pedal alignment?
 

I have a Jamis Citizen 2002 that I like a lot. But I notice that the right pedal seems to be slightly bent, in that the pedal itself is slightly angled outward. You can see it in the image below, taken looking down on the pedal. Not sure how that happened. Looks like it would have to have been run over by a truck, but ...

To the extent that something bent the pedal arm, I'd like to try to bend it back. (Ideally without running it over with a truck!)

The question is, how does one remove the pedal arm from the bike? There appears to be a keyhole of some sort, surrounded by hex flats. See second image. How does one take off the pedal? What's the keyhole for?

I guess I might have to just buy a new pedal assembly, but I still need to get the thing off!

Your pedal itself looks OK, but the crank arm is bent. Back in the day of steel crank arms we'd straighten these by removing the pedal (RH thread on right pedal, Left thread on left pedal) slipping a pipe over the arm and straightening it on the bike in 3 seconds.

Unfortunately aluminum cranks aren't as ductile, and can be very unforgiving of this kind of abuse. Breaking a crank is never fun; they break at inopportune times, usually at the moment of maximum load, and can cause serious injury in the form of a gash from the sharp broken end, broken ankles, or legs when the foot slams into the ground. Since there's no way of predicting if or when a straightened crank will snap, sane people don't straighten them.

A complete new crank with chainrings attached can be had fairly cheaply, but most shops tend to only sell models of a higher range then yours. If there's a local bike co-op in your town that's your best bet.

If it did get bent , by pedal hitting the ground, typically, replace
rather than snap off the aluminum crank ,
Does not look like prestige level parts, LBS can replace the crankset,
since I sense You do not own all the required tools.

Thank you. Yes, I should have said "crank".

I really don't have a clue about how it got bent in the first place, but it was probably when the bike was borrowed sometime. My thinking is that if one can bend it (by running a truck over it?) out of alignment, it ought to be possible to bend it back. But you're right, doing that on aluminum is risky. I've snapped aluminum rods by bending them, and it's pretty exciting. I might try it, though I would wrap it in some foam or fabric first for protection.

So, you're saying, "back in the day" you'd straighten them by removing the pedal, rather than the crank? Interesting. Have to think about how to restrain the bike frame while doing this.

You remove the pedal so that it is out of the way and you can get a better grip on the crank. If it is bent, you can usually feel it as you pedal. Your foot will feel like it's rocking side to side.

Using the pipe on a steel crank, you'd do it at 12 o'clock, and holding the bike as a fulcrum works fine.

I reiterate my warning about not doing it with an alloy crank. If you check my posts, you'll see that I'm not one that offers warnings casually. I'm usually then guy saying it's OK to ride.

But straightened aluminum cranks pose a serious risk of breakage, and the outcomes can be far worse than a cut on the ankle. The crank lets go when you have full weight on the pedal, and it's like when Lucy swipes the football away. Your foot will slam into the ground with enough force to damage foot and ankle bones or knee ligaments. Unless you're an experienced rider you'll lose control of the bike, possibly swerving into traffic, or simply dumping the bike.

Do my "Don't do it" isn't typical CYA boilerplate. It's a serious warning, that you'd be wise to heed. see a local dealer or bike co-op for a cheap crank.

OK, folks. Mission accomplished. I removed the pedal, pushed a pipe over the crank and bent it back. I think I got it right by matching the distance between the end of the crank on that side to the down tube with that on the other side. At least it's symmetrical now, and it feels a LOT better. The lesson here is that it's really not that hard for the crank to have gotten bent. Maybe it wasn't a truck that ran over it. Many thanks! The crank was VERY springy throughout the bending process, so I'm guessing that it's not cracked outright.

I take seriously your warning that the strength of the crank may be compromised, and I'll start looking for a replacement. This is not for racing, so if Lucy pulls the ball away, it probably won't be a disaster. I may give it a few whacks with a hammer to see if it fractures.

The reason it bent back so easily was likely that it was seriously weakened either before the original bend or when the bend occurred. Bending it back has weakened it further. Any LBS likely has a $30 replacement that will not likely send you under a dump-truck/

FWIW, just because you aren't racing doesn't mean a failure would be less serious - roads are usually blocked off for racing and a fall to the pavement ends when you hit the pavement. A fall to the pavement in front of a bus end when the third or fourth sets of axles run you over.

Points noted. But it certainly wasn't "easy" to bend it back. I wrestled with it for fifteen minutes, measuring the distance to the down tube after each wrestle. It got closer and closer to where I wanted it to be. No question that it if were "easy" to bend it back, the alloy would have been fractured. Will head for the LBS.

How easy will it be to find a replacement? That is, the crank has to put the pedal at the same distance from the down tube as the one on the other side. Is that distance standard? Is the connection going to be the same? (I still don't know what that keyhole is about.) Hard to believe the LBS is going to have an extra Jamis crank on hand.

My Late father, the machinist, took a couple pedal taps , I borrowed from my Job.
and made a pedal spindle straightening bar for me ..

the process: screw the pedal into one end of the bar,
and put the pedal in the bench vise .. spinning the bar, it wobbles ..
lean on the end of the bar until the wobble is as little as possible.

Easier than you imagine, except that you need to go to a "blue collar" bike shop that fixes low and mid end bikes, not to a high end pro shop. Jamis didn't make the crank, they made the bike, or more precisely, had a frame made, and assembled a bunch of standard parts onto it.

You probably won't find an exact match, but will find something functionally equivalent. IF you don't, PM me, I probably have something comparable, but you'll need to either buy a few tools or visit the local shop to have it installed.

As I said earlier, your best bet is a bike co-op where you'll not only find inexpensive parts, but will be shown how to do this job, and others yourself. Otherwise, the next bet is a bike shop specializing in basic bikes and repairs, aka a fixit shop.