The Q/R is a fantastic invention and a wonderful device that, like a fork or a knife or even a spoon (or even a cotton ball, or aspirin, or water), can be misused, resulting in death or worse. It's a *&^*&%$##@ dilemma for --- well, I can't really say "all bike makers" because most put them on & forgettaboutit. If you don't put them on, you risk getting sued. They're not required by law. Their absence is no sign of .... anything bad. They devolved in the '70s on Schwinns and have taken various forms--- Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan, the Devil, Prince of Darkness---since then. They make the q/r into an s/r, which is why for years they never appeared on good bikes. BITD it was understood that if you got a decent bike, you knew how to close a q/r. The q/r mechanism/magic is an "overlocking taper," the same gizmo that makes a Vise Grip lock when closed properly. When closed properly it can't vibrate open. It would be like a ball rolling up hill, or a box hopping up stairs. But as bikes have gone mainstream unexperts buy expensive bikes and don't learn how to use the q/r, lawsuits are a problem.
Every owners manual has instructions on how to use the q/r. In the Bstone days we devoted catalogue pages to it, and offered Q/R TRAINING DEVICES to dealers (they were custom made, and I brazed in a few dozen dropouts myself). At RIV we continued to drive it in. Some people still don't do it right. We have a Youtube video on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afZHVFwcYX8 So....HERE, we used to NOT put them on the bikes we sold direct, and DID use them on bikes that we also offered through dealers...the idea being that we didn't have access to their customers, so we couldn't show or explain or emphasize or find out if they already knew. The bike industry's standard owners manual has the info. I played a minor role in editing it, and paid super attention to the q/r part. A friend and the guy who shot photos for the Bstone Endangered Species and Lug calendars illustrated it. The guy who shifted my catalogue course in the Bstone days was the main author of it. I've been deeply involved in this junk forever, and --- well, I've got another story whose time to tell isn't right now, but it's a humdinger and there's no ending yet. Here's how you close a q/r: With the lever part perpindicular to the frame (sticking straight out), hand-tighten the nut on the other side of the q/r until it jams up against the dropout and you can't turn it anymore. At this point, CLOSING the q/r should require some force. A six year old can't do it. A ten-year old tuffy can. Any adult who can't is too weak to ride a bike. Close it, making sure it's sorta hard to. You usually have to grab the fork or some spokes to provide leverage, or opposition or something. When closed properly, the lever will be more or less parallel with the frame. Maybe sticking INWARD a bit. Closing it should feel like clamping down properly with a Vise Grip. Sometimes somebuddy says the lever should point to the rear. Sometimes, parallel with the fork blade. The truth is it doesn't matter. If it pokes forward, what gonna happen---? ---is something going to get in btw the lever and the spokes and somehow apply enough outward force to open the q/r? And is that going to happen without the bike crashing way before it happens? Impossible. Buddha and Beelzebub in tandem couldn't make it happen. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
