You are reading a single comment by @gbj_tester and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@gbj_tester
Probably not going to help your situation, but in general for taking off pedals get the spanner and crank adjacent with about 15° separation (spanners are made with the slot offset from the handle axis to make this easier) allowing you to squeeze the two together like the handles of a pair or pliers, this keeps everything stable enough that you can use both hands to squeeze. If you arrange things with the spanner above the cranks, assuming the bike is standing on its tyres, you can just push down on the spanner roughly in line with the BB axis and the actions/reactions balance out so that the cranks don't turn as you apply the force.
And 40Nm should do it for tightening, although Jobst Brandt will be pleased to explain to you why the interface is so fundamentally flawed that no tightening torque can really be called adequate, since the pedals will loosen at any torque short of the failure stress of the thread.
Yours are probably stuck because of electrolytic corrosion caused by dry assembly and long service in wet conditions, but at least with steel in aluminium you have a sporting chance, unlike the perennial favourites of aluminium (seat posts, quill stems) in steel.