I am a fan of MKS pedals, to say the least. Today, it is not easy to find a good, vintage looking set of pedals that are fully rebuildable and made from quality parts. Often, we find that "retro" pedals are cheap, and not rebuildable parts made for appearance rather than function. High-quality pedals are often modern looking and not an appropriate choice for a vintage project.
My choice for an affordable, but good quality and vintage looking road bike pedal is the basic MKS Sylvan Touring type pedal. These pedals will look appropriate on an older road bike, and can be serviced at home with just a few tools (the MKS dust cap removal tool is recommended, in addition to your usual wrenches).
The one place where I think the MKS pedals sometimes come up short is in the amount of grease used in the bearings, as provided from the factory. MKS uses a medium, clear grease that is of decent quality, but they don't seem to use very much of it. I prefer a generous amount of Lucas green grease, which is a common and affordable grease meant for bearings.
Above you can see the bearings of a Sylvan pedal straight from the box. Remember to use the proper tool to remove the MKS splined dust cap (channel locks and a rag can work in a pinch, but having the correct tool is the way to go).
You can see the grease, but the amount used is somewhat marginal. This much grease might be good for a season or so of gentle riding, but there should be more grease if the bike is to be ridden a lot. I probably could get by until winter with this much grease, but they'd need to be rebuilt in a few months anyway.
The rebuild is fairly simple: remove the dust cap, unscrew the top nut and pull out the lock spacer, remove the cone and bearing balls, and then you have the three main assemblies (cage and housing; axle; cone/spacer/nut). Be careful - these are loose bearing balls that will try to escape if you pull it apart all at once. I like to use a small magnet to pull the bearing balls out of the cups before pulling apart.
I recommend a generous amount of grease because these bearings undergo a relatively high number of revolutions over a relatively small surface area.
When you're done, you'll have a classy, well-made set of MKS road pedals. They look great on old 3-speed club bikes and path racers, as well as old 10-speed road bikes. These pedals have a 9/16 inch axle.
I agree. MKS Sylvan pedals are great. I've had them on my Raleigh three speeds for years.
ReplyDeleteI do also like their more modern pedals, too: I have a set of All-Ways on my custom Bantam.
Best, Shawn
https://societyofthreespeeds.wordpress.com/
Shawn, I think your Superbe was the first three speed with Sylvans I noticed. They look right at home. I have one set--on a repurposed '80s MTB. For me, they seem like they'd suit pretty much any bike I'd want to ride. They're like the B-17 of pedals.
Delete-Wilson
I've read about the sparse grease in these pedals (possibly in this very blog), but seeing a photo of the new pedal with the cap removed makes it hit home.
ReplyDeleteConfession: I haven't serviced a pedal in years--I've been lazy about it. Every pedal I own should be done at this point...
I opened them up, saw it, and said to myself that I needed to get a picture. There wasn't much grease in this set of pedals. The amount varies from set to set, for whatever reason. I use enough grease that when I close them, I get some degree of "squeeze out" of grease. I'm sure there's a little waste there, but I use a generous amount because of the number of revolutions they get and the small size of the surface taking the wear.
DeleteI have the pedal cap spanner in my Rivendell shopping cart now. If I don't add anything else (there's always something I need/want from Riv), its $13.83 shipped, including tax. Or if I don't want to pay the $5.00 shipping, I could always get it with free shipping from Amazon for $15 before tax...
DeleteEither way, fair enough price to keep these pedals (and future ones) going for as long as I can keep going.
So the real question: Is the set here going on the Clubman :-)?
I think it's a necessary tool, even though I once did a set with channel locks and a rag. The alloy on that cap is pretty soft... The tool reduces the chance I'll just chew the dust cap teeth up fooling with channel locks.
DeleteThe MKS pedals will either go on the Raleigh Clubman or on another club type (New Hudson Silver Arrow) bike I have in pieces in my storage room and that needs to be rebuilt. I have the original Clubman rat traps, and they seem to be in pretty good shape. The one thing I don't know is if they're wide enough to be comfortable with regular sneakers. If they're OK, I'll go with them and save the MKS pedals for the New Hudson.