discussed lately? which way for rear quick release lever?

[eddief]

I met an ex bike racer in 1973 who told me rear quick release levers should be locacted at the top of the axle with the lever facing toward the rear parallel to the ground.

My recollection was he said if they were closed this way then they would never catch on anything sticking out as you go forward.

I know this won't work on breezer drop outs, but is this strictly personal preference or are there good reasons to close the levers in a certain way?

[Dude]

It depends, if you are mtn. biking i'd say do it the way your buddy taught you. If you are road racing or pacelining or anything, I'd say that is bad. In a pack, if you have to grab a lot of brake and someone narrowly misses your rear wheel and hits that skewer lever, thats gonna suck.

I usually try to stick it up between the seatstays and chainstays. It is fully protected there. If you can't put it in there, I say have it forward, parallel to the chainstay (again, unless its on a mtn. bike).

[Ozz]

,,,I usually try to stick it up between the seatstays and chainstays. It is fully protected there. If you can't put it in there, I say have it forward, parallel to the chainstay (again, unless its on a mtn. bike).
yeah, what the Dude said....."the Dude abides."

[Kevan]

I set mine for the 10:00 position, but my shop, when they ticker with it always leave it pointing at 3:00. The odds of having a wheel popped free by another rider's wheel have to be in the lottery-level odds.

Could be wrong; anyone ever had the joy?

[Fixed]

bro my bud who was a team wrench always points em up ie fast wheel change.

[Cadence230]

Foward position of lever I assume is so the guy behind ya does'nt hang up on it in case of an errant positon of his/her front wheel. I can't work it with my little weak hands wortha damn. I keep it in the forward/awkward position anyway...taking one for the team.

[sc53]

The odds of having a wheel popped free by another rider's wheel have to be in the lottery-level odds.

Did you read that Starbucks napkin thread?????

[MartyE]

parallel with seat stay or fork. It's
protected, can't catch on anything and looks
neat and tidy.
what more is there?

marty

[Argos]

MartyE,

Nice Avatar.

You pimp.

[Kevan]

Did you read that Starbucks napkin thread?????


that's Mega Millions Lottery level kinda stuff.

[Bruce K]

James, Oh JJAAMMEESS..... :rolleyes:

I definitely laughed, but isn't that avatar just a LITTLE much? :confused:

BK

[Kevan]

that would be an Ashiatsu treatment.

[scrooge]

I believe I remember seeing a picture of Eddy M. recently with both skewers pointed towards the middle of the bike. If he knows anything...

[ericmurphy]

This one involves a squirrel, that ubiquitous menace to wheels, spokes, forks, and chainrings everywhere:

I'm coming off a long downhill in Marin county, with another rider drafting me. We're going ~32 mph. A pickup truck passes us, and in its wake, I see something I doubt anyone sees even once in their life: a squirrel, sliding down the road at maybe 15 miles an hour, legs and tail splayed out, pinwheeling like a hockey puck, fur rippling in the breeze. Has he been run over by the pickup, or only winged? Or was he merely sucked into the slipstream? Either way, it's got to be one of the weirdest rides any squirrel has ever experienced. Probably has road rash all over the pads of his feet.

As the squirrel eventually slides to a stop, he starts to stagger off to the side of the road. From my perspective, closing at 30+ mph, I can't tell if he's injured, or merely dizzy after spinning at 120 rpms for 50 feet.

But as he's stumbling across the road, I'm approaching at 45 feet per second, and I was only a hundred feet back when I saw him. He's crawling right into my path! Am I going to hit him, or not? I'm screaming for him to get out of my way (obviously I'm radically overestimating the intellectual capacity of squirrels), but he doesn't even look in my direction. I could not have missed him by more than six inches. I'm braced for a thump from my rear wheel, but it never comes. The rider behind me (who's probably like 300 milliseconds behind me) has to lock up the brakes to avoid squirrel impact. But he thinks the squirrel might have passed between his wheels.

And one more squirrel story, only slightly less improbable. A few weeks previous, I'm riding up a mile-long, 5-6% grade in Marin. I look up ahead of me, and I see a squirrel, trotting up the road, taking a lane. He's probably doing about 8 mph. I come up behind him at maybe 12 mph, and when he sees me (squirrels kind of do have eyes in the backs of their heads), he darts to the side of the road, hops up on the guard rail, and paces me for maybe fifty feet before jumping up into a tree. He's doing maybe 12 mph, in a straight line, running along the top of the guard rail. His legs are moving so fast I can't even see them. I don't think I've ever seen a squirrel run so fast in a straight line before.

I mean, I could have seen the point if he'd been sprinting to beat me to the top, but we were less than halfway up the hill when he bailed. I guess squirrels aren't great in the endurance department.

[Ray]

I'm braced for a thump from my rear wheel, but it never comes. The rider behind me (who's probably like 300 milliseconds behind me) has to lock up the brakes to avoid squirrel impact. But he thinks the squirrel might have passed between his wheels.
Should never take evasive action to miss a squirrel. I've hit all sorts of the little varmits, going uphill, going downhill, honking in the flats, and while I never quite gets USED to it, the little crunches that result have never thrown me offline or threatened to take me down. But trying to miss one could get you killed. My bro-in-law (apologies to Fixed) messed up his face and arm pretty badly all for the sake of saving a squirrel once.

I think squirrels have evolved (or intellegent designed, or whatever) over several squirrel generations to deal pretty well with cars - they hear 'em, stand up on hind legs to make sure which way they're coming from, and take amazing evasive action just in the knick of time. And the few that don't, well no little offspring coming from those loins, further selecting the fittest of the herd. But they don't know WHAT to make of bicycles - we're too quiet and too skinny and too slow - it just messes up the critters finely honed instincts.

So, don't try to avoid them. Of course, if I'd had your experience with a napkin, I'd probably be trying to avoid suspended OXYGEN for fear of what could happen.

-Ray

[csm]

I have seen the result of a squirrel jumping through the front wheel; well, not quite through... half of him made. there was blood and gray fur on the fork blades, downtubes and front wheel. steel frame and fork; frame was able to be algined, fork totaled and the wheel came out with a little truing. they don't make 'em like that anymore. btw, I built the wheel. 32 h bladed spokes I think. wasn't me riding though. I didn't believe it until I saw the bike.
somewhat off topic but related to animal carnage... in the trucking industry, we teach our drivers to hit whatever animal gets in front of them. much cheaper and safer. deer, moose, etc. we had a driver hit a well-antlered deer a few years back. his rack, on the way under the truck, did some damage to the various brakelines.

[jdoiv]

I was on a ride back in 1990 or so, with the local club. We are pretty far into the ride, and the group is fairly spread out. I'm following another rider by about 50 yards, trying to catch back onto his wheel as I've bonked. I'm looking up the road at him when out of the tall grass next to the road, this rather large brown creature, waddles/scurries/crawls out of the grass and runs right between his wheels. His real wheel rolls over the creature and just about sends the guy flying out of his saddle. Shocked, at having not seen it approach from the weeds, he comes to a quick stop and is looking around to see what it is he ran over. I pull up and we watch the wounded GROUND HOG limp/scurry back into the weeds. Small blood trail going behind it. Wacky that a slow ground hog managed to jump out of the bushes and go right under his rear wheel and survive (at least we think it lived).
Wackiest thing I've ever seen get run over by a bicycle.

[MartyE]

what?
I've had that avatar for a good 6 months now.
James, if you think it's over the top send
me a pm and I'll change it.

Marty