As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have to dot about various places for work, and try to take my hardtail when I can. Got my system pretty much down-pat with my ancient DHB bike bag. (that refuses to die, can’t justify a Evoc one… yet!).

The one buggery thing that always has me googling, holding my phone upside down etc is taking off the bloody pedals. Sometimes bike is on a stand right way up (at home), sometimes its upside down resting on bars/saddle (in hotels).

This simple process, esp when upside down and park tools website instructions are for right way up, is simply something that brain cannot cope with. Really, I just stand there with brain matter dribbling out my ears and slack look on my face.

So – any tips? for the love of god, help me – when the bike is upside down, which way do I undo the pedals, and what system can you advise me to remember!

ta muchly you beautiful, lovely bunch
xx

Wrench on/in upwards, move it towards the back of the bike.

EDIT : you said upside down. Wrench handle towards the saddle, move towards the back of the bike.

When you’re putting them on, you can use the chain to hold the cranks still still tighten the pedals against it.

Removing it’s the opposite! So if you’re ‘removing’ the pedals by pulling against the tension in the chain you’re doing it wrong! Turn the way that would slacken t(e chain and make the free hub back-pedal if you let the cranks turn.

For a bike sitting on its wheels, it’s pedal to the front, wrench to the rear, press down. I usually use my foot.

Reverse if the bike is upside down. I reckon it’s always better to be pressing the wrench down than pulling it up.

Left is right

Right is wrong

To undo always turn towards back of bike. Simples.

Hold the spanner still, horizontally, and back-pedal (wheel not moving) to tighten. Same but pedal forwards (wheel moving) to loosen.

🤩😳🤯

Foot on pedal & pull up on allen key/wrench.

Can I just remind folks about the question:
When the bike is upside down, sitting on handlebars and saddle…

For a bike sitting on its wheels, it’s pedal to the front, wrench to the rear, press down.

This.

Left is right, Right is wrong

Er, no, that’s BBs. Right hand pedal is right hand thread, left half pedal is left hand thread. BB is Bloody Backwards.

Handedness of the thread doesn’t change when you turn the bike upside down…

As above, RH pedal is RH thread, LH pedal is LH thread. When you turn the bike upside down, the sides of the bike are reversed.

For a RH thread, point your right thumb along the axis of the bolt or pedal axle in the direction you want it to go (i.e. towards the outside of the bike to remove a pedal) and curl your fingers. You turn the spanner in the direction your fingers are pointing. For a LH thread, you do the same thing with your left hand.

Handedness of the thread doesn’t change when you turn the bike upside down…

Exactly! But the left pedal is now on the right 😆

Crank side is normal thread. That’s all you have to remember innit.

Gets complicated when you have allen key from the back, and spanner from the front.
I never do my pedals up really tight, so can feel straight away if I’m going the wrong way. A gentle push will either undo it or tighten it.

When you turn the bike upside down, the sides of the bike are reversed.

Well, they’re not. But if you think they are, simply look at the bike from the front* and hey presto, problem solved 🙂

* If you find that turning the bike upside down also turns the front into the back then put the spanners down and get an adult to help 😉

We talking northern or southern hemisphere?

Ah, yes, be sure to check that your cranks don’t have Coriolis threads 🙂

Bike upside down, crank arms facing backwards & upwards at 45 degrees, allen key in pedal, level & facing forwards towards the front axle. Push allen key down.

Ah, good point Dez B- yes, its Allen key from the back, which you are utterly and totally correct in stating adds another left right up down flip flop variable…

I’ve got a huge smile on my face reading all the responses, as what is playing out is exactly my internal monologue each time… hilarious 😆

For a bike sitting on its wheels, it’s pedal to the front, wrench to the rear, press down. I usually use my foot.

This +1, heel of the foot when your foot is on the pedal

If the bike is upside down, turn it the right way up and use above method

Why don’t you just get some small, plain, vinyl stickers and a fine permanent marker, and stick them on the back of each crank arm to show two arrows labelled “fit” and “remove”?

Or just one arrow saying “fit”. You’ll probably work out the rest 😉

I’m assuming nothing 🙂

I’m assuming nothing 🙂

Hahaha!

