Couple of times recently i’ve picked up my lads bike and the rear QR has been loose. I’ve re-tightened it but again it was loose.

Today i stuck the 29er Turbo wheel in and he set off on a Zwift Tour, but as i was working he then told me it was slipping gears, when i looked after his ride, the QR was hanging off and the Skewer was bent. Now this is a different QR skewer to his usual wheel as it was the Turbo QR not the MTB QR. Now i possibly accept when fitting i hadn’t done this one tight enough but i thought i had.

So the question is, does a QR dropping from the frame happen to others ? I don’t seem to have had it often over the years… and if so, why… Obviously one side is frame and the other side Mech Hanger, could a worn Mech hanger be the issue here ?

I’ve fitted a new Skewer onto his MTB wheel and a new one onto the turbo wheel.

Bike is a 2017 Liv Embolden, which i may order a new mech hanger for anyway. But a better thought process would be appreciated.

Thoughts appreciated.

Have a good look at the dropouts inside and out. I wouldn’t expect the hanger to be the cause but this is an odd one. Are they decent skewers like, shimano? Cheap ones can be rubbish.

The one fitted previously, looks very cheap and cheerful. I’ve fitted a decent one now for the MTB wheel that i had in the spares box. It’s an On-One El Guapo one, which looks more substantial than the previous one.
The turbo one is one of them horrible squared off blocky ones specifically for turbos, but i’ve used it for several years… This one could be a bit of a red herring as i may simply have not tightened it enough earlier when rushing about to get him ready for his event. But the MTB skewer has deffo been loose more than i think it should have been.

QR skewers don’t last for ever. They work on a cam principle to secure them but a lot of people tighten them up far too tightly. The lever should push into position with very little effort – I’ve seen people tighten the lever end with the lever closed and a spanner on the other end! The skewers stretch and the threads wear over time and this is accelerated by the overtightening. I would replace with new and, like cynic-al says, check the dropout faces are clean.

Another vote for look at the dropout contact faces.
We once had a Trek frame replaced under warranty – the jaw of the dropout was very shallow so there was only contact on about half the qr clamp face. Over time the wheel would move and start rubbing the rear disc/caliper. Got worse over time as the faces and qr wore.
They had never seen the problem before, but strangely the next year replacement frame had exactly the same dropout forging, but they’d modified the tooling to make the jaw deeper….

Also, does it have the ball ended Giant qr skewers? Lad’s cx had them and they are pretty poor / got replaced with Shimano qr.

Also, does it have the ball ended Giant qr skewers

No. I don’t think the QR is the one that came with bike

They work on a cam principle to secure them but a lot of people tighten them up far too tightly. The lever should push into position with very little effort

On the other hand I’ve been told that it should leave an imprint in the hand on tightening, and have witnessed many people’s come undone that were simply tightened with virtually no effort. It’s no wonder they come undone.

Or, ditch the cam and go DT RWS. If you can get a 9/10mm axle in then use the thru-bolt type.

One thing we can be sure about is that it’s certainly the user’s fault irrespective of design 🙂

Your Qr isn’t listed on the On One website but I bet it’s an external cam thing and like most of them and most of OO stuff piss poor quality alloy. (alright that’s unfair on OO but not where Qrs are concerned. Yes that’s your GOOD one I am talking about!
Just ditch it and use a normal steel Shimano or Campag internal cam one.
Pardon me for asking but you are screwing the nut end up as adjustment and levering the cam end over aren’t you? I must ask as many time have I seen them used as a one ended wing nut.

Pardon me for asking but you are screwing the nut end up as adjustment and levering the cam end over aren’t you?

Yes mate, that’s correct.

Any bike with vertical dropouts should be capable of holding a QR hub pretty solidly in position without doing up the QR. When fitting a wheel I always slacken off the lever when the wheels are on the ground to let the axle self-centre.

If there is a lot of play in any direction when trying this (or if the wheel won’t centre properly) then I would suspect some deformation to one of the dropouts. Has the chain got mangled up in the mech at some point and twisted the hanger? Is one of the slots oversized or is a dropout no longer parallel?

Has the chain got mangled up in the mech at some point and twisted the hanger? Is one of the slots oversized or is a dropout no longer parallel

That’s what I’m going to check tomorrow

I would suspect the dropouts from the start.

You sometimes get this problem on a frame that has been cold-set, eg to a bigger or smaller OLD at the rear. If the dropouts have not been checked afterwards, they may not be completely parallel. The result is you can close your QR nice and tight, but the faces of the axle and QR faces can fret and work loose.

It’s a problem sometimes seen on SS conversions on steel road bikes when they squeeze the ends in to fit a 120 instead of a 126/130 axle, and then complain about their wheel nuts coming loose despite being tightened with a huge spanner. Many put that down to their impressive calf muscles, but now we know the real reason…. 🙂

No matter what I do the rear qr on my On-one Fatty keeps coming loose. It is an external cam type, and if I could, I’d replace it with a Shimano type, but I can’t as it is too long. 170mm old I think.

I have made a wee catch retainer to stop the qr axle, and hence the hub axle being pulled out of the dropout. This is a wee bit of alloy, that is shaped and bolted to a pivot on the rack mount. It works a bit like a locking latch. This seems to work well, but I still get creaks from the qr zone…

If you are using a QR then use Shimano. If you don’t have a Shimano then let me know. I’ve likely got one kicking about in the garage that you can have.

Shimano all the way. Alloy ones (Deore upwards) if possible as they are very much lighter than the steel ones.

Check the rear triangle isn’t out of alignment. If not riding the bike can cause the rear wheel to shift regardless of how tight the QR is done up.

Check that you don’t have a broken axle. Use a Shimano skewer and do it up quite tight with your hands. The cam should start to engage when the lever is pointing out straight, then should be tight to close and you should feel it go over-center as it fully closes.

The skewers stretch and the threads wear over time and this is accelerated by the overtightening.

The skewers will not stretch from tightening by hand as tight as hard as you can, they are made from steel and are not stressed past their yield strength. The aluminium level is much weaker than the steel skewer, so you will bend or break that before you stretch the skewer. Putting a long spanner on them to increase leverage might damage them, but your hands are not strong enough to stretch a steel skewer.

The threads will not wear out from tightening the skewer with your fingers. They will suffer from corrosion or from unscrewing them when they are full of grit, but this will generally require tools to put enough torque onto the skewer – your hands are not strong enough to damage the threads and properly lubricated steel threads don’t wear out from being wound on and off without any load.

Cheers all. I’ve ordered a Shimano one. So that will go on this weekend for outdoor use.

Clean and lubed qr is more effective than a dirty or dry one.

My bikes are always spotless, even the QRs etc, greased in right places, correct lube, etc… Yes, even my lads bike. I take a crazy ammount of care of bikes.
Makes me laugh every time i turn up to ride “You not been riding for the past few months then?”
“yeah, i was out yesterday, i just cleaned it as i do after every ride”.

QR was cleaned, lubed etc only 2-3 weeks back.

should be tight to close and you should feel it go over-center as it fully closes.

This is the important factor in decent QR designs. The cam gives it’s maximum force before fully closed. To go loose it requires an increased force to go back past the over center position.

Last minor update…. got a reply from Tredz who have found the part as it was showing as discontinued and the mech hanger is available and only £8.70

So i’ve got one of them coming too 🙂