Converting QR to a bolt-on axle – Help with wheels?

Hi,

I’m looking for some new wheels.

Currently my bike (Calibre Beatnut) unfortunately is QR on the rear triangle. I believe 135mm wide. It’s also got 10mm dropouts (maybe standard?)

I feel quite limited by my choices obviously.

A few people have done conversions to stiffen the rear end by changing to a 10mm bolt-on axle.

A lot of people recommend going for Hope hubs as the conversion kit is easy to source and it doesn’t seem much of a hassle.

However, I was looking at the Hunt Trail Wides given their amazing reviews. I also prefer them over the Hope Enduro wheels because of the wider internal width and a few reviews have commented that the rims are a bit soft, not matching the quality of the hubs.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice? I can’t see anywhere about converting the Hunt wheels but they do seem to be Novatech hubs but labelled as Hunt’s own so maybe a few changes?

It’s all so confusing to me!

No experience of this actual bike – but if it’s qr rear end I’d say you can’t go for a normal bolt through hub as they need threads in the frame to bolt into and are usually 12mm I believe.

There is another standard where you have a much thicker qr skewer that is either 9mm or 10mm thick that may fit in your dropouts.I want to say the ones I’ve seen are made by DT Swiss. You’ll still be restricted on hubs though as you only have a 135mm width between the dropouts, so you may not find many hubs that will match that width plus the bigger bolt through axle thing. Ultimately I’m not sure if it will make a whole lot of difference.

Thank you – yes thats kind of what I was hoping for. A 10mm QR as such.

I think I will be restricted which is a shame.

9mm rear through, it’s not a particularly usual standard though so you’ll need suitable (more “boutique” than off the shelf) hubs. superstar will do the axles certainly and hubs if you want (including turn them into wheels) others such as hope are available but you may find you need to go down the custom build route for a wheel simply to get a hub for which adapters are readily available here.

Silly question, what’s wrong with qr?

Hope hubs with their 10mm adapter kit and something like a DT Swiss RWS Thru Axle is the obvious answer. I’ve got this set up on a couple of bikes and it works pretty well and stiffens the rear end up nicely.

The 9mm standard is for the front. your rear drop-outs are 10mm, so that’s what you need to look at.

I’d be looking at getting rims of your choice built onto Hope hubs for an easy life. Or drop a line to Hunt and ask them about 135mm / 10mm bolt through compatibility.

Edit: if you look on the Hunt website, they list a 135mm / 10mm axle option, looks like you can just get the wheel with that fitted from them and add an RWS. I’d drop them a line and see if they fit the current hubs, but it looks plausible:

HUNT Rear Axle Adapter Set for All Disc Wheelsets

I will drop them another email. It only appears the 135mm, 10mm axle option is available on only a few types of wheels.

If they use the same hubs across lots of wheel them it should be possible. May be they only list the option for sets they think it might sell on.

I have Hope Pro 2 on an 2012 Orange 5 fitted with one of these.

Link

Thru axle wheel with 135mm QR axle adapter…not much better then that really ..never had a stiffness issues on qr ..bit flex on a 25kg bike(life happens..dont ask) but other then that it opens up cartridge bearing thru axles wheels way more options..

Hope do a 135mm bolt in axle for QR dropouts. Works for Pro2 / Pro2 EVO & i presume the newer ones.

Hope 135mm bolt in by martinddd[/url], on Flickr

Tidy.

Hope hubs on Hunt rims then?

This is what you want.

Reverse axle

I’ve had one and it’s superb, really stiffens up the rear end

Hunt have said the 135×10 is for road/gravel bikes. The only option I have for the hub is to have a standard QR.

look what i posted above you. its a 12mm axle with 10mm threads so fits a 12mm Hub and standard QR dropouts

Thank you. So do I which hub do I order from them in that case? Just standard non-boost? Is it worth asking for the QR adapters anyway as I assume I can chop and change?

The other plus of going with Hope hubs is that they’re super versatile in terms converting to different specs, so if you sell your bike in the future, you can just flog it with the original wheels then modify the nice ones to fit pretty much whatever you buy next – 142mm or Boost with 12mm axles for example.

Do you know of any good Hope wheel setups for around the same price? £350?

Is it possible to go the other way? I’ve got decent 29″ qr wheels that I want to use with my new frame and forks, which are Boost because everything is now.

mehr

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This is what you want.

Reverse axle

I’ve had one and it’s superb, really stiffens up the rear end

Bookmarked as that looks like something I may need shortly. 12×135 is effectively 142mm bolt through hub standard, is that correct?

Looking for something similar for my Road bike. Have a set of thru axle wheels (12*100 and 12*142) I want to use on my winter bike which is good old QR. Apparently I can’t get converters for them (unlike the Hunts that are going the other way) so a bit stuck at present.