point of maximum bending. Lyotard pedals were very inexpensive, I'm actually not surprised to see this.