Some help with Specialized hubs & axles please....

IanTrcp

I wonder if one of you can help me with this.

I have a 2012 Specialized Epic S-works 29er frame, built up (by a previous owner) with various components including what I believe are 2012MY Rockshox SIDs with the Specialized Brain. They may be 2011 - despite much determined googling I haven't confidently located the relevant manual to confirm which they are. Anyway....

Fitted to the bike are a set of Roval alloy wheels. I saw the carbon "Trail" version of these at a knock-down price and thought I'd treat myself. I've sorted out the rear fit with the supplied end caps, but - to my surprise - have run into trouble up front despite the bag of end-caps supplied with the new wheels. I think that the forks have a non-standard bolt through axle. None of the supplied end-caps work.

Here's a picture of the old wheel/hub with the axle:



And here's a picture of the new wheel/hub, which (as you can see) is far larger in diameter:



I'm hoping that my new wheels can be used with the existing fork/axle setup. Perhaps with a set of end caps or an axle adapter? If someone could help me work out what I need, I'd be really grateful!

Thank you in advance.

supersonic

What were your original wheels/hubs? You may have a 9mm thru bolt set up or standard quick release - either fit a normal quick release dropout SID. Sid are only available in quick release dropouts are 15mm.

IanTrcp

supersonic wrote:

What were your original wheels/hubs? You may have a 9mm thru bolt set up or standard quick release - either fit a normal quick release dropout SID. Sid are only available in quick release dropouts are 15mm.

Thank you for responding supersonic. My original hub/axle is in the first picture. It's not a q/r, so presumably the 9mm bolt-through to which you refer?

I'm afraid I don't really understand your second and third sentences. I'm sorry if I'm being a little slow.

IanTrcp

Additional pics might help....

SID forks with wheel in place:


And with wheel removed to show dropouts:

The Rookie

You could get the QR adaptors drilled out to take the 9mm bolt through by a decent machine shop.

rockmonkeysc

The Rookie wrote:

You could get the QR adaptors drilled out to take the 9mm bolt through by a decent machine shop.

A decent machine shop wouldn't touch that. The risk of it failing far outweighs the few pounds profit.

The Rookie

Except anyone with an engineering background will know it's no weaker than it is now when installed, so not sure why they would, besides they aren't specifying the machining. No reason why it wouldn't work.

njee20

Have you tried the end caps off your old wheel? can't tell from what you're saying.

You need 9mm end caps, any Spesh dealer should be able to get them. Or you can fit a standard QR skewer to what you have on the new wheels.

I'd not mess around machining out the caps myself.

IanTrcp

njee20 wrote:

You need 9mm end caps, any Spesh dealer should be able to get them. Or you can fit a standard QR skewer to what you have on the new wheels.

Great! The old-fashioned q/r end caps seem to fit and work solidly with a q/r. I'll use those for now, and see if I can order in a set of 9mm end caps so I can go back to the bolt-through which I assume is better than the q/r.

Thank you -really appreciated.

njee20

Never really been a fan of the 9mm thru axles, you have a huge clamping surface with the Roval wheels and RS forks, I'm not entirely sure a 9mm axle really adds much myself. QR is potentially lighter too.

rockmonkeysc

The Rookie wrote:

Except anyone with an engineering background will know it's no weaker than it is now when installed, so not sure why they would, besides they aren't specifying the machining. No reason why it wouldn't work.

How exactly did you determine that it's no weaker?
As a mechanical engineer I couldn't determine that just by looking at a photo.

The Rookie

Because the bits you will have machined off feed all their loads into the bit left, so the bit left will take the same loads feeding into the bearing as they did before, obvious really.

rockmonkeysc

That's a bit of an assumption there. I have seen various failures caused by assumtion over load dynamics. It's not always as obvious as it looks.

The Rookie

No, but tell me where else the load goes but through that same piece of metal?