Hello, first time posting here.
I work part time at a gym, maintaining and repairing the exercise bikes among other things.
Twice now, I have had to replace a bikes pedal after the axle casing was seemingly “torn open”.
Around the hole the metal has turned soft and sticky like putty or oil, really strange.
Both times it was just the left pedal, two different bikes, months apart.
The pedals we use are Shimano E-PDM520.
Unsure what the cause could be, these bikes get used a lot, but have nothing similar on any other bike so far.
Anyone seen anything like this before?
by Drassof
6 Comments
How old are they. They do not look very well taken care of.
Never seen that. Are you using real Shimano cleats? I can imagine some rando cleat putting pressure on the casing.
Also, that seems like a lot of corrosion on the end for an exercise bike. Perhaps excessive sweat drippage has an effect.
Judging by the rust on pedals that are used indoors, your clientele’s sweat is corrosive
The PMD520 are well renowned as being one of the most reliable pedals on the market.
On most bikes they can go years of long hard miles with zero maintenance without dropping a beat. If they do start getting rough – they’re easily serviced and will usually be good for another 5-10 years without issue.
That said – there’s always exceptions and indoor training is particularly hard on bikes. People tend to get on indoor bikes with the intention of going hard. They sweat a lot. That sweat doesn’t blow away in the breeze, it falls, pools and corrodes any metal it touches.
Given these are pretty low-cost components – I’d just chalk it up to reasonable maintenance to replace them when they die. The alternative is trying to rinse the salt off at the end of every day and then drying the pedals as best you can – which sounds like far more effort than its worth for a gym with multiple bikes. Especially as it won’t stop the corrosion, just slow it down.
Three years on spin bikes? Get an account with a parts supplier and replace them one a year, these pedals don’t owe you anything and they are pretty cheap.
This isn’t sweat related, 30 times a week 45 minutes each time is a significant amount of time, also not using the same cleats each time… as cleats and the metal components wear the cleat will sit down further into the pedal and rub a bit, eventually leading to this.
Also a frustrated spinner (they usually all are) will quite often kick at the pedal when they can’t get their foot in, which could also cause this damage.
The fact the spindle is completely rusted and the pedals don’t spin too well any more, that’s because of sweat.