BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

smoke two packs a day.

Assuming you have horizontal or diagonal drop outs, you want a bolt on hub or chain tensioners. Quick release skewers won't ever be tight enough no matter what you do.

QRs are tight enough for me. I guess I must be weak. Well, that and trying to protect my knees.

But, yeah, replacing the QR should do the trick. You probably don't need to go all the way to a bolt on, just get a better QR. Some QRs don't hold very well. Get a steel one instead of aluminum. I might be able to loan you one for a few days, I just have to check to see if any of my spares are good ones.

If that doesn't work, you can go to bolt-on. In that case, you don't have to actually replace the entire hub, just the axle and nuts.

I had this problem once, and replaced the skewer as Lyle recommends. Steel. Better knurling. Solved.

Thanks for the info guys, I think I'm going to try to go with a steel skewer, and if that doesn't work I'll just go bolt-on.

Think something like this would work instead of replacing the axle? http://www.amazon.com/Tranz-Skewer-Bolt-Allen-Silver/dp/B003QR8V1E

I have never tried to use one of those on the rear before. It might work, but I'd go with the tried and true before I invited any new problems that would complicate things.

Try this.

I’ve been riding on horizontal dropouts with skewers for like 300 years and haven’t had a problem, and I can put a lot of force into the pedals.

It’s possible that the axle is a mite too long and the skewer is bottoming out on the axle before it bears down on the dropout, you don’t need very much axle hanging out of the hub nut, check that.  The solution would be to grind or file off a couple of mm’s of axle.   Also check that there is equal axle hanging out on each side, you may just need to re-center the axle in the hub.

You need a skewer with an internal cam. Lots of skewers today use external cams. The internal cam is much more powerful.

the first thing i thought of was what edmonds said.

when the wheel is in the dropout, does any of the axle stick out from the drop out? it should be within the dropout.

The axle ends well within the dropout, so thats not the issue. However I do have an aluminum, external cam skewer. I'm going to try switching to a steel one with an internal skewer and hopefully that fixes it. If not, then I guess my only option is bolt-on. Or a silly excuse to get a more modern frame...

You likely don't have an aluminum skewer, just a cheap one. Get a Shimano one.

Also, there is no need to overtighten it like you are. It will wear it out, stretch it, whatever... It just won't hold right.

As for a QR in horizontals, while a few people can get away with it the general consensus is that it doesn't work. Any time I've done it on a single speed drivetrain it inevitably slips, each and every time. Not recommended.

It actually is aluminum. Trust me. Unless they did a really good job of making steel look like anodized aluminum and somehow rendered it impervious to magnets. Thats just the left side with the lever though, the right side is a knurled steel thingie with plastic around it.

I looked, and I don't have any particularly good spares.

No worries, I can just buy one. I actually have a few steel skewers laying around, but I think the one I have is better than something labeled "Joytech"

I mean the skewer itself being aluminum... they're either steel or ti, and the ti ones aren't known to hold very tight.

The levers cam lever is aluminum on all but the cheapest ones. Get a Shimano skewer and be done with it.

that or try to find one of the nice old campy steel ones. those are niiiice. i love mine, had them since the 90s and they have replaced every skewer on every road wheel set i've had since i got them.