Originally Posted by cyccommute

There are only two place on a bicycle where a left hand thread is used. One is the “English” threaded bottom bracket where the driveside is a left hand thread that loosens by turning right or clockwise. The other is the left pedal which loosens the same way. All other bolts on a bike are “normal” right handed (loosen counterclockwise).

The way I teach my bicycle mechanic students to remember how to remove the pedals and the bottom bracket is by using the positioning of the wrench. For pedal removal, put the crank arm so that it is pointing forward at 90°. Put the wrench on (green arrow) and push down (red arrow). Do that on both sides.


For the bottom bracket, put the wrench at 90° and push down. Again, do that on both sides.