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Help! I'm a dumb-ass, broke quick release lever...

13216 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by bulC, Aug 11, 2004

Lord09

Discussion Starter · Aug 10, 2004

Hello all,

As the title says, I'm a real dum-ass. My bike had this weird vibration and reading over the manual, it says the tire when mounted shouldn't have any movement at all. Well, moving around the rear wheel, I noticed a slight left-right movement, maybe a mm or two max. Is this normal?

So, I attempted to tighten the rear wheel and after looking at the front wheel, I noticed that the quick release was tightened with some kind of death grip. I'm not exactly the biggest guy, but I couldn't get the front release to come off. The front has no movement whatsoever btw. So I attempted to apply similar force to the rear, since it came off relatively easy. But in doing so, I heard a snap and the quick release lever comes off. Jeebus.... that really sucked....

So I'm just wondering what my options are now. It's some kind of shimano low end hub. Can I email shimano to ask for another lever? Are they universal? Can I ask my LBS or order one online? I hope I don't need a new hub or anything.

As you can tell, I'm a real noob for bike maintanence... here's a picture. All help would be appreciated...

Thanks a lot...

DP

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Low_Rider

· #2 · Aug 10, 2004

Nasty... you shouldn't need to do a quick-release up that tight mate!!

I'd take your bike down to your LBS.... you can easily buy quick-release skewers aftermarket. As for your movement, it may not be a loose quick release, but your cones (that screw onto your axel and run up against your wheel bearings) have come a bit loose, again an easy fix, but I think you would be best taking it to your LBS.

Back to your quick release though, you should never have to use anything apart from your bare hands to do them up.

Hope that helps,

Cheers, Dave.

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Darkan

· #3 · Aug 10, 2004

Skewer

Sounds like all you broke was the skewer handle. No biggie. New skewers are cheap (or expensive...like everything else in mountain biking). Anywhere between $10 and $60 bucks. They are just rods that go thru the hub and tighten on either side of the fork or frame.

example... http://www.pricepoint.com/thumb/3-Parts-71-Skewers-False.htm

As Low_Rider says, take the bike to a local bike shop. They will hook you up with some new skewers and will show you the proper tightness.

Dave

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Lord09

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 10, 2004

Thanks a lot guys, I don't feel that bad now... I thought it'd a while to somehow get the parts... didn't even know the technical name for it...

This forum is the best....

^^

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Lord09

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 11, 2004

Ok, got a new skewer and haven't had time to bring my bike to the LBS, but may go there this weekend when I don't have work.

I installed the new skewer, but still a slight movement... anyone have an idea what it could be? Could it be the cassette? I can't imagine what else it could be....

Really confused and would appreciate any help...

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bulC

· #6 · Aug 11, 2004

hub cones

I installed the new skewer, but still a slight movement... anyone have an idea what it could be? Could it be the cassette? I can't imagine what else it could be....

Really confused and would appreciate any help...[/QUOTE]

if you have a hub with loose ball bearings, like shitmanos, the play means your hub cones are loose and need to be adjusted. you need special thin cone wrenches to do this. If you've never done the deed, go to your LBS and get them to let you watch, it ain't hard.
If you have some kind of yuppie boutique nonstandard hub, you might have sealed cartridge bearings in there, in which case the bearings might be shot, or there might be a way to tighten the tension against the bearing cartridges, I dunno, these vary with brand. Like with some Mavic freehubs, I know if you tighten the axle ends against the cartridge bearings, the freehub starts sticking and not turning smoothly.
As for over-tightening the Q/R skewer: You're not entirely off base there. With normal ball bearing hubs, the cone adjustment is affected to a small degree by the tightness of the skewer. If you adjust the cones perfectly with the wheel off the bike, when you install it again and tighten the Q/R, the adjustment will be a little too tight. So you have to compensate by allowing a very slight amount of play in the axle when adjusting the cones, then the play goes away when the wheel is installed. How much play to allow is the art of it, though once you figure it out by trial and error, you will know forevermore.

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