Hi,

In a few months I'll have to replace a really old pair of wheels. Both are old-style QR.

I'm happy to demote the existing fork (Tora 302) onto the GFs bike and upgrade. I already have a Maxle fork on my Prophet (Pike 454) and I like the idea of swapping forks between bikes. So my question is:

For the next few years, what will the best/sensible axle solution for general riding (AM, XC, Trail Centres, Urban, but no serious DH stuff)?

Ta,

Andrew.

I'd vote for 20mm. This whole 15mm thing seems rather pointless and irritating as it's allegedly more flexy with very little weight difference. Only problem is, SRAM are bringing out some 15mm axle forks, albeit lower in the range. I hope that isn't a sign of things to come.

And probably Hope hubs, as the spacer kits are interchangable.

after what I've read and seen, I won't have a disc brake and a QR on the front of a mountain bike that's used at all seriously. but for gentle XC urban they're probably OK.

nickc
after what I've read and seen…

Like what ?

Like that they occasionally rip your QR'd wheel out when you brake hard. Now I've not met it until recently despite years of being rather hard on front brakes and using noodly forks and light QRs, but it seems my QR has finally given up the ghost and has started getting tugged from my dropout on occasion, which is not pleasant, but it's nowhere near as problematic as he makes out IMO.

Never actually seen it, nor seen actual cases mentioned in a forum before, but Magura forks have QR dropouts angled 45deg forwards, supposedly to avoid this potential problem. This means the braking torque on the disc would force the QR *in* to the dropout rather than rip it out.

20mm Maxle is the best design, I think the fact that Magura just pay Sram to use it speaks volumes.

+1 for Hope hubs and 20mm maxle. Works great and you can adapt the hubs if you need to.

the 20mm (maxle?) on my 36Vans is great, less of a faff than a traditional qr IMO. possible weight penalty, but that doesnt concern me (on any of my bikes)

I use hex key skewers instead of QRs. After all, if you get a puncture it's not removing the wheel that takes the time, it's removing the tyre and inflating the new tube.

Yeah, I think the response is around what hub offers most flexibility not a debate over whether QR/15QR/20 is better.

Hope hubs provide a quick and cheap solution to this with their end caps for any eventuality. King if you've got more cash and will give you the benefit of a complete axle rather than just an end cap. Would need the LD version of the King hub though if you want to run 20mm.

Most specifically the Pinder/Fox case. The physics behind QRs dropping out of forks is pretty well established. There's a viable alternative that has none of the drawbacks of QR, and is as simple and easy to use. No brainer.

Biggest disadvantage of Maxle type thigns is that you need to put the thing back in the fork when you've taken the wheel out. Which isn't really that big of a disadvantage 🙂

I think it's stiffer and a lot more secure. You don't have that nagging doubt at the back of your mind after hearing the scare stories. Admittedly, ridden hard on QRs and discs since 2001 and never had a single issue, but there you go.

Don't get King – no better than anything else and alot more expensive.

There *is* a problem with QR's and disc brakes in that the failure mode, if they do come undone, is really nasty. With good QR's (shimano style, internal cam, steel face onto dropouts, steel skewer) this is very unlikely. With crap QR's I've had both a front and rear wheel come undone.

QR bolt through (15mm or maxle) is definitely the way to go now. Hope's wheel design is smart in allowing a very quick change to your wheels to use a different fork.