Solid or Q/R Axles for Singlespeed

[Alembicbassman]

Need to buy some new wheels for my singlespeed conversion

Most are sold with QR skewers

Can I use these or is it best to use solid axles?

 

[Smokin Joe]

QR is perfectly ok.

A solid axle at the rear was often recommended for fixed wheel bikes as the QR was not reckoned to have enough clamping force to prevent the wheel pulling over, but in the days of screw-on freewheels hubs often came with fixed gear threading on the other side and I and many others used them with fixed in the winter with no issues.

 

[Basil.B]

Got QR on my Singlespeed, no problems.

 

[Alembicbassman]

The QR axles were a bit long for the skinny steel dropouts with a couple of mm protruding so I installed solid cr-mo axles with nuts. Also makes the bike more secure when parked up.

 

[biggs682]

i have used q/r on all my singlespeeders so far with no issues

 

[brockers]

When people refer to singlespeed, do they actually mean fixed? I'm being rhetorical here.

 

[fossyant]

Singlespeed is just one gear but freewheel. Fixed is one gear fixed.

My bike is known by the kids on our road as the 'can't stop pedalling bike'.

 

[ColinJ]

I've never understood why people are perfectly happen to use QRs with multi-geared bikes but think the rear wheel will suddenly pull out if they only have one gear! Do they think that rear mechs somehow lock rear wheels in place?

 

[Alembicbassman]

I assume it's because you're likely to put a lot more torque into the system on a SS than a multispeed when climbing.

I'm running a 44/17 on a 559 (26" wheel) and tried a couple of hills today and was turning the cranks down to about 40 rpm.

On my multispeed I would have been running 36/28 (700c wheel) at about 70-80 rpm

My SS also has horizontal dropouts whereas my multispeed bikes have vertical dropouts.

The force is therefore pulling towards the open fork on an SS, which would not be the case on a track fork or vertical dropout.

 

[ColinJ]

I assume it's because you're likely to put a lot more torque into the system on a SS than a multispeed when climbing.

I'm running a 44/17 on a 559 (26" wheel) and tried a couple of hills today and was turning the cranks down to about 40 rpm.

On my multispeed I would have been running 36/28 (700c wheel) at about 70-80 rpm

True, but would people worry about the rear wheel coming out in any gear ratio on their geared bikes? I've certainly never thought about it.

I do occasionally stay in too high a gear when I think I can power up a short steep hill but run out of steam halfway up! (To be honest - I did pull my wheel out a couple of months ago doing that but the QR was a bit looser than I'd normally have it.)

 

[tyred]

I make no claims to be a strong rider but I have managed to pull the wheel on a S-A 3 speed bike when I was satisfied the nuts were done up tightly.