That's a great discovery, John!

I like Lyotard pedals which generally had often gotten a bad reputation from the cheapest "rat-trap" models which seemed to quickly rust and were the most common ones found on so many mid-range bikes of the 70s.

Lyotard used a few different axle sizes which could each be exchanged between several models. The quality of the axles never seemed to differ regardless of the price or quality of the pedals they were placed on.

The 45CA was a very light weight and decent quality pedal, and as you noticed they also came on TONS of 1970s French bikes. The alloy cages often became pretty mangled, but the guts remained in good condition. So that discovery is a very handy observation.

In the past, I'd saved a lot of the axles from the model 36 pedals. Those were the cheapest chromed steel models with a pressed steel shaft left with a visible seam. The chrome always rusted, but somehow the internals remained fine. I've made quite a few transplants by salvaging 9/16" axles onto metric French thread pedals.

In fact, later Lyotard pedal axles were commonly so carelessly manufactured (or was this really intentional?) that the thread size on the French and the British were often virtually the same and in fact almost a compromise between the two diameters. So, some folks have noticed that a US market pedal axle (marked L and R) may really be a bit loose on 9/16 cranks and may even fit snugly onto French 14 x .125 cranks with out damage - the thread pitch was extremely close anyway.