Oh Lord. Here we go again.

Gran Turismo7058

Gran Turismo7058

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Today I was changing the rear tyre cause it was flat then I took off to go to my friends house and my front tyre flys off at not even 2 houses down my street. I was hurt and pretty damaged. I got a gash in my chin, scrapes on both of my arms, and a knot in my nee. Its hard for me to eat too, I hurts when I chew. I had a bad day, as you read this. the happened about 5 after something I dunno. My life sucks.
 
Tighten those nuts! The ones on your wheels too. Well, at least you couldn't have been going too fast if you're not even two houses down the street, right?

You didn't break any bones, did you?
 
No, Im pretty happy I didn't. If I did, Would I be on the computer? The Nuts were tighted when I left, I honestly couldn't even Budge them. I have no clue why it fell off, im really scared to ride that bike cause its like a death bike now.
 
Any chance the the nuts got jammed on the axle and didn't tighten up against the fork?

Sounds like it happened like that.
 
Maybe you're too weak too tighten them up properly. And what you could'nt budge may have not been on very tight at all. I'm just suggestion, not insulting.
 
He coulda hit the steering wheel. :lol:

My dad has a newer Snap-on air wrench thingy(there was a name for it, you know, you use it for lug nuts and stuff...), and several weeks ago, he had seberal cars coming back to him with loose wheels. The tool didn't produce the listed torque, though it acted like it was.

You could have thought you tightened the wheel, but you didn't.

And explain to me why you don't have the Quick-release axles? Are you riding a Huffy, Magna, Pacific, or anything bought from a dept. store? That would explain it.

Get a new bike. Regular wheel nuts are sooo the '80s. Even my '89 Giant Iguana has quick release front and back. You're BSing yourself by not having it.

Do you even know what quick release is Darin?

An somehow you figured out how to change the rear wheel? Or did you have help with it...it's really odd how you say this situation.
 
Here's a pic of the quick release in motion, pretty cool animation :lol:
SwingingQR2.gif


Here's a professional explaination(cause I can't explain it really well):
"First, note that the quick release handle is slightly curved. Almost all of them are built this way. Further, one side of the handle often has the word "open" and the other often says "closed". When the curve is pointing away from the bike (and the word open is visible) the quick release is loose, and your bike is unsafe. The picture above shows the quick release in an Open state. Not safe to ride.

To close the quick release swing the lever (see drawing) so that the curved handle points to the bike or the wheel, and the word "closed" is visible. You swing the lever like a door, you don't twist it or rotate it.

The lever swings about 180 degrees.

When swinging the lever from full open, to full closed, you should JUST start to feel some resistance when the lever is pointing straight out (sideways or perpendicular) from the wheel. This resistance should start getting harder at about the 2/3s way closed, and really hard up to the 3/4 point (still 1/4) open. Then it may get easier the rest of the way. Your lever has climbed "over the top" of its cam and is sort of rolling down the back side of its little wheel chock.

Note, that some brands just get progressivly tighter, and there is no perceptable feel of "going over the top".

How Tight is Tight Enough?
When the lever leaves a mark in your hand after closing it, its probably tight enough. The mark should not be bloody - lets not get crazy here... ;-) An indentation that lasts more than 5 or 10 seconds usually means you have pressed hard enough.

Preliminary Tuning
What if you don't feel any resistance, or you feel resistance even when its wide open? In either case your quick release needs to be adjusted.

Resistance when wide open
If your lever binds up or becomes hard to swing and it is still in the wide open position (the word Open is showing) then you have to unscrew (lefty-loosie, righty-tighty) the lever a bit. Now you may use the lever as if it were the handle of a wrench, (without fear of being laughed at) and unscrew it a half turn at a time, then try swinging the lever, then unscrew a bit more, till you get it so the resistance just starts to set in with the lever sticking straight out from the bike.

Resistance never felt, easy to swing from open to closed
In this case, you have to tighten the lever. First open it all the way. Then start rotating the lever like it was a wrench, and swinging the lever every half turn or so, until you just barely feel resistance when it is sticking straight out. If it is really loose, you may have to reach around to the other side of the bike wheel and hold onto the other end of the axle to keep the quick-release end-cap (or nut) from spinning. (Sometimes its easier to just spin the nut with your fingers while holding the lever straight out. When the nut gets hard to turn, you are near the proper adjustment.).

Final Positioning
After you get the resistance dialed in so it just starts getting tight with the lever at the 90 degree mark (sticking straight out from the wheel), grab the nut (other side of the wheel) with one hand, and the quick release with the other, (flip the lever to the full open position) and rotate the two together so that when you close the lever it will be pointing rearward, or parallel to the fork.

