? The Joys of 3 Speeds | Main | I'm back! ?
May 19, 2005
Remove the cottered crankarms
I am stuck. It's two days before the British 3-Speed ride and my bike is in pieces and I'm not even close to being done. I can't overhaul the crankset and bottom bracket until I get the cotter pins out. The cotterpins won't come out with a punch and a hammer. Besides that, here is a quote from my bicycle repair book, "Whatever method you use (to remove them), plan on buying new cotters because the removal process usually damages the originals." I wish I would have read that a few weeks ago but I didn't think this would be such a problem. Tomorrow I'm going to see if the bike shop has a cotter-pin press and new cotters. If not, I go to plan B, which is to borrow a 3 speed for the weekend.
I cleaned and repacked the bearings in the headset and scrubbed the rust and grease off the chain. The nice black pedals I bought were the wrong size, so tomorrow I have to find different ones.
I like problems like these because I learn a lot from mistakes and challenges. The great part is, I took Friday off from work so I can work on bikes all day and I'll be ready with something on Saturday morning.
Posted by carl1236 at May 19, 2005 11:59 PM | Bicycle Restoration
Comments
You like problems like these? Right before your ride? You masochist!
You might try heat to loosen those cotter pins. Apply heat to what the cotter pin goes through and try to keep the heat off the pin. I assume the pins go through the cranks? Those should be able to take a lot of heat, wouldn't you think?
Okay, a little googling got me something it doesn't sound like you've seen as of this post.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cotters.html
Some more here:
http://www.sizes.com/tools/cotter_pins.htm
Good luck! It sure would be preferred if you could ride *your* bike on the ride, eh?
Posted by: nathan at May 20, 2005 09:35 AM
I'm sure you know this, but The Hub has a self-help shop you can use for about $5/hour. I go there instead of buying tools I don't use often.
Posted by: Mark at May 20, 2005 11:07 AM