quick release wheels
Huw Pritchard
<tom.jeff...@ntlworld.nospam.com> did issue forth:
> I just bought my first mountain bike, a specialised rock hopper. I
> wanted to know, on my road bike the quick release wheels are simple to
> use, just flip the lever and the wheel falls out.
Ah the good old days where you were trusted to actually look after you
own wheels!
> On my new bike, there is a retainer, which I understand stops the wheel
> from falling out. How do I know that the wheel is fastened to the forks
> correctly?
<sarcasm> Hmm. Lawyer lips. Great, aren't they? </sarcasm>
> Could someone describe, in laymans terms, the entire procedure for
> inserting the front wheel into the forks?
Something along the lines of:
1. Shove wheel in forks
2. Do up nut to vaguely the right position (this comes with practise)
3. Try and do up the lever
If you can't move the lever, slacken the nut off, if you can undo the
lever easily, the nut isn't tight enough. Undo the lever and tighten the
nut.
4. Do up the brakes if you're using cantis or v-brakes.
--
Huw Pritchard |
Replace bounce with huw |
to reply by mail | www.secretworldgovernment.org
Mark Hickey
>I just bought my first mountain bike, a specialised rock hopper. I wanted
>to know, on my road bike the quick release wheels are simple to use, just
>flip the lever and the wheel falls out.
>
>On my new bike, there is a retainer, which I understand stops the wheel from
>falling out. How do I know that the wheel is fastened to the forks
>correctly?
>
>Could someone describe, in laymans terms, the entire procedure for inserting
>the front wheel into the forks?
The "lawyer lips" shouldn't change the clamping process at all, though
you will have to loosen the QR (Quick Release) skewer's nut to get the
wheel off.
To reinstall the wheel...
Make sure the QR is loose enough and insert the front wheel.
Flip the lever close to half-way closed (this varies by model of QR,
but this is a good starting point), and start tightening the nut on
the other side until it's good and snug.
Push the QR lever closed. It should get very snug at about 3/4
closed, and not change a whole lot the last 1/4. It should take a
good amount of force to close it, but shouldn't be so much that you
leave a deep impression in your palm. You shouldn't be able to easily
open the skewer by pulling on it with one or two fingers - it should
take a reasonable effort (imagine picking up a 20 pound (10kg)
plastic bag of groceries with your index and middle finger). If it's
not this tight, open the QR and snug up the nut a little more and
repeat.
The direction you point the QR lever in is a matter of fashion. Most
will end up pointing straight back (very aero), while some forks allow
the QR lever to run parallel to the slider, behind it. I'd recommend
never pointing it down or forward, as it's possible that you'll hit a
branch or vine that could open the QR without you knowing it (not a
good thing).
Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame
Andrew Thorne
you're there, make sure they walk you through the operation of anything else on
your bike that you don't understand.
It's pretty diappointing that they'd let you out the door without a quick
lesson in how to operate a quick release. It's lazy shops like this that caused
the proliferation of lawyers lips in the first place.
-Andrew Thorne
>
>
>Hi there
>
>I just bought my first mountain bike, a specialised rock hopper. I wanted
>to know, on my road bike the quick release wheels are simple to use, just
>flip the lever and the wheel falls out.
>
>On my new bike, there is a retainer, which I understand stops the wheel from
>falling out. How do I know that the wheel is fastened to the forks
>correctly?
>
>Could someone describe, in laymans terms, the entire procedure for inserting
>the front wheel into the forks?
>
>Thanks
Peter J. Ricciardiello
>
> On my new bike, there is a retainer, which I understand stops the wheel from
> falling out. How do I know that the wheel is fastened to the forks
> correctly?
Once you get comfortable with how the quick-releases really keep the
front wheel from falling off, you can do what many do (including myself)
and file off those "lawyer lips."
The only caveat is that if you have a brand-new fork, filing these off
will void the warranty. In my case, I bought my now two-year old
Marzocchi off eBay, so the warranty was not a factor.
--
Peter J. Ricciardiello
(omit 'x' to reply)
CoyoteBoy
While
> you're there, make sure they walk you through the operation of anything
else on
> your bike that you don't understand.
>
> It's pretty diappointing that they'd let you out the door without a quick
> lesson in how to operate a quick release. It's lazy shops like this that
caused
> the proliferation of lawyers lips in the first place.
>
> -Andrew Thorne
you have to be pretty lacking in the grey stuff to not know how to use QR's.
CoyoteBoy
> the QR, which I now know they don't. They are a bit of a pain though.
If ya fancy probably voiding your warranty, you could take a file/angle
grinder to them and get rid of them- they are not a structural part, but
you'll have to treat the surfaces with paint or the like to stop corrosion.
JB - had most of my little safety lips removed by the nice airport people
droppin and draggin my bike box along with the fork sticking through a bit -
should have packed it with even more stuff I suppose!
Dennis Baker
> On Tue, 05 Mar 2002 11:14:12 +0000, "Tom Jeffs"
> <tom.jeff...@ntlworld.nospam.com> did issue forth:
>
> > I just bought my first mountain bike, a specialised rock hopper. I
> > wanted to know, on my road bike the quick release wheels are simple to
> > use, just flip the lever and the wheel falls out.
>
> Ah the good old days where you were trusted to actually look after you
> own wheels!
>
> > On my new bike, there is a retainer, which I understand stops the wheel
> > from falling out. How do I know that the wheel is fastened to the forks
> > correctly?
>
> <sarcasm> Hmm. Lawyer lips. Great, aren't they? </sarcasm>
>
> > Could someone describe, in laymans terms, the entire procedure for
> > inserting the front wheel into the forks?
>
> Something along the lines of:
>
> 1. Shove wheel in forks
> 2. Do up nut to vaguely the right position (this comes with practise)
> 3. Try and do up the lever
>
> If you can't move the lever, slacken the nut off, if you can undo the
> lever easily, the nut isn't tight enough. Undo the lever and tighten the
> nut.
Just try not to overtighten it. I was cranking mine down because I
didn't want the wheel to fall off and actually broke the threaded
portion of the skewer off in the nut. It was a real bummer, we were
out of town and didn't know where any bike shops or anything was.
Fortunately the ride was with my kids on pavement and I wound up with
the skewer just barely on and relying on gravity and the "lawyer lips"
to keep my wheels on. Incidentally I discovered that you can ride
your bike for a considerable distance without the Quick Release
entirely. It's a bit unnerving, I don't recommend the experience.
Andrew Thorne
You'd be amazed at how many people simply use them as wing nuts and twist them
shut - even with "OPEN" in big fat letters staring them in the face.
Fact is, lots of people DON'T know how to use these properly, then their wheels
fall off, they crash, and sue. And now we all have to file the lawyers lips off
our forks.
Lawyers lips were added because real people had real accidents because they
didn't take the time to learn how to use them properly.
And I stand by my comment that any shop that lets a new bike customer out the
door without a 30 second lesson in how to use a quick release is lazy, stupid,
or both.
-Andrew Thorne
craz...@webtv.net
MTB 2002