Hey, you know the two triangular prongs on the back of a bike frame which have the two notches where the back wheel fits into place?
Well, say your wheel hub is just a small increment too narrow, such that the hub only just rests in the notches – can you bend those two prongs inward just a little, so that there is a better seat in the notches?
Barring that, if you screw the skewer on really tight (it’s a quick-release which clamps down), is it okay to ride the bike this way until I can get another wheel?
Thanks for your advice, I’m kind of stuck with the status quo for a couple days at least.
An awkward dilemna brujaja. If the hub doesn’t fit you’re running the risk of it falling out mid-ride which could cause a crash. How much of a small increment are we talking about?
I would not try to bend the frame at all - assuming a steel bike that actually has a bit of flex in it, the dropouts are one of the weakest parts and you run the risk of permanently damaging them. Not worth it when you could just wait and get a correctly fitting hub.
If the hub is just too short by an arse hair, you could try and do the skewers up tightly and ride it round the front of your house to see what it’s like. I’d still be cautious with this - the skewer cannot maintain too much tightening torque. If it has to significantly flex the frame just to close then it won’t hold and could cause an accident.
Well, it’s not an axle (that’s the skewer), but the hub itself. The (back) wheel has a bunch of sprockets on one side, and a threaded cylindrical thing goes through the middle & protrudes on either side. On the sprocket side it’s really just an opening with a short lip that fits in the notch. So, I don’t think you could extend it by screwing a nut onto the hub, because
a) in order to fit over the outside of the hub it would necessarily have to be bigger around than the hub itself, so it wouldn’t fit in the notch, and
b) it’s carrying so much weight that you really want everything to be one piece.
Good thinking though, that works in many other situations. Thanks.
Actually, it is the axle. What type of bike is it? The notches that the axle fits into are called dropouts, and there are three standard spacings (the distance between the dropouts), BTW while you can refer to them as left and right they are usually called drive side, the side that the chain and cogs are on, and non-drive side. I’m just trying to explain the terms to make it easier if you end up going to a shop for repairs.
There are three standard spacing for geared bikes, 126 mm, 130mm, and 135 mm. The first two are road bike spacing (and 130 is used for most bikes these days) and the 135 mm spacing is for mountain bikes. Usually, you can use a 126mm hub in a 130mm frame, and a 130 mm hub in a 135 mm frame with little problem since the skewer will flex the dropouts closer together, but it’s not really ideal. The fix is to replace the axle, which is a job for a bike shop (or a new wheel if you want to spend the cash). First thing I’d do is determine what if the actual spacing of your frame is and the size of your current axle. Easy if you have the right tools to measure it, otherwise a shop could tell you pretty quickly.
Dag says good things. Whatever you do, don’t bend the dropouts. You can get a couple mm by squeezing with the quick release, but get things set up correctly as soon as you can.
I’ll just add that if this is a bike that may have been mistreated, it may be that the frame is bent. If the point halfway between the dropouts isn’t in line with the center of the rest of the frame, the bike needs to get realigned (the way to do it isn’t to bend the dropout itself, but the two tubes on each side that support the dropouts to the rest of the frame). It’s easy to bend them, but hard to get them in exactly the right place, so a job for a bike shop who does frame repairs.
