Is there any reason why I shouldn't use a QR skewer on the rear wheel of a singlespeed?
How did we manage all those years with horizontal dropouts? A QR will work fine under the following conditions:
1: Use a steel skewer with an enclