Mountain Bike Quick Release Standards

Skewers use a camming mechanism to secure the wheel to u shaped fork dropouts.

Mountain bike quick release standards.

So the width hasn t changed from quick release wheels on the front. Thru axles thread through the wheel hub and circular dropout holes. The width from one face of the hub to the other a k a. If it is a thru axle it would have a ta in the description such as 110ta.

Thru axles work better to keep wheels attached to the bike. The end of the quick release skewer era. For most standard road and mtb bikes the wheel hubs will accommodate standard 5mm skewers. Some wheels and forks have swappable end caps or dropout inserts allowing for the use of either.

The long time standard for rear hubs was 135mm width with a 10mm diameter hollow axle and a 5mm quick release. The first crop of disc bikes used quick release with 100mm axle length at the front and either 130mm or 135mm at the rear. In bicycle nomenclature qr refers to a skewer and ta refers to a thru axle. Old quick release hubs and 142 x 12mm thru axle hubs have the same widths between the hub flanges so there is no change in terms of hub flange positioning and wheel strength and stiffness.

Which quick release is right for you. Many bikes sold still use frames with open dropouts. Quick release thru axle. Quick release skewers were a huge innovation for cycling offering fast reliable wheel swaps.

Then along came thru axles borrowed from mountain bikes where they. Mountain bikes mostly use a 15x100mm front thru axle and you might still find a few road bikes that adopted that standard early on but 12 100 is more future proof for road. However the latest generation of bolt through mtb forks and frames utilizes larger diameter axles for additional. Quick release skewers are now mostly found on cheaper bikes jonny ashelford immediate media.

A guide to mountain bike axle standards. As always there are some exceptions but we will focus on modern axle standards that are supported by pub wheels. Again the axle is part of the hub. When choosing a quick release the most important things to note are skewer diameter skewer length materials and cam type.

Both quick release skewers and thru axles are metal rods that keep bicycle wheels in place. Traditionally frames and forks had slotted dropouts.