When the pedal is loosened it should freely rotate on the crank’s bolt.
You should be able to feel the pedal unthreading from the crank arm as you rotate it. It may take 10-30 full rotations of the crank to remove the pedal.
If you’re standing on the right, or drive side, of the bike, rotate the crank arm clockwise. If you’re standing on the left, or non-drive side, of the bike, rotate the crank arm counterclockwise. Set the pedals aside in a safe place so that you can reattach them once you’re done replacing the crank.
The crank bolt will be in the center of the crank and looks like a hexagon.
Loosening the pinch bolts will allow you to remove the crank arm from the rest of the crankset. The 2-bolt design is for Shimano cranks. For this type of crank, you also need to remove the plastic pre-load screw on the left, or non-drive, side of the bike. Not all cranks have these pinch bolts. If your crank doesn’t, skip this step.
If your crank has bolts on both sides of the bike, go to the other side of the bike and remove the other crank bolt. Most cranks require a 4mm-8mm Allen key. Look in the bike’s user manual or on the bike manufacturer’s website to find out which size will fit your bike. An Allen key is also called an Allen wrench or a hex key. You can find them at bike shops and hardware stores.
If you have rubber washers around the spindles, slide them off before installing your new cranks. You don’t need a crank extractor tool for self-extracting cranks. You’ll know if you have a self-extracting crank if the crank only has 1 crank bolt on 1 side of the bike with a retaining ring around it.
Crank extractors are needed on non-self-extracting cranks. These types of cranks have a crank bolt on each side of the bike and do not have a retaining ring around the crank bolt.
Wrap the chain so that it runs from the back gears to the chainring on the crankset.
Self-extracting cranks do not have pinch bolts.
Most pedals will have an engraving that reads “R” and “L” for right and left. This will help you determine which pedal goes on which side. Make sure that the threads of the pedals match with the groves on your crank arm so that you don’t strip the threads.
