gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Lyotard pedals failure. A bit frightening.

Christophe

Hi ! I was commuting yesterday with my 70 sthg interclub when suddenly the left pedal fell on the road. The splindle was broken at one -third of it's lenght. There had been no sign before, and I wasn't pedalling especially hard. Back home ( with one leg ...), I took the pedal off the crank. The axe has broken neatly, leaving a brittle and bright break. The model is a Lyotard, probably 460D.

Doing some google research, I came to his thread on bikeforum :
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-708797.html
The poster claims he's had three broken spindles, all at the same point, ll with Lyotard 460D pedals!

So, people, beware ! There seems to be something wrong with this model....
Has anyone encountered such a problem ? Are other Lyotard mdels made with the same steel spindle ?
I've put a pair of Atom 440 as a replacement, although they don't seem serviceable as the Lyotard. Are these considered trustable ?

Thanks for sharing info.

Frenchbuilt

Was the pedal loose on its bearings?

Christophe

No, it wasn't loose at all. I took both pedals apart, cleaned the balls and ball tracks, and added greased about six months ago. I've been careful to tighten the nuts just enough but not too much. They would turn freely without being loose.

Frenchbuilt

Interesting site:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/bicyclefailures/pool/

I have a set of these pedals on my bike but the center tube is seamless
and maybe stronger and so less flexing? ???

The tube on your pedals is opened up at the seam where axle came through and maybe this is a cheaper version of the pedal including axle quality.

Dan

Christophe

You're right , there's a seam, and there's one too on my Lyotard 136 . It may have been a factor for failure, but if you look at the pics posted in the Bikeforum thread, you'll see that the tubes were seamless. It didn't prevent the spindles from breaking.

Frenchbuilt

Saw the pictures and looks (too me) like over stressed. Anyway, these things are some 40 years old and having flexed alot during those years and with a life span which was probably calculated for only several years, its normal that some break. Maybe they even knew back then that there were bad batches of axles or a design problem but this is lost to history???

My axles have full hex flats to tighten on to the crank. This is more expensive to make than just two flats so perhaps there are differences in axle quality.

And, I think that when this stuff was designed, people were smaller and weighed less. I read somewhere that this generation of French kids are 15 cm taller than the last generation. So more weight on parts that may have been originally tested for less load???

Who knows but stuff breaks all the time.

Dan

Dan

Christophe

For sure, these things are old and maybe weren't meant to last that long. I would add they were " made in France " .....
This being said, it seems that spindle failure has been reported more often on this particular model, with similarities in the way the spindles broke.
Well, with thousands pedals sold and four failure reports, it still can be considered " a rare event ".
If your pedals have an hexagonal hole for allen wrench, I guess they have an international thread 9/16 x 20 tpi. Mine are french threaded 14 x 1,25 mm, and it makes the search for a good replacement more exiting.

FORDSVTPARTS

I've seen that same break on old lyotards on other forums, I had a set of 460Ds on my bike but the left side pedal clicked all the time no matter how I adjusted it so off they came.

verktyg

The Lyotard 460 (steel) and 460D (alloy) pedals were in production from the 1940s until Lyotard went out of business in the 1980s.

They were wide light weight pedals designed for touring rather than the narrow quill type pedals used for racing.

They were the pedal of choice for many cyclocross riders as well as randoneurs too.

We sold these pedals for around $8.00 retail in the 1970s. They probably cost us about $4.00 a pair wholesale.

I started using Lyotard 460D pedals in the mid 70s and even mounted them on GASP! Campy cranks!!! I also used them for off road riding.

I used to regularly bend the spindles hitting rocks and so on when I used them off road.

I probably have about 20 sets of these pedals (wide 10 1/2 EEE feet).

When I was working on bikes in the 70s, 1000s of bikes equipped with Lyotard pedals past through our shop. Most of them were the model 36 steel rat trap pedals but the design was basically the same.

Over the past 40 years I only recall seeing a handful of Lyotard pedals of any model with broken spindles. On the other hand, I saw a lot more holey sacred Campagnolo pedals with broken spindles.

That said there are several things to consider.

These were cheap replaceable pedals designed to be changed out when anything went wrong with them.

Most performance bike components up through the late 70s were designed for 125 to 150 pound riders. Consequently, stronger, heavier riders were/are more likely to experience equipment failures on older components.

If you look at some of my posts I always recommend regularly checking older components for signs of wear or cracking especially bars and stems.

Breaking a pedal spindle while riding can be a catastrophic event with no warning of the failure. Any sign that a pedal isn't spinning smoothly should be carefully checked out.

The inner bearing races are integral to the spindles on most pedals. If the race is worn, it could result in failure in another part of the spindle.