The way I remember it is thinking back to that Sideways Cycles Thursday night ride when my pedal bearing started to stiffen up and my pedal kept undoing itself and falling off.

They come off the same way a wheel would turn if you rolled your bike backwards. They screw on the same way as a wheel spins when the bike’s going forwards.

I’ve had various other methods, but the above seems to be almost completely idiot/hangover proof.

Well, they’re not.

Sure, if you take it literally instead of considering what words mean.

I always remember that you can do pedals up by backpedalling via a pedal spanner. So forwards pedalling to tighten. Easier with the back wheel in, to double check you’re doing it right.

If you can get things right when the bike is upright, I find a good way of visualising that when the bike is upside-down on the ground is to stand in front of the handlebars looking at the bike. It is like you just looped out of a wheelie and caught it – the handlebar on your right is the right handlebar, the one on your left is the left handlebar, same for pedals.

Sure, if you take it literally instead of considering what words mean.

Surely “considering what words mean” is literally “literally”? 🙂

So when you turn your bike upside-down you suddenly have a left hand drivetrain? No. It’s still on the right side of the bike. Just as when you look at an upright bike from the front, the right side of the bike is still where it was, even though from your viewpoint it’s on the left.

Your right hand is still your right hand when you do a bungee jump, because we take the reference point on nominal left/right sides as being the thing—bicycle, bungee jumper, whatever—they’re attached to, assuming that thing has some inherent orientation (ie you don’t have a left/right side of a football). If you use a viewpoint as the reference point, that’s completely transient and arbitrary and it makes it completely impossible to even talk about anything having a left or right side.

THIS IS WHY SOME PEOPLE NEED BOTH ARROWS ON THEIR STICKERS

😉

Why not just fit/remove the pedals when the bike is the right way up?

If I ever have to remove pedals with the bike upside down I find it easier to stand upside down too, that way it’s the same as if the bike was on its wheels.

Simon, I assume you’ve got one of those workshop mechanic’s caps that makes it easier to fit cranks while upside down?

As Tomhoward and philjunior said undoing is like pedalling backwards also i have it written on the spanner i use most often with a marker pen L undo Clock R undo Anti i guess if Left Right get complicated when you invert the bike then Chainring side and Crank only side?

Surely “considering what words mean” is literally “literally”?

Pedantically, yes, but real people use langauge to say what they think, not just talk about dictionaries.

Isn’t it the opposite way to bottom brackets?

If the bike is upside down then to undo the pedals you push the wrench down and towards the back for both sides.

Pedantically, yes, but real people use langauge to say what they think, not just talk about dictionaries.

Of course. You’re taking “what words mean” too literally 😉 …or at least too narrowly.

Context is everything. Left and right must always have a reference point, they’re entirely meaningless without it.

We each carry a reference point with us, of course: our vision. But that’s not the only one.

If a thing “has a left/right side” then the reference point is that thing (which must also have a natural top/bottom and front/back, otherwise it can’t have a left or right: a wine glass has no left/right because it has no front/back, and a reflector in a torch has no left/right because it has no top/bottom).

Evidently, some people struggle with the idea of objects have inherent/natural sides like this, and appear to resort to the left/right that are derived from their own viewpoint.

That doesn’t mean a bicycle doesn’t have a consistent left and right, it just means you struggle with a reference point other than your own.

But again, it seems odd that turning a bike upside down flips the sides for you, but presumably you don’t struggle the same way when you walk to the front of the bike. If you look at a right-hand drive car from the front I’m guessing you wouldn’t say the steering wheel was now on the left of the car, just as you wouldn’t if you found the car upside-down on its… well, presumably now it’d be it’s bottom, so… we… nope, it’s all broken.

If we always used only our own reference points we’d never be able to discuss anything without… well, all this 😀

I’m glad I came back to this discussion. It’s brilliant 😆

there are barnys all over the web about it!
But look what someone pictured

Wowza

So for allen keys – attach your marked spanner to the front of the pedal and follow the arrow direction!

With pedal level at 9&3, turn towards the frame. Can’t do it with the rear pedal as the frame is in the way.