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Hi,
The previous owner of my bike was an absolute monster of a bike mechanic and every bolt on the bike is much tighter than I would expect.
My bottom bracket is starting to squeak after 1000 miles so time to take the cranks off and re grease the bottom bracket and cranks.
Massive 10mm Allen key 50kg wife standing on the cranks and is cannot shift this bolt.
I've slathered all the bits I can get at in WD40 over night and it's still stuck.
Hope video shows someone effortlessly undoing this bolt.
Any suggestions?
Breaker bar?
more wd40?
Penetrating oil?
Thanks for.any suggestions!
The danger (as will another thread) is that as you increase the force so you increase the risk of rounding off the bolt head. A longer lever and/or a heavier wife might help but I guess that you also don't know the state of the bolt (did they use anti-seize or has it corroded or galled in place).
I have heard of folk who clamp the tool into a vice and rotate the frame, but this might be too unwieldy.
I'm not sure I can rotate my whole bike round my vise.
Would that not have the same possibility of rounding the bolt off as a longer Allen key?
I would suggest a breaker bar. The other thing I have done is use an old toe clip strap to clamp the crank arm to the chainstay so you can then focus on the bar and not having to try and resist the crank arm rotating
Heat? hot water poured on/ around the bolt may help, although a carbon frame won't like that
Just had a quick look at Hope's tech. documents and the required torque for those bolts is 50Nm, which is fairly hefty even if the previous owner hasn't overcooked it. Even if the bolt's free I think it'll require a reasonable amount of heft.
I have some hex heads on 3/4" sockets which are handy for snapping into my cheap Draper breaker bar (I'd guess it was about 60cm long). Hopefully the bolt's free to move (not seized) and you just need to get it moving.
More wd40/plusgas ,breaker bar and someone standing on the other arm.
You want a good fitting Allen key sockets thing, it’s a bit of a meh but it’s probably only a teeny little bit more leverage that you need for that happy crack note to happen 🙂
Ive done these before and they can be a bit giggly to undo.
I have heard of folk who clamp the tool into a vice and rotate the frame, but this might be too unwieldy.
This works.
I've loosened off BB cups(old style) that the usual BB tool and large spanner couldnt shift.
Clamped the tool in the vice, placed the bike on top and it turned far more easily.
Works especially well with seized seatposts
Doesn't have a captive nut does it? Mine does on the e-bike and that flummoxed me until I worked it out.
Big block of wood under the pedal so the cranks cannot rotate then someone holding the bike down and use a breaker bar.
I’ve had this before, and rather than using a bigger lever, I tightened the Allen key against the crank arm by wrapping a piece of webbing around both and twisting it to tighten.
