QR skewers – how tight?

[nirakaro]

I generally think I have a fairly good sense of how much to tighten things by feel, and I’ve always just done the skewers up ‘reasonably’ tight. A couple of times recently though – e.g. standing on the pedals to get up a tiny short ridiculously steep hill – I’ve had the back wheel pull out of the dropouts, so I now squeeze the rear skewer as tight as I can go (I’m no gorilla, but I do have reasonably strong hands). How tight is right? And just as crucially, how can it be specified – you can’t do it with a torque wrench setting? I also wonder if there's anything about the meeting surfaces that I should be checking?

[Mick F]

What sort of skewers do you have?
Are they different than before?

Two sorts: one with an external cam, and one with an internal one.
External are only any good in front wheels, and in rear wheels with vertical dropouts.

skewer-external.jpg (4.87 KiB) Viewed 1718 times

[Audax67]

Put it this way: you have to be able to undo a QR at the roadside without tools, when you're tired. If you can just manage that then it's fine, but any looser is looking for trouble.

[pwa]

Put it this way: you have to be able to undo a QR at the roadside without tools, when you're tired. If you can just manage that then it's fine, but any looser is looking for trouble.

+1 That's my measure too.

[Samuel D]

Put it this way: you have to be able to undo a QR at the roadside without tools, when you're tired. If you can just manage that then it's fine, but any looser is looking for trouble.

I have been told by people who should know that this is tighter than necessary, though I don’t suppose it does any mechanical harm. It does slow down wheel changes, not that that matters to most of us.

If you have a cup-and-cone bearing in the wheel, the quick-release tension affects the bearing preload. So once you’ve set your cones (which you should do with quick-release tension in mind), you need to be consistent with your quick-release tension. This acts as my guide to quick-release tension, in fact: I increase the tightness until there is no play in the bearing. Play can be heard and felt as knocking and seen at the rim against the brake pads.

[Brucey]

I agree with Colin.

BTW not only do external cam QRs not provide the same clamping force, but I have found that they can sometimes relax over time, presumably because the plastic seating for the cam can creep slightly.

cheers

[rjb]

Several riders have mentioned problems with the rear wheel pulling over on chromed drop outs. The advice was to use an internal cam tightened as tight as you can and in extreme cases to use an additional copper washer. I assume the copper washer goes on the right side on the outside, but others may know more.

[nirakaro]

Two sorts: one with an external cam, and one with an internal one.
External are only any good in front wheels, and in rear wheels with vertical dropouts.

Thanks for that Mick - very helpful. It is indeed external-cam, and I'll change it. BUT if that's truly the case, I wonder why external-cam skewers exist at all for rear wheels?

Put it this way: you have to be able to undo a QR at the roadside without tools, when you're tired. If you can just manage that then it's fine, but any looser is looking for trouble.

Well, that's how I've got it now, but that's a pretty sketchy specification; if I did my rear wheel up like that, and my wife did hers, they'd be very different. Presumably the designers of bike components think of things like that?

I agree with Colin.

Brucey that is not the most helpful of your twenty-two thousand odd superb posts. Colin who?

[Mick F]

Two sorts: one with an external cam, and one with an internal one.
External are only any good in front wheels, and in rear wheels with vertical dropouts.

Thanks for that Mick - very helpful. It is indeed external-cam, and I'll change it. BUT if that's truly the case, I wonder why external-cam skewers exist at all for rear wheels?

Because they're cheaper ............ and many bikes have vertical dropouts these days, so that's all they need. That doesn't stop the manufacturers cutting costs by fitting them to unsuitable bikes.

As a matter of interest, my Moulton (bought brand new only in March) came with external cam QRs. This bike is £2,000 bike and they put crap QRs on it!
The rear dropouts, although not long ones, are indeed horizontal ones, and once or twice, the rear wheel slipped. The bike has now got internal cam ones and the external ones consigned to the spares bin.

[andrew_s]

What job the skewer is being asked to do also makes a difference.
For a front wheel with rim brakes, or a rear wheel with vertical dropouts, the QR doesn't have to be much tighter than needed to stop the wheel falling out when you pick the bike up. You can even ride with the QRs undone if the road's smooth and you stay seated (not that this is advisable - you are bound to find a pothole or slumped trench at some point, but people have ridden undone QRs a fair way by accident).
With a front disc brake or non-vertical rear dropouts, brake reaction or chain tension respectively can exert large forces, and you want a good non-external cam QR as tight as you can reasonably get it, bearing in mind that you have to undo it by hand.

[drossall]

Most writers seem to agree with Mick, according to a quick Web search.

I've just broken a Specialized external-cam rear QR. Everything they say is true. The grip was always rubbish, and, for the n'th time, I pulled the rear wheel of my rather nice (if old) Specialized FSR over when pedalling in the small ring! So I tightened the QR more, and it broke.

I've ordered a proper, internal, Deore replacement.

[Tiberius]

When I came to cycling, I was gobsmacked that there was such a thing as a 'Quick Release' skewers for wheels....

I want what Lewis Hamilton has got....Half a dozen blokes with air guns tightening everything until it is fit to pop....

[nirakaro]

I want what Lewis Hamilton has got....Half a dozen blokes with air guns tightening everything until it is fit to pop....

Not always ideal - last time I changed a wheel on my car, I had to extend the wrench with a six-foot length of scaffold pole to loosen the nuts. Lucky that it was at home where I could find such a thing.

[fastpedaller]

I want what Lewis Hamilton has got....Half a dozen blokes with air guns tightening everything until it is fit to pop....

Not always ideal - last time I changed a wheel on my car, I had to extend the wrench with a six-foot length of scaffold pole to loosen the nuts. Lucky that it was at home where I could find such a thing.

I won't let anyone near any of my cars with an air wrench - as used by the tyre fitting places that want to save a couple of seconds. I take the wheels off and transport them in another car if I want tyres fitted. Have had both nuts that can barely be undone, or ones which have had the threads stretched so they are difficult to tighten or loosen!

[Stevek76]

Thanks for that Mick - very helpful. It is indeed external-cam, and I'll change it. BUT if that's truly the case, I wonder why external-cam skewers exist at all for rear wheels?

As well as being cheaper, originally there could be a small weight saving apparently. No idea if there's truth in that but might explain why they keep cropping up on expensive bikes.

They are utterly crap though.