Then why does an Italian crank using Italian for English lead you to believe they will use French for... French? Seems like there's an L and an R missing from that equation.


But I'm sure the French do that just to show their disgust for even having to make English threaded products. They aren't good enough for French abbreviations.

You know what's cheaper? Chasing the threads.

Speaking of cranks…

Anyhoots, we’re just saying that marking left or right in Italian doesn’t signify anything other than right and left.

Which was my point - if you were using language to denote thread, then the language wouldn't be one that doesn't have a pedal thread.


This thread is just another one that reminds me how hard people try to screw stuff up. If it wasn't someone suggesting forcing a steel spindle into soft aluminum threads, it would be someone suggesting barely tightening the steel spindle you're standing on into those soft aluminum threads. (And then acting like the super experienced mechanic is the fool in the thread.)

All advice is questionable I guess, so maybe you weren't being needlessly insulting to an esteemed member of the forum?

Makes me think Kontact hasn't assembled many Campy-equipped bikes. It might be different now, but when I was a mechanic ('70s-'80s), Campy pedals almost always fit really tight in Campy cranks. I believe it is a feature, not a bug. Nary a one of them ever stripped the crank threads, so the fear-mongering may be a tad overdone.

Thread clearances can vary quite a bit from one maker to another, but there's a strong correlation between tightness and cost, with the pricier ones being the tighter fit. I think a pedal that fits tight in the crank will experience less movement and the associated fretting, which is what causes cranks to break at the pedal hole. It's not an ideal design, but good enough for most people who aren't named Jobst.

Makes me think you missed the part about this thread being about Gipiemme cranks with likely French threads and MKS pedals. Not a single Campy part in sight. So the application of this Campagnolo-centric advice to a thread mis-match seems highly questionable.

I wonder where the esteem is coming from. He certainly has being rude mastered.

I remember his tirades about that. And he claimed he was not stronger than other riders, but who else broke cranks at his frequency?

Anyway, I went through this a fair bit when French-threaded pedals were still fairly common. You can probably force the pedals in. But you definitely can run taps through the cranks which converts the threads from French to English. If you don't want to buy the taps, bring the cranks (or bike) to a shop. They can do the job quickly for you, and it won't cost much. I rarely have to deal with this, but I have a pair of taps anyway, so maybe you should, too?

Is that the question? If his Gipiemme crankset is one of these two models, he has the chance of it having French threads?

btw, RustyJames, cool pedals!

As discussed multiple times in the thread.

I've never seen a TA crank with D or G. They usually have a W (for 9/16x20) or nothing.
The Stronglights I have either say 9/16x20 - or nothing.
I have Nervars with BSA stamped on them.

Thanks! I think the pedals are kinda nifty too and they are in extraordinarily good condition. I didn’t want anything to happen on my maiden voyage that would change that.

The TPI measurement on the pedals, which I believe to be original to the bike 40 years later, was done with a Mitutoyo thread pitch gauge and the measuring calipers aren’t fancy but have been confirmed to be very accurate compared to a 0-1” micrometer so I’m satisfied with that part of the equation.

Upshot of all of this, I screwed in the Suntour Cyclone pedals and I never had a thought that something was off. It didn’t take too much effort but more than getting the spindle threaded in by hand.

I wrote a bunch of other stuff that I deleted but I didn’t lose any sleep last night about my course of action.

And many thanks for the pm.

The few pics of Gipiemme cranks and pedals I see online that are French thread have "14x1.25" written on the arm or pedal axle.

To be clear: if there are D and G markings, that means the threading is French.

Stronglight arms can be marked with either thread spec:


Zeus marks BSC for English thread, unmarked are metric: