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New Bike Day: Fitting Your Pedals


It’s new bike day, either you’re waiting for it to turn up, or you have it in your front room.

Whether you’re a seasoned rider wanting a reminder or a new cyclist who needs some help, we are here to support you. In that vein, we’ve written a few guides to get you started. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive guide, just to get you moving and comfortable on your new bike.

As always if we’ve missed something or if you need any further help, give us a call or an email on the contact form which you can find here and one of our team will be happy to help.

Continuing from our New Bike Guide, which you can find here. In these articles, we’re going to take a deep dive into some of the more important topics.

In this article, we'll be looking at how to fit your pedals. An easily overlooked topic, we'll give you a step-by-step guide to fitting your pedals to your new bike.

Step 1: Locate your pedals. Normally these will be a small box in the larger bike box.

Step 2: Find which one is left and right. This is normally stamped somewhere on the pedal body or axle. Sometimes you can tell by the shape.

Step 3: Grease the threads. This is so the pedals properly tighten and you can actually remove them.

Step 4: Screw the right-hand pedal in the right-hand crank (the side with the chain). Be gentle and do the first bit by hand if you can. If you feel any resistance stop and check. It's very easy to cross-thread the pedals and destroy your crank if you force it.

Step 5: Repeat for the left hand or brake side. Now, repeat the process for the left pedal (the brake side). Remember, the left pedal has a reverse thread, so it will tighten clockwise.

Step 6: Tighten up the pedals using an Allen key or a pedal spanner

Step 7: Make sure they are tight enough. 35-40nm if you have a torque wrench. Really tight with one hand if you don't

Step 8: Spin them around and admire your work!

Things you need:

Grease: Peaty's Bicycle Assembly Grease. Readily Biodegradable, long-lasting, low friction, performance bike grease.

Pedal Wrench: Park Tool PW-5 Home Mechanic Pedal Wrench. A compact and value for money 15 mm pedal spanner

Multitool: Park Tool Folding Hex Tool 3-6/8/10 mm. Compact, yet large enough to provide excellent leverage, features a 6mm and 8mm hex wrench for most pedal sizes.