Is that why his location says Sendai, Japan? Dawes-Man the OP is also indicated as being in Japan..

No, his location says Sendai because that's where he is. But he came from Canada. I don't use the word "from" to mean the word "in."

Never mind, you didn't get it....

Do It Yourself. When I arrived here in 1993, these retailers were few and far between. But the collapse of the Japan bubble really started biting in the early 90's and a whole new service industry was ready to be created. Ten years later the country was well-supplied with urban, suburban, even country-side outlets for all sorts of tools, materials, workwear, electrical supplies and so on. Tradesmen often use these places too. For my purposes, I like the Japanese stores better than say Home Depot.

Sendai is on the east coast about 360 Km from Tokyo. It is a port, education center and regional capital with about one million people. My home town is Vancouver B.C. — not Washington;) Dawes-man lives in Tokyo. I like Tokyo, and I used to work there, but I seldom get there these day because the round trip by train is over $200.

I've had a really nice day, today, going first to the engineering works that I've taken BMW motorcycle heads to have valve work done on a couple of times. The owner is a really nice guy - I took a rusty 1948 Sturmey Archer hub to him a couple of weeks ago coz I couldn't get the end-ring off no matter how much I hit it with a hammer and large screwdriver. It's an old, well established family business with an earth floor and lots of really old benches, vises and green-painted lathes, drills and stuff. To secure the flange of the hub he belted the arm of the ancient vise a couple of times with an equally old heavy hammer. It undid and he told me there was no charge.

I showed Mr Kondoh (the same family name as Yoshio Kondo, or 3Rensho fame) the pedal to see if there was anything he could do. I told him the suggestion offered in this thread of using grinding compound in the assembled pedal and an electric drill and he reckoned it was the best and only thing to try. I've bought the grinding paste and got a good supply of ball bearings (see next paragraph) and will try that in the next week or so.

From Kondoh Nainenki, the engineering works, I went to the bearing shop I mentioned before to see what might be possible, a 10 minute ride along the same road. I hadn't been there for 4 years or so but it was unchanged. A tiny shop stacked ceiling to floor with boxes and boxes of bearings, races and loose steel balls. There are 2 desks piled with orders and stuff and narrow spaces between the piles of bearings, just big enough to pass if you walk sideways. I showed him the pedal, told him it was 65 years old and asked if he could think of any kind of bearing the pedal could be modified to accept. After kindly admiring the pedal, he told me that it would only be possible if the pedal was bigger, that there weren't any bearing they sold which were small enough.

I also asked if they had different grades of balls but apparently they only sell the best quality available. I explained that I needed some softer balls to grind to cups with and after I told him the size he got a box out and started using a plastic spoon to heap some into a plastic bag. Handing me a bag of around 200 balls, he refused payment, saying 'they were cheap and it wasn't worth charging for so few. When you need a real quantity, we'll charge you.' Very nice of him. Both he and Mr Kondoh brought a smile to my face today, a smile I would have missed had it not been for this pedal. Same goes for all the advice that has been offered to me on in this forum. Thank you bicycles!!

Wow, that sounds like such a fun day!

So now you're about to try the paste and spinning the spindle?

+1 .
C&V is a great pastime, and this forum is a great place to hang out.

That's the plan. Problem is, working out how to attach a spindle to a hand drill. The crank is slotted to I guess I can put the pedal in a vice and use a screwdriver bit in the drill. Otherwise, the threaded end is too big to fit in the drill...

Congrats on your find Dawes-man! I just love peering in the doors of the old style Japanese workshops. I would really like to do some mono-chrome photography in Kondoh machine shop! Q: What kinjou/neigborhoods were you in to find these places?

Chances are that the bearing shop would have 7/32 balls to overhaul Campy hubs. Maybe I could swing by there the next time I head for Narita and a plane. It would surly be worth treating them to a box of biscuits if they would not accept payment for a few balls.

Be sure to get back to us about what turns out — for good or indifferent! I'm sure I speak for all those following the thread — we are very curious and full of anticipation.

I left this thread hanging while I was busy on other projects but I did do some work on the pedal cones and bearing surfaces with good results and I'm back to report on it.

