So, silly question.

Bought a 2nd hand but beautiful showroom condition bike yesterday. But whoever built it has gone to town on tightening down the bolts!

Lock on grips had metal come out with the bolts, took the brakes off and one XTR pinch bolt snapped off and the other made some horrible cracking noises. Will be checking the whole bike but next stage is to remove the rear wheel.

It’s bloody right but also I’ve not had a boost solid axle before. It’s a Hope tech wheeler/Pro 4 hub and it’s 6mm hex on the nondriveside and 5mm on the driveside.

Quickly dispensed with normal hex keys and now using a deep hex keys from my socket set. I can turn the whole axle but try opposing directions it just isn’t loosening off. Should I be holding the nondriveside static or does it not matter which side is turned? The 5mm has started to deform so have stopped before it gets worse.

Can I pack something in to prevent it rounding out? Glue the hex head in? Boiling water? I’ll drop some plushgas in there for a bit.

If all else fails can I drill out the 5mm? Once the head is off will I be able to undo the axle?!

Thanks!

You would usually just unscrew from the NDS

I’d try boiling water and then wd40 first.

Thanks guys, so I’ll try holding the drive side static and undo the non-drive side. I expect I’ll end up hammering a torx bit into the side that has burred. I hope new axles aren’t too pricey!

Hasn’t got carbon handlebars has it!!!

Non drive side first , shouldn’t need to hold the drive side .

Why are you trying to hold the drive side? If its a normal bolt through axle, that is the other end of the axle, the drive side end is where the threads are.

You could try turning the drive side opposite thread direction and the drive side the normal way to undo, then you should have the same force on both ends of the axle.

Thankfully the bars are not carbon! Might be a carbon steerer though…haven’t checked the stem steerer bolts yet.

ta11pau1 – that was partly why I posted, not used this style of axle before. The axle will turn (with a fair bit of resistance) if you turn both sides the same direction, so neither end is captive. So turning the non-drive side only slightly reduces the force on the drive side which is the side that is threatening to round out (I stopped just before the hex went ‘overcentre’ and slipped a notch.

A Shand? Might be worth asking them what axle system they’ve used. As ta11pau1 says, most involve a threaded dropout.

Well spotted scotroutes. Thanks for the tip, I’ll get in touch and take a close look again when I get home although when it started to slip I was holding that side still and trying to undo the non-drive side, which also has spanner flats on it.

Its got to come off, its got 10 too many gears on it and 40mm gravel bike tyres that need swapping!

[edit] a Shand. I see folks have already leapt to the rescue. [/edit]

i had said that If it’s a cube then do some thinking. Trying to take the rear thruaxle out of a cube in the summer was a challenge. It seemed to be made of a few parts. Once we’d done it it all made sense. But is was unlike any axle I’d dealt with before

The drive side dropout has the thread pitch stamped in it, which makes me think that bit is threaded.

The hex head on the drive side has me a bit flummoxed though. Possible it’s something to do with the machining process?

I’d say that the NDS should unscrew in the normal (anticlockwise) direction and might be helped by simultaneously unscrewing the drive side in a clockwise direction.

Agree with Scotroutes.

https://www.paragonmachineworks.com/frame-building-parts/inserts/polydrop/pa4111-right-side-polydrop-long-hanger-no-eyelets-m12-x-1-5.html

Looks like a one piece axle with Allen key fittings at both ends.

Turn NDS anti-clockwise, and DS clockwise to remove.

This is your axle, as above its a PolyDrop dropout by paragon machine works.

https://www.paragonmachineworks.com/replaceable-parts/axles-skewer/rear/sk4081-pmw-rear-combo-head-shimano-148-x-m12-x-1-5-no-nut.html

Its a one piece axle with hex at both ends, maybe get a socket on the non drive side for a bit more leverage. Don’t worry about the non driveside.

Thanks everyone, I’ll update in a bit. And apologies Paul, I misunderstood your comment earlier 🙂

It’s out! Thanks for the help 🙂