Warning: We are into religious territory now. There are people who feel quite strongly about the orientation of quick release levers.

On a bike used only on the road, as long as it is tight it can be pointing any which way. It really does not matter. On a bike you will ride off-road through brushy trails, point them rear-ward so a branch does not catch it and flip it open, as might happen if it were pointing forward. I said "might" happen. Never has happened to me, or anyone I know, but you hear stories....

Some folks like to align the quick release lever so that (when closed) it will be parallel to a solid piece of the bike, like the fork or chain-stay. This allows them to grab the release lever and the fork and really squeeze the two together. It also makes it harder to get your wheel off when you want to, because you can't get your hand behind the lever to pull it out. If you have small hands this technique may help, but if you have a weight-lifters grip, this is unnecessary, you putting more stress on the system than is necessary, unscrew a quarter turn and try again.

Nuts Vs Quick Releases
Quick releases are by far more reliable than nutted axles. Nuts will unscrew over time, but quick releases will not. The quick release is actually stretching the rod (skewers) that runs through the hollow axle to the nut on the other side. This stretching puts a great deal of pressure on the quick release nut on the other side, which has little teeth next to the bike frame. These little teeth dig in and make it impossible for the nut to come loose."

That's a hell of an explaination...

It's a ton better than regular nuts. I'll never use regular nuts on my bike again.
 
Ohh, and usually I have my quick release levers facing backwards for better aerodynamics, they are tighter, and there's less of a chance to catch clothing on it. It also look better and doesn't hit the paint on the frame like is shown in the animation. :)
 
Never put quick release on a bike with good rims.........people can steal them.

Use the power and protection of nuts and bolts and washers and everything else in between.
 
Alpha, you're wrong. Whenever I park my bike in public, I tie it to an un-moveable object, and I go through the frame and the front wheel. Chances are they won't bother with the back cause it takes long and they get dirty.

Is it fun taking off nuts when you put your bike in a car? All I have to do is undo the brakes, open the lever, and slide the front wheel off, it takes like 1 min max, and putting it back on is the same.

Also, with nuts, there's rust. Sure there's rust with quick release too, but all you have to do is hit the lever open with a hammer if it's rusted tight. With nuts, it can get bad. They strip, and you can be stuck.

It's just more practical to have quick release...
 
My bike is worth a few pennies so I make sure it's locked up at night. I did have my chain going through the back wheel, frame and front wheel (I have quick release and front shocks so its important to go through the front wheel). But we're doing some work in our garage now, so it's only going through the back wheel and frame. I'll tell you a little story. I went up to our holiday home from Dec 26th - Jan 13th and I didn't have my bike chained up in my garage. Came home rode around on my bike on the 14th and chained it up when I was finished. I went back up north with my dad on Jan 15th and that particular night, our garage back here in Auckland was broken into.They went through our cars and through the drawers we had in the room. I had chained my bike up the night before it was broken into. Lucky.
 
We don't have our bikes locked up in our garage. We always keep the overhead and side door down, the side door double locked too. And, if someone wanted to get into our garage they would have to make it through our gate(not locked, but the latch is tricky :lol:, and my dogs would hear the noise and start barking)and then the door.

Plus our 'hood is safe, there's a cop a block away, and others scattered throughout. The only thing that would draw a burgler to our place is the 5 cars on the driveway, but I'd assume that they wouldn't see the true beauty and just think "Ohh they're Mazdas". ;)

The only things I've had stolen from me were, not surprisingly, at school. Gym clothes(Why would anyone want to steal someone else's clothes?! It's mind boggling), pens and pencils(though I've gotten them all back, one was one of the prized Mazda Tech Training pencils, and it took me about 2 weeks to track it down and get it back. An older kid in my Spanish class last year. He had no answer when I asked him "How'd you get that pencil? They only give those to Mazda technicians." and I got it back and got cussed out by the kid), and my work(some wood in shop class, and countless times of people cheating off of me).

One of my friends had a bike stolen, and he found it wrecked several days later. It was a piece of crap, and his parents bought him a better bike afterwards, so it was to his benefit. :)
 
Ohh, and thanks Alphigo(Alpha-gigo, :D).

I should debate, but I don't like talking...I get all my thoughts out through the art of typing. :)
 
I have a quick release on my front tyre and I put one for my seat post. My bike's older than me, I'm guessing it's 17 or 18 years old now... I need to get a new bike, but my parents won't let me get anything over 200, let alone a 500 bike priced down from 580 because it's the last year's model...
 

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