In the end, I went for the idea aixaix and Unworthy1 suggested, of grinding the bearing surfaces with abrasive paste.

I assembled the pedal with new steels balls and 120 grade compound instead of grease and turned the spindle in the same way you do when you grind valves, by turning it back and forth a few time, then turning the spindle an eigth of a turn and then repeating the back and forth movement a few times and then turning and so on. At the end of 5 minutes I took the pedal apart and after cleaning the paste off, found the balls were all dull with the chrome worn off:
[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5269/...a7768cd7ec.jpg
IMG_6215 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

The bearing surfaces were all a dull grey. I renewed the balls and compound and repeated the process. The 3rd and 4th times I used 320 grade instead and ended up with a lighter grey finish to the bearing surfaces.

To show the difference I am reposting the original photos with the after photos to show the difference:

[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/...1594b740e9.jpg
R0012195 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2283/...145ae149ce.jpg
IMG_6210 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5136/...7596dc21d2.jpg
R0012193 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3516/...6248ceeb59.jpg
IMG_6213 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/...2f521e525c.jpg
R0012194 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/...6857df99f5.jpg
IMG_6212 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5059/...8d3fdfdfb6.jpg
R0012191 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3496/...4002c28d11.jpg
IMG_6214 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Since the grinding I've assembled the pedal with new balls and fresh grease and they are much improved and most importantly usable in that condition. However, I have just taken the pedal apart again, partly in order to take these last photos but also to fit a new cone that I found. The cone is the part that showed least improvement. I might grind them once more with a finer compound before reassembly. The seller sent me the new spindles and cones he promised me but I will keep them for future use.

Whether the bearing surfaces were hardened or not is unsure. If they were, and this grinding has removed the hardened surface, I guess I'll know soon enough after some use. They should get rough again pretty quickly if they were.

Thank you all again for your kind suggestions...

I am sure that all of us will appreciate updates in regards to how they stand up to use. IMHO ... with good lubrication, and given the relatively low rotation rate, you will probably get away with what you have for a very long time. The original wear and galling was probably the result the result of dried out or washed out grease. But then you would know about that because presumably you were the one who dismantled them. What was the state of the lubricant when you tore them down? (I have reviewed most of the thread).

As you say, I think it will be a while before I see any change in them but I will update when I do.

The grease in the pedal was new and very sticky - stickier than anything I've ever seen before. I'm sure whoever put it in did so in order to hide the worn bearing surfaces, which it did very well. I take every old part apart before I use them and I was surprised at the poor state of the surfaces. Assembled with my normal grease they were horrible.

Well, thanks for posting this! I see that the grinding has taken something that had been close to ruined and made them quite acceptable. Hopefully they'll last a good long time.

I would think that any cone designed for 7/32 balls with the same threading ought to work... right? I mean, there is only one radius that will match that ball size. And I would further think that if (when) I run into this problem with my Atom 700s, I'm going to see about having the cups metal-sprayed and reground. Maybe. Cost is a factor, but how much are a set of 700s with no rust and fresh surfaces really worth these days? Besides, if it's worth it to me then I suppose it's worth it. It doesn't have to make money to make sense.

If anyone is still watching this space, I've been using these pedals for around 4 months now, and in that time have covered something in the region of 200 miles.

Early days, sure, but so far they've been fine. I was thinking about them today as I was standing to get up a longish hill near where I live. They are on my single speed Rotrax so get stood on every hill I go up.

Having in mind to update this thread, when I dismounted I turned the pedal by hand and it felt smooth with no discernible difference from the one on the opposite side, which is untouched apart from having fresh balls and grease back in February.

