I have removed the crank bolts; several minutes of gentle tapping progressing up to belting the hell out of the crank arms with a rubber mallett won’t even shift them.

Am I missing something? Help please!

You need a crank puller

tool

Damn you swissies are good……

old skool innit! 🙄

Need a crank extractor:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=7329

Or middleburn do some neat self extracting crank bolts:
http://www.middleburn.co.uk/access_crankbolts.php

Funnily enough, a couple of days ago I overheard a guy chatting to his mate about a bike that came to the shop he works at (not sure which but seemed like halfords) with square taper cranks that needed removing, he didn’t once mention a crank extractor, did mention using a screwdriver, hammer etc. and then said ‘thank god for Hollowtech on new bikes, makes taking the crank off so much easier’… 🙁

you need an extractor tool of some sort, or Q/R bolts for all cranks, not just square taper.

Crank extractor assuming you don’t want to knacker anything. If you don’t care then take out the Allen bolts and ride it around a bit inc. standing on pedals and they’ll probably loosen enough to get off.

Where are you ononeorange? (can borrow if near)

Thanks everyone (apologies, my pc keeps dying).

I’m in South Chilterns (Jct 18 of M25) – that’s a really kind offer Tracker1972. It’s a pain that I don’t have a tool as I’m secrtetly building a bike (transferring parts) for Mrs ononeorange and was hoping to really get a lot done this weekend.

Would be kinder if you were closer to Chesterfield 🙂 You can get ones that use a couple of spanners, am sure most bike shops (including Halfords) carry them for a few quid.

I’ve one you can borrow – i’m not too far away (J16 M25)
e-mail me if needed.

Back in the day (…and not everyone may recommended it!), if I had to get my square taper cranks off, I’d remove the crank bolts and then pedal around for a bit until they came loose. Just an option 🙂

Thanks again.

4ags4 – you’ve got mail.

I’m not being funny ononeorange but if you didn’t know you need a crank extractor to take a SQ taper crank off what were you going to attempt afterwards?

Fair point Mr Overshoot. I plead guilty to the charge of being ham-fisted and inept.
In my defence, I’ve never touched SQ taper cranks before. I have always had Hollowtech and assumed that her old bike were the same. I then assumed you just tapped them off, which didn’t work….hence the post, following a lot of head-scratching in the garage. There must be a first time everyone has tried to remove them once. Do I get a reduced sentence?

The crank extractor works well, doesn’t it? Easy!

I’ve just managed to strip the threads out so can’t use a crank puller- will try this just riding around tip 🙁

“Back in the day (…and not everyone may recommended it!), if I had to get my square taper cranks off, I’d remove the crank bolts and then pedal around for a bit until they came loose. Just an option”

This works. Though it’s much more effective if you don’t actually know the crank bolts are missing, it takes ages if you’re doing it on purpose but they fall off instantly if you’ve just forgotten to fit them It makes sense just to loosen the bolt though, that way the crank will come loose without actually dropping off.

Usually so does a rubber mallet, though you have to hit the crank as close to the BB as possible to have any chance.

The

just riding around tip

will knacker the taper.

The

just riding around tip

will knacker the taper.

I know, but the BB’s knackered anyway. It’s a Deore drivetrain that I was running into the ground before converting it to singlespeed, which was today’s job before I stripped the threads! It’s annoying because I was going to use the cranks but everything else was headed for the bin anyway.

The steel axle on the knackered BB will come out of it fine, it’s the softer alloy of the cranks that’ll suffer.

Riding around didn’t work anyway, but turns out a mate has a gear puller which might do the trick.