Bike Pedal Keeps Falling Off? (Beginners Guide)
Imagine going on a race with fellow bikers, and you always have to stop at intervals because your bike pedals keep falling off.
How do you handle a situation like that? It’s certainly not a good experience, especially when you have something urgent to do.
Apart from that, it’s not safe to have pedals falling off your bike. What if you hurt yourself in the process? What if you’re on a lonely path? Why does my bike pedal Keep falling off?
Bike pedals keep falling off because you’re not paying attention to details. After all, it probably has given you signs before it gets this bad. Your pedal might be loose, with damaged thread, worn-out screws, broken pedals, and a damaged base.
Reasons Your Bike Pedals Keep Falling Off
Experiencing a constant fall of your bike pedals is caused by at least one or more of the abovementioned reasons.
One can only tell if it’s this problem or that problem when you check it out to see for yourself. The following are reasons your bike pedals keep falling off;
Damaged threads could cause this. These threads are the point of contact between the pedal and crank arm.
Therefore, there are two types of pedal thread damage, including minor damage, especially when the threads need cleaning or have been cross-threaded.
The second damage is for crank threads that are worn out. They do not need cleaning; rather, they need to be fixed.
What causes a thread to strip is cross-threading the pedals when fixing the pedals.
It means when installing a pedal on an angle, the pedal threads pass over the crank thread, which ruins the thread on the crank.
Another reason is not tightening the pedal well when installing. When the pedals are loose, it slightly moves around the crank threads causing them to get damaged.
When your pedals are loose, they will fall off. Bike Pedals loosen up occasionally, especially those that use a wrench to tighten them up onto an axle.
However, this doesn’t mean you should tighten it so much. If you do so, they might lock up because they’re too tight.
The screws could cause your bike pedals to keep falling off. When the pedal screws become worn out or damaged, it’s difficult to grip, so it can’t function well.
It is also an issue because a damaged screw means your pedals would fall off. When this happens, try to fix it as soon as you notice it to avoid further embarrassment.
Sometimes the whole bike pedals aren’t the issue. Instead, it might just be a problem from the base of the pedals.
In this case, the top of your bike pedals seems okay, but it’s still falling off; this could only mean a problem with one of both surfaces on the base of the pedal.
Why Does My Bike Pedal Keep Falling Off?
A bike Pedal falling off is quite terrifying. Apart from the scary part of this, it’s also dangerous.
The best thing to do is to avoid such situations by taking precautions. Always check your bike to see if it’s in good working condition.
If your bike Pedal Keeps falling off, it’s mostly due to the crank threads being taken out.
This action would leave the pedal on its own, having nothing holding it back. Hence, a frequent fall-off occurs.
To prevent this, ensure you do it straight while trying to install the pedals, not force it.
Then, again, install the right pedals at the correct places; for instance, the left pedal on the left side and vice versa.
Furthermore, you might be experiencing this because you haven’t checked to see if your screw is tight enough.
Screws are meant to hold, but what happens when it’s no longer doing the work? For screws to be damaged, they’ve stayed for a long time or were not fixed properly, and you should always check to see.
When your bike’s Pedals are broken, they will fall off. You might not notice they’re broken. It might happen when you hit it on a hard surface like a stone.
There are a lot of situations where the pedals are broken when hit hard; this would cause a fall off your bike.
How To Fix a Bike Pedal Arm That Fell Off?
You’ll need a 15mm wrench, an Allen key, a screwdriver, and a crank extractor.
To fix the pedal arm, also called the crank arm, you don’t need to call the Mechanic if you pay attention to the following steps;
- Place the right crank on the spindle facing downwards. Where washers are available, put them before the spindle before installing the cranks. Next, push the crankset’s right side to the spindle’s right side, rolling the chain on the crank’s chainring. It is done this way so it falls between the crankset and the bike.
Also, ensure you reel the chain so it runs over the bike’s back gears and the crankset chainring.
- Jolt the left arm of the crank arm, pushing it to the spindle. But, if you notice that any side isn’t going down the spindle, push it with a soft mallet.
- At this point, you’ll need your crank bolts. First, fix them back to their sockets. Afterward, screw the crank bolts in using an Allen key. It will help if you continue turning the bolts clockwise till you can’t go any further.
- But if the crank bolts come with a plastic compression cap, put the cap on the bolt’s center and push it down into its place. Then, tighten this cap to the suggested torque, about 5 Neuton meters. Again, if pinch bolts are in the crank, turn them clockwise to make it firm and keep the crank on the bike.
- Screw in the pedals to the crank arm. The easiest way to pedal back to the crank arm is to turn the crank counterclockwise. Then, do the same on the bike’s other side. Keep screwing in the pedals until it’s tightly fixed.
Conclusion
That’s all about bike pedals, why they keep falling off, how to avoid them and how to fix them. If you’re a biker or know a biker and any of these come up, you know how to handle it.
Don’t forget, a regular bike inspection would save you a lot of stress.
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