I didn't see this thread when it first came around, but wish I had.
I also have some badly pitted pedals and when researching what I could do to restore them, I came across Stronglight's photo on flickr.
If you go to the flickr page, there is an explanation on rescuing this Campy hub.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stronglight/3544459257/

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2463/3...bf401c4a_b.jpg

I bought some Ofmega pedals on ebay, but when I opened them up they were completely rusted and heavily pitted.
I decided to try grinding down the surfaces, as I had nothing to loose since they were unusable in there current state; I had to remove quite a bit of metal.
I have 500-700 miles on the rebuilt pedals and they are still spinning fine. I will open them up soon to check the condition.
I didn't take any photos during the reconditioning or after the process, but have a few "before" pics.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=327010http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=327011http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=327012

And here's an old thread on the mechanics forum showing how the OP did his. Pretty neat stuff, this saving old gear like this.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...urfacing-Cones

Dawes-man, I've read with iterest your pedal saga. I appreciate your efforts to rescue old parts, although I suspect that in this case the journey has been more important than the actual destination. But in the end you have a beautiful, expensive grail bike wearing a pair of trashed-out or at best barely serviceable pedals. If you have the money for 2 Hetchins' and a Rotrax and intend to ride them, get serious and put some good parts on them. I'm not trying to offend but dude, those bikes deserve it.

I'm not offended… well, I'm not sure about being called 'dude' :50:… but I think your point of view raises a few interesting questions, about vintage cycling and what constitutes value.

I have other pedals I could use, some of them NOS, including a pair of Phillips Credulux, which some regard as the best quality English pedal of the period, bar none. I think I even have a pair of the same pedals NOS that I bought just after the I started the renovation described in this thread, when I was unsure my efforts were going to come to anything. I prefer to use these, though. It impresses me that although they're around 60 years old they still spin smoothly and do the job they were designed to do. That being the case, why would I bin them?

You're wrong about the journey being more important. It's definitely the destination, to have a part that I can use, but the knowledge that it is useable due to my own efforts adds to the pleasure of the journey thus made possible. There is also a refusal to go along with throw-away consumerism that to me the very preference for these vintage machines represents, for they are from the end of the period in our history when things were made to be rebuilt rather than thrown away in favour of the new.

I can't deny that to some the machines in my collection are regarded as 'grail' bikes but I wonder if the people for whom that is so would regard problems with such machines as desirable. The BB shell on my Thanet Silverlight has somehow enlarged, by less than a millemetre but enough to allow the Bayliss-Wiley oil-bath BB unit turn in it with the result that after around 10 miles it all comes loose making the bike unrideable. It's been unrideable for the last year or two while I tried to figure out what to do. In the end an engineering friend, who works for Honda Motorcycles R&D, suggested I use calendar paper to shim the shell, apparently a well known engineering solution as you simply roll the paper up and cut bits off the end until you get just the right thickness. Hey presto! I'd spent several hours looking for brass shim stock, buying it, cutting it, trying it and finding it too thin or too thick but common or garden paper from a calendar works. Should I find and use a period calendar or will one from the local supermarket do? That is partly humourous but partly a serious question, posed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (I think, as I only ever got half-way through the book). For me, any old calendar will do.

The Rotrax has a few little dents in the top tube. Sometimes I wish it didn't, most of the time I don't think about it and often when I do I see them as signs of its use and abuse and castigate myself for being so f'ing precious on the occasions I let them bother me. The grail aspect of the machines I own are not even a tiny part of their attraction to me. When I bought my first 'expensive' frame, the Hetchins Magnum Opus, it was mainly the lugs that attracted me. At that time I had never seen a Hetchins in the metal but I had been interested by Sheldon Brown's description of his being a nicely riding bike. I also liked the curved rear triangle, which sort of reminded me of the art in the days of LSD. The thing that tipped it for me was that it was a large frame, a 24½", and they are uncommon. I thought that if I passed this one up another might never come my way again. So far, I've been right.

I don't think it's a question of money or the frame being 'worth it'. The Hetchins MO frame cost me around $1,300 and is fitted with a $25 pair of modern MKS Sylvan pedals. They replaced some of my favourite pedals, a pair of Lyotard 460D when the spindle of one snapped with potentially fatal results. The Lyotards cost me about $30, IIRC. The Rotrax frame cost less than half what the Hetchins cost. The rent on the lock-up garage where we keep our motorcycles and some of our bicycles costs almost what the Rotrax cost me, but every month of the year. The pedals cost around $85, not including the time and energy I put into renovating the right hand one, far more expensive than any other pedals I've ever bought.

That makes perfect sense!