Free Sample
The Complete Handbook of Bicycle Wheel Axles & Skewers
A practical field reference for mechanics, retailers, framebuilders, and riders: how to select, fit, service, and profit from every axle and skewer type in current production.
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: Understanding Bicycle Wheel Axles & Skewers
As a wheel builder in the mid-1990s, I saw a steady stream of bikes come into the shop with a very specific failure. The rider would describe a sudden, violent shimmy at speed, or a front wheel that would occasionally pull to one side. The cause was almost always the same: a loose quick-release skewer. The cam mechanism, which should have been tightened with a firm, deliberate action, had been gently flipped into the closed position by a rider who didn't want to struggle with it. The result was a wheel that was held in the dropouts by friction alone, and friction is not a reliable fastener. That simple, mechanical misunderstanding is the perfect starting point for this book. An axle and skewer is not a passive spacer. It is a precision clamping tool, engineered to hold one of the most safety-critical interfaces on a bicycle under a range of loads and conditions.
Let's be precise about what we are talking about. The axle is the central shaft that the wheel's hub bearings rotate around. It is the structural core of the wheel, transferring the rider's weight and the road's impact forces to the frame or fork. The skewer, in the case of a quick-release system, is the thin rod that passes through the hollow axle and is used to clamp the wheel securely into the dropouts. It consists of a threaded barrel at one end, a cam lever at the