Quick release lever - which direction?

grudfuttle

I had a bit of a disagreement with a couple of my mountain bike buddies on Sunday, and I'd like to find out who's right - them or me.

The discussion was about which direction the wheel quick release lever should point when locked. For the front wheel my two pals are convinced the lever should be locked vertically, pointing upwards alongside the fork. I say it should be locked horizontally and facing backwards. My argument being that the wheel/fork has four main directions of travel; up, down, forward and backward. The majority of the time it travels forwards (obviously), and for a considerable amount of time it bounces upwards and downwards. Therefore, locking the QR and leaving the lever pointing in any of these three positions and there is a risk something my snag on, and open, the lever. Whereas, the wheel/fork motion is almost never (hopefully) in reverse, so this is the safest direction to leave the QR lever pointing; there's less opportunity for anything to snag and open it.
They didn't seem to have much of an reason for why the lever should point upwards; personally I suspect they just thought it looked better way! I maintain that pointing it upwards is possibly the worst direction - the very moment you don't want the QR lever to snag open is when the forks are travelling upwards, leaving the wheel behind!

Can anyone shed any light on which is the correct way to leave the lever when locked?

Regards, Grudfuttle.

cat_with_no_tail

Personally, I'm with you on this one grudfuttle

delcol

i always have mine up paralel with the fork leg,..

i have had mine undo on me while riding the wheel didn't fall out,, i think it was error on my part as i hadn't tightened it enough...

i guess there's no real right or wrong way of doing them it's just personal choice...

i have mine the way it came from the shop /manufacture

stevieboy

I have mine:

Front - Up

Rear - Facing forward

No issues so far.

Northwind

Whichever way fits best with your particular frame and fork, IMO. I don't care which way they point but I don't want them exposed, so I try and keep the levers in close to the metal- removes the chance of them getting bumped or catching on something, however slim that must be.

bikaholic

Sorry to appear to sit on the fence on this one, but both you and your two pals are correct.

Different QR skewers lock in different ways, and fork dropouts also have a contributing factor.

For example, the best way to lock a Mavic QR (supplied with Mavic Crossmax SL wheels) onto RockShox forks is to do them up with the lever horizontally pointing towards the back wheel.

With the cheaper Shimano plated skewers, locking them just off the vertical, so that the curve of lever fits around the curve of the fork leg, works best.

Imho, for safety and aesthetic reasons, the wrong way to do them up would be to have the lever point forwards or vertically, parallel to the fork leg with space more than 5mm inbetween.

Woodenleg

There is a risk as the OP describes. personally whilst I agree ,I tend to have front upwards, rear forwards (it looks nicer!), but my choice of route would generally pose little problem. For others though?
But with the front wheel the shoulders on the front fork would retain the wheel should the QR open - I find I need to undo the opposite side in the region of 4 turns to free the wheel completely. maybe not all forks are like this though?

paul.skibum

I have Mavic wheels and as one poster says they work well horizontal pointing back on the front but my ols shimano ones pointed up alongside the leg. Rear pts fwd tucked between seat and chainstay.

I have both mine on the disc side - is that normal?!

daverey

I'm sure I've read somewhere that for the front the lever should be vertically up in line with the fork - that way if it's tough to do up properly you can use the fork as something to pull on with your fingers.

same applies to the back, but you then have the option of either of the rear triangle posts to lever against.

Alternatively, the above could possibly be b*ll*cks, but there you go.

stumpyjon

Front facing backwards for the same reason as you. I don't like it against the fork leg, it's difficult to get my fingers behind to open it if it's really tight. Rear ones only tend to close properly in one position so I don't have much choice.

stevet1992

just to add to the discussion ... what side do you have the levers ? now ive been told (probally correctly) that they should both be on the non- drive side ... where as i like to keep the back one non drive side (to avoid the rear mech) but have the front one drive side to avoid the caliper, any right way on this or just preference ?

EDIT : got my sides wrong :oops:

Northwind

I had a look at mine tonight... The Soul has them both on the left, the Kraken has the front on the right and the back on the left, I think, the Courier has them both on the right... and my brother's horrible Saracen has big rusty bolts

grumsta

One word - Maxle

Raymondavalon

grumsta wrote:

One word - Maxle

+1 on that.. but even that has a lever.. :¬)

grumsta

Yeah but if the QR came loose on the Maxle it is still impossible for the wheel to come out.

adb1006

Like this for me
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12608892

cee

I like my front qr thingy to be back and roughly horizontal...this way it also protects the rebound control on the fork from rocks bouncing up.

on the back wheel, it is on the same side as the cassette, and faces forward and slightly up (so that it slots into a nice gap on the dropout frame mount.)

other mates have theirs different.

Thermo1

I think the risk of a wheel falling out of the fork was lessened when we got "lawyer tabs" on the fork dropouts.

grudfuttle

grumsta wrote:

One word - Maxle

One word - What does Maxle mean?

OK so four words. But still, what does Maxle mean?...


Grudfuttle.

grumsta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02HeyLFO9sM

grudfuttle

Pretty nifty. And I see he likes to have the QR lever pointing backwards too. Good enough for me.

Thanks for that grumsta.

Grudfuttle.

The Big Cheese

vertically aligned to my forks.. always have and always will... its a OCD thing!!