How tight should skewers be?

[Yellow Saddle]

No, I really didn't. I just thought it was obvious what @lpretro1 meant and the reply was both pedantic and deliberately misreading "bearings" as "balls" to make its claim true. Nothing was written about crushing the balls.

Either be a pedant or don't, it's all the same to me, but pedantry means you should be called out on misreading other posts.

I'm not perfect and have misread posts in the past. I'll grant you that I substituted balls for bearings but I did it so that I could give you an easy challenge to disprove your claim. It is easier to attempt to crush a single ball on an anvil than an entire bearing. But do try any of the two. The result is the same. They are made from the same material and are both equally hard.

I want to make three points:

1) Over tightening the skewers will crush neither balls nor the cups or any other bearing parts. The skewer lever will break off long before the bearing material yields.
2) You almost cannot over-tighten a skewer. It needs to be so tight that it is difficult to remove.
3) Badly adjusted bearings cannot cope with properly-tightened QRs and fail. However, it is the adjustment that's at fault, not the skewer user.

 

[Stantheman]

So maybe the skewer is not to tight then? I can undo it by hand but it's not easy.

 

[mjr]

I'm not perfect and have misread posts in the past. I'll grant you that I substituted balls for bearings but I did it so that I could give you an easy challenge to disprove your claim.

You're still misreading them. It's not my claim. Unless you think the rest of the internet is all made by one person?

1) Over tightening the skewers will crush neither balls nor the cups or any other bearing parts. The skewer lever will break off long before the bearing material yields.

It depends what you mean by "crush". I understood that it was the "pressure violently" meaning of "crush" there, not the "break into small pieces" one. Like many English words, most definitions offer alternative meanings.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

So maybe the skewer is not to tight then? I can undo it by hand but it's not easy.

Read the PDF I posted above.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

You're still misreading them. It's not my claim. Unless you think the rest of the internet is all made by one person?


It depends what you mean by "crush". I understood that it was the "pressure violently" meaning of "crush" there, not the "break into small pieces" one. Like many English words, most definitions offer alternative meanings.

Sorry, I got my wires cross with you and @lpretro1 It is he that's in trouble, but stay way from "crush".

 

[Stantheman]

Thanks for the PDF very helpful, I believe that the skewer is correctly tightened.

 

[simongt]

Or alternatively, unless you actually NEED ( i.e., you are racing and every second counts ) quick release skewers, fit security skewers; the ones with a hex bolt, easy to tighten and we've never yet had an issue with them on any of our bikes in the last eighteen years. This is assuming that like ALL good cyclists, you always carry a multi tool - !

 

[lpretro1]

Sorry, I got my wires cross with you and @lpretro1 It is he that's in trouble, but stay way from "crush".

I know what you say - but I mislaid my pedants's biuble today I'm afraid - the guy got the gist of what I was saying