Cycling UK Forum

I'm a little fed up with carrying a spanner around in case I puncture on my single speed, solid spindled hub bike.
I thought I'd put old fashion wing nuts on instead and ordered some from"The old bicycles showroom" they duly arrived a couple of days later but they are needless to say imperial and it turns out that the front ones go on, albeit very freely, but the rear wheel ones just don't fit.
Anyone any idea where I can buy wing nuts that will fit modern solid spindle hubs? Or is there any other method of fitting the wheels with say an alan key ect?
Malpas.

Why not swap the axle and fit a quick release?

I'm not aware of there being different threads except for

1. childrens/baby bikes who have thinner axles altogether, as they dont support adult weight
2. campag axles, whose solid axles are the same as their hollow axles (ie a bit bigger than standard).

I thought all the rest were the same, but will stand corrected. Are the threads ok, ie not burred or cross threaded

SA hubgears - oversized and a special SA thread.

.

Wing nuts are fairly horrible - I used them for a bit until a "wing" broke off in my fingers. The total weight is about the same as a spanner and you can't really get enough torque on them.

Likewise when I first started back in the 70s. I discovered that I needed a Mole wrench to remove broken wing nuts, so I may as well use track nuts and carry the spanner. That's why Tullio invented the Q/R so why not follow him?

yeah, I remember breaking one too. forgot about that. Depending what the bike is used for, if its regularly left unattended, nuts are added security.

Dont axle wing nuts usually have a boss on the seating face, intended to engage in a specialli profiled dropout?
Limited experience might be realing itself here Ive only had dealings with one, and it did!

If you don't like carrying the spanner your self then you could always just tape it to the frame.

If you've horizontal dropouts then I can see why you might not want QRs. The light alu ones where you can see the cam are rubbish for singles - I was always pulling my wheel. However, the steal shimano ones are much better and I don't think that I've pulled a wheel yet with one of those. Although I have to admit that I have changed to solid on the fixie as that's a different kettle of fish.