Are skewer clamps slowing my wheels down?

[scottyjames]

I have a pair of Ritchey wheels (Aero OCR or some such) on my cx bike, and I've found that if I tighten the skewers too much, especially on the rear, that the wheels spin much less freely than if the skewer is clamped with less pressure. It's not like I'm really cranking the thing down, either -- I'm using the same kind of moderate pressure that I use on all my other wheels, which as far as I can tell don't exhibit this pressure-sensitive characteristic and roll just fine no matter how tightly they're clamped. There's nothing funky with the spacing either -- they're 130 road wheels going into 130 dropouts. My worry is that for them to spin freely, I can't clamp them tightly enough to be sure that everything won't come apart in the event of mayhem. Any thoughts on all this? Thanks.

[AngryScientist]

I have a pair of Ritchey wheels (Aero OCR or some such) on my cx bike, and I've found that if I tighten the skewers too much, especially on the rear, that the wheels spin much less freely than if the skewer is clamped with less pressure. It's not like I'm really cranking the thing down, either -- I'm using the same kind of moderate pressure that I use on all my other wheels, which as far as I can tell don't exhibit this pressure-sensitive characteristic and roll just fine no matter how tightly they're clamped. There's nothing funky with the spacing either -- they're 130 road wheels going into 130 dropouts. My worry is that for them to spin freely, I can't clamp them tightly enough to be sure that everything won't come apart in the event of mayhem. Any thoughts on all this? Thanks.

are the bearings on those wheels adjustable? there is a certain amount of play in every bearing system, and adjustable bearings need to have the cones adjusted to be just ever so slightly loose enough to be at the optimal preload when the skewers are clamped....

[benitosan1972]

^agreed. take the Wheelset to your LBS to check the cones/bearings,
they simply need to be adjusted and/or cleaned & tightened? I think that
Ritcheys use the same pesky bearing setup as American Classic, etc with the
different sized micro-bearings (sealed) in front vs larger (sealed) bearings in rear? I had a hard time adjusting those wheels myself, but the mechanic did it in a second, and the wheels were much smoother after that. Getting everything disassembled is a bit odd if you've never done it before.

[scottyjames]

Thanks guys. That's a big help. Off to the shop I go.