[Closed] Quick Release Dangers?

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I have only ever once seen a stone flicked up from a front wheel strike a rear q/r and open it. A loose rear wheel at 30mph is not a pretty sight...
I have all my levers facing backwards so this can't happen to me.

neither are dangerous... someone please close this thread

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I have only ever once seen a stone flicked up from a front wheel strike a rear q/r and open it.

QR not tightened correctly? I reckon I could catapult stones at my QR and it still wouldn't open.

I once had a back wheel fall out when I was lifting the bike over a stile at the bottom of a long, fast descent

no idea whether the qr failed or I failed though

I noticed yesterday that the bracken is capable of upsetting a QR towards the end of a long technical ride..

This one is a tricky one...

Maxle.

End of thread.

This is why you should have your QRs facing backwards, people. Only roadies make them face forwards, and even then only the rear one.

I, too, have seen the results of an open QR - the rider's rear wheel popped out on the 50mph + straightaway across the bottom piste at Metabief. She had a broken hip and was in a full length cast for months. The QR had come undone in a crash.

Bolt up axel

End of discussion

Yes... the consequences of a loose QR can be horrendous. When riding out with a group of riders I've stopped individuals and dealt with QR that are not done up correctly - I hope everyone here would.

Also... Worn out Quick Releases that won't stay done up or wonky hubs that require the quick release to be "finger tight" to spin are not a good idea in my experience.

if you wear a helmet it equals out the danger of using QRs. TJ told me that x

I'm yet to be convinced that any QR skewer properly installed and adjusted will ever spontaneously undo despite any amount of silly diagrams with coloured arrows or armchair copy'n'paste engineering 😛

Anyway logo alignment overides any safety considerations when positioning QRs, obviously.......

Only ever had an issue with a qr once. On holiday with one of the Spanish providers from whom I had hired a bike for the duration. On the first day we took the minibus & trailer to the top of a hill for our first ride. The bike supplied had been "serviced" by one of our guides/mechanic. We all padded up(1st time using pads)and set off down the hill. The trail was dry, dusty and loose so I put the "loose" handling down to that on the first few corners. Came to a narrow part of the trail with a smallish drop. Next thing I know is I am on the deck, hitting my knee on a rock, rolling down the trail with the bike going in one direction, me another and the front wheel bouncing down the trail in front of me. Retrieved the wheel and the qr was still in the closed position? The qr was a Hope one which at that time had a bit of a rep for coming loose.
The actual problem imo was that the drop out on the forks were badly worn with no "lip" left on the drop out.
Moto...always check hire bike fittings for security

Only ever seen it with a cheap bent steel QR. It was fine until the owner upgraded to a front disk then it kept undoing even if it was way over tightened. Replaced with a Shimano and its been fine since.

Riding at Hamsterley recently, one of our group had a QR mishap - her partner had put the wheels in her bike when they arrived and had not done the QR's up properly. The front was spotted in the car park by someone but the rear wasn't checked.
Cue rear wheel departing later in the ride and one none too happy lady.

hmmm, I'm with philconsequence on this one.

It's worse when you forget to put your v brake noodles back on after a wheel change!

I always had difficulty doing up my DT skewers properly - they would sometimes appear done-up and tight but not be, and then work loose. Shimano, with their internal cams, all the way. Since I changed 3 years ago, no issues what so ever.

I think someone in the cheap oakley thread was after a time machine.

The one in this thread seems to work, though it takes you back to the late 90's when anyone cared about QR's spontaneously coming loose...

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/paralysed-cyclist-sues-suspension-fork-maker-19025/

Only ever heard of this years ago. Luckily never seen it happen though.

Got overtaken by my mates front wheel in the alps a few years back. Broken arm and nasty faceplant but lucky we were close to the car park as we later found out his insurance wouldn't have covered an evac. That was a loose hope qr.

Had 2 qr come loose, one at the end of cut gate where it dropped and re-aligned dropouts over my disc. Bent the disc back in enough to keep riding. I had heard a rock hit the frame seconds before the wheel dropped out (and the qr was pointing backwards).
2nd was my front qr coming loose after about 2 hours of riding around kirroughtree. No damage done. I am a lot more careful with the qr now and often check them before fast descents or rocky sections.

I think until you see it for yourself these qr stories are always someone installing them pointing the wrong direction, or too loose. I have always been careful putting wheels in the dropouts but have been scared by the qr coming loose. Doesn't take long to check...

Nutt; you don't ever ride fast enough for any serious harm to come to you when you do crash. Only a little graze or something so I woon't worry if I were you.

my front hope one has been undoing every ride - replaced with a SS 9mm QR now so will see how that goes. Think it is the disc brake/front fork thing as in that article.

[quote> http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/paralysed-cyclist-sues-suspension-fork-maker-19025/

Only ever heard of this years ago. Luckily never seen it happen though.
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/pinder-v-fox

I witnessed a friend having a front wheel ejection and ending up in hospital. Fastidious about the mechanical stuff on his bike, and had only a few minutes earlier lifted the bike over a style, so any significantly loose skewer would have been readily apparent.

I'd never run a q/r on the front - Maxle or nutted axle always - and I remember the posts on here following Russ's crash very well.

I know opinions differ on this but I always used to run the nutted side of the q/r on the non-disc side, believing that vibrations from braking could cause it to loosen if used on the disc side. Prior to this I had had my front q/r loosen on several occasions - not something that bothered me much at the time, but I'm paranoid now.

TurnerGuy - Member

my front hope one has been undoing every ride - replaced with a SS 9mm QR now so will see how that goes. Think it is the disc brake/front fork thing as in that article.

Nah, that's just Hope QRs being Hope QRs.

Elfin, Dust?

I've had a skewer break under tension but the fork retention lugs held the ends of the QR in place. I generally use QRs with a cut-out window, & have the ends ziptied to the fork for safety.

Having a system with such a catastrophic failure resulting from a simple mistake doesn't seem like a great idea to me, especially now disc brakes are appearing on cheaper and cheaper bikes. Maybe thats why lots of them have the forks on backwards?

Nah, that's just Hope QRs being Hope QRs

but back doesn't do it and it also doesn't do it if the QR is on the opposite side from the disc.

TurnerGuy - Member

but back doesn't do it and it also doesn't do it if the QR is on the opposite side from the disc.

Sure, but the poor design of the QR is what makes it a problem. I just noticed you got a SS one to replace it, they're not too good either unfortunately.

TBH if you're worried about it, get a Shimano one, there's nothing better out there. The Halo hex bolts seem good too if you don't need the quick releaseness.

Found my rear QR loose at the end of a ride couple of weeks back. Also, wheel would hardly turn as bearings were so tight. Seems the locknut on the bearing cone was loose, cone and nut wound themselves in during the ride, leaving QR loose.

Was a relatively new bike, and when I mentioned it to the bike shop they said "it can happen, as locknuts on axles don't always come properly tight from the factory". You have been warned!!

Yep I will get a Shimano QR for the back, but the front is now a 9mm axle, so it is SS or the DT RWS, which I might go for but I see people complaining of their fragility.

AH, sorry, I missed that it's a front 9mm. Nowt wrong with the big-axle SS ones, my 10mm's been fine.

In a criterium once and somebody's pedal undid my rear QR. I came to a sudden stop. I was near the front too, so it wasn't too long before I got hit.