Dan S. MacAbre wrote:
Is it possible that there are more than one kind of taper?* I recently
had to replace the bottom bracket bearings on the missus' Italian bike.
I had to get one a little wider (70mm, I think) and of smaller diameter
than most; but I got a Shimano one that fitted correctly.* But since
then, the LH pedal bolt has tended to slacken slowly, and the crank
makes an embarrassing creaking noise int time with the pedalling effort
oscillating from left to right.* Is it possible that the Ofmega pedals
fitted to it are not fitting the taper correctly?* No play can be felt
by hand, and they are still almost impossible to remove without lots of
unpleasant hammering with a tapered car balljoint splitter.

Speaking of which, is there a tool that can get pedals off easily?* I
had a tool that screwed into the side of the pedal, but instead of
pulling the pedal off, it just pulled out all the alloy thread that it
was supposed to fit into.* Again, is that because the Ofmega pedals have
a different thread there?

An Ofmega 68C crank has appeared on eBay here in the UK, but it is sold
with Shimano cups. Is it likely that the lock ring will fit my Ofmega
cups? Did Shimano make cups to fit Italian bikes? The set is only £2
at the moment, but if that ring fits, I wouldn't worry about having
bought an unsuitable crank. The item description doesn't include any
actual dimensions, so it could be a completely mismatched set. I asked
the seller what diameter the cups were, and he seems to have used a
ruler to come up with a width of 'just under 35mm,' whereas mine are
35.7mm (probably should be 36).