Early last year I had a heavy accident when the front wheel came off my road bike. (I have to store the bike with the front wheel off so I KNOW it was tight on before I left.) Had to take a few months off to heal the broken bones, and since then I’ve probably only managed to persuade myself to get back on a saddle half a dozen times. Each of those times I was paranoid about the same thing happening, wanting to stop every five minutes to check the quick release (the front in particular) was still tight. Mostly I just avoided the bikes and told myself to concentrate on running instead.

But I don’t like having this fear ruining my fun. So have any of you any thoughts on what I could try to beat this? For example, are those security hex-bolt skewers any stronger (or more specifically, more reliable) than a quality QR? A strong dose of Growacet? Or should I realise that this sort of thing is so rare, especially with more modern forks with those lawyer-lugs (the bike was an old 80’s skip-salvage) that I was that one-in-a-million that it has happened to?

Many thanks in advance.

Get a set of Maxle forks.

Bolt on front wheel. Loctite on the nuts.

Or just a stronger skewer and listen for rattles. It’s hardly a common accident, so normal skewers do work fine. With lawyer’s lugs, the wheel can be pretty loose and rattle around loads before it’ll come out – especially with rim brakes.

Jam bo has it – get some forks / skewers you are confident in. Either bolt through/maxle or Allen key skewers .

I find allen key skewars to be worse for this.

A good quality set of shimano cam skewars is far superior to 5mm hex skewars.

Maxles and such are better stillmin this respect.

He’s talking about road bikes, I doubt maxle is an easy option…

Not being funny but how on earth did it fall off?

Loose qr is the only explanation I can see…

Rubber bands round the fork leg, then wrap round the lever and the nut a few times ? (or drill the nut off-centre and put a wire through it)

I came off a road bike years ago because the front brake securing nut came off – sudden jamming of front wheel when I next braked. I got a night in hospital and lost a couple of pounds in skin but otherwise was lucky – Oh, and a smashed up bike of course. I have similar bad thoughts about losing the brake again, to the point where I looked at those frames/forks with captive aero brakes. I’ll prob get a disc fork once they’re easily available at a decent price and with through axles.

It’s a good question cynic-al. I was riding along, next thing I regained consciousness looking at the sky with a circle of faces looking down on me and someone telling me not to move, At All, and that an ambulance was on its way. Cue some silent swearing. Still have no memory of the fall and impact.

Witness said it looked like the wheel came off. When I got the bike back the fork was bent back to the downtube but all the dropouts were still there so it wasn’t that. So I can only think it was, as you say, the quick release was loose. Except it was tight 20 minutes earlier when I set out.

Cheers for the replies guys.

He’s talking about road bikes, I doubt maxle is an easy option…

Sod the roadie dream, buy an MTB.

My point is that there has to be a rational explanation – with which you can eradicate the fear. I appreciate it’s not quite that simple.

Sometimes a QR can be tight but the wheel not properly engaged in the drop outs.

A good quality sturdy QR should give you some confidence, like a Shimano one as already suggested.

had one come loose once on a rear luckily (mtb) Wasn’t square in the dropouts. Luckily still stayed in place somehow.Was a cheap n nasty non branded oem one, although i prolly hadn’t secured properly too. Shimano are great imho. I love maxles too. Always check mine after locking it up too (from experience)

OP I think i’d get some decent qr’s or a nut and bolt affair of some kind although i haven’t got a clue about road bikes. I love bmx axles 🙂

Take lessons from Jez Avery 😉

A quality well designed skewer like what the others have said (shimano) or Mavic is what I’d be using for peace of mind. Their cam action seems to be the best out there. They’ve found the sweet spot with their drill bit and nailed the cam point better than everyone else!

Years ago there was a fuss about disc brakes making QR wheels eject themselves from forks (Google James Annan), so I ran a bunch of tests. Basically, the cam action on many QRs is rubbish, lots of them don’t have any past-centre action. The ones with the plastic insert are rubbish too, that deforms.

Best ones I tested were bog standard Shimano.

Another overlooked factor with QRs is that the nut has to grip tightly onto the dropout – alu nuts don’t grip so well, steel nuts with good serrations are much better. Ditto with the hub – a hub with good serrated faces will be more secure.

I do feel it is an irrational fear exactly because I have no rational explanation. Maybe it wasn’t seated properly. Maybe a part of QR was made of rust (it was a winter bike after all) and was just waiting for a bump in the road to fail. I’ll never know, the bike went the rest of the way to the skip after that.

Thanks again everyone, your suggestions are much appreciated.

I love this place.

Just get a layback seat post and stop worrying. Take it easy and your confidence will come back gradually.

Some cx bikes are coming with thru axles now, giant I think. Also I heard the new trek domain will have a thru axle

same thing happened to me 2 years ago. mine was due to a helpful 2 year old helping in the garage while I was putting the bike together. I was concentrating on him swinging a hammer around more then putting the wheel in, so I did the qr up properly but the axel was in wonkey. the axel got knocked straight and so the qr was then loose. I only found this out as I wheelied over a ditch at 15 mph only to see the wheel roll off down the hill. got a broken collar bone and a fear of all kind of front end failures. the worse fear is on the road bike, I look down at the start of every downhill to check the qr keep thinking I should take the roady appart and check the steered etc. mtb is alright now as it has a maxel. I don’t have a solution but think its pretty unlikely to happen again

bencooper – Member

Years ago there was a fuss about disc brakes making QR wheels eject themselves from forks (Google James Annan), so I ran a bunch of tests. Basically, the cam action on many QRs is rubbish, lots of them don’t have any past-centre action. The ones with the plastic insert are rubbish too, that deforms.

Best ones I tested were bog standard Shimano.

Another overlooked factor with QRs is that the nut has to grip tightly onto the dropout – alu nuts don’t grip so well, steel nuts with good serrations are much better. Ditto with the hub – a hub with good serrated faces will be more secure.

think the shimano advice is good (and from a good source), I run two sets of 700c disc wheels on my CX (road/gravel/single track not racing)one set shimano the other SRAM if you google you’ll find the brand to most specifically avoid (neither of the above).
I find security skewers hard to get right – even using torque wrench but maybe that is just me 🙁

having read all the stuff on brake forces ejecting disc wheels been a bit concerned because I have had a time when my disc has made a funny tinkling noise and I now tighten my QR’s much tighter than I would like and check them again before long fast down hill sections – but I’m sort of OK with it having said that I’m a lightweight and not an aggressive rider – the fact that nearly all disc road bikes in the last few months are thru axle says the engineers can’t beat the lawyers – and my next bike will be thru axle

If you want a hardware fix, that Cotic fork with the enclosed dropouts?

Not sure that bolt-in like the halos are any more secure. Could easily be less secure than a really good QR. I like the halos but then never had either a QR or Halo come undone when it wasn’t fitting error.

So I can only think it was, as you say, the quick release was loose. Except it was tight 20 minutes earlier when I set out.

Are you absolutely sure? I once changed all 4 wheels on a rally car before the event. I definitely tightened everything properly. Honest. So how come a wheel fell off?

Seen that happen at a comp safari event slowoldman.

Lad used an windy gun to wind the nuts on.

Didnt check them with a bar. Wheel fell off others very loose.

I’ve always found shimano or salsa skewers to lock on with the greatest tenacity.

However, trek have just released a domane with disc brakes and bolt thru axles if you fancy an excuse for a new bike.

Buy some track skewers and bolt them up tight. Or use Dura Ace QRs. The finest money can buy.

Oh and on today’s mtb race, both QRs came loose 😯 . Nasty cheap Hope things.

The interesting thing I found in my testing with disc brakes and QRs was that it wasn’t the lever popping open, it was the nut unscrewing.

On my own bikes, I’ve filed off the lawyer tabs (they don’t do anything) and I have hose clamps on the QR nuts – the hose clamp body touches the fork leg, stopping the nut from unscrewing.

Hope are terrible skewars though. They are renound for their terribleness

Most of it stemming from their very easy ability to over cam if you push the lever over centre…..and thus be loose again. despit you putting in alot of effort.

I did a 24 hour race with a hope skewar on borrowed wheels.after stopping at the bottom of each descent to tighten the wheel back up i quickly binned the skewar at the transition next lap. Lethal things.

The over-cam is how they should work. By going past the point of maximum force, they would then have to get tighter before coming open.

OP, did the tie rod or threads fail?

Which is all good but then you have less tension on your nut end which then works loose….as per bens explaination.

Well, a bit less – but yes, over-cam is how they should work. That way, the tension has to increase before it can pop open.

I found some QRs which had a rising cam action, some which rose then fell a bit (over-cam) and most rose then plateaued which is better than notng but not perfect.

The serrations of the nut dig into the dropout, that’s what stops the nut unscrewing – that’s why the serrations are so important.

I’ve filed off the lawyer tabs (they don’t do anything)

I disagree. Both from real world experience and my own experiments. With the lips, a skewer can be loose enough to rattle (and therefore be noticed) before it’s loose enough to fall out.

But if it’s that loose, it’ll pop right out as soon as you pull the brakes.

Not in my experience, and not with rim brakes. I have noticed a loose skewer and brakes to atop and fix it without the wheel coming off.

What ive learnt is that you cannot consciously reason with fear, you can only do what scares you, feel the fear and show the fear that it is overreacting and by repeatedly doing it (exposure) it reduces and vanishes over time – as long as you dont consciously add to it.

Ah yes, with rim brakes there might be a point to them – with discs, the forces are much larger so probably not.

[off to check QR on the cross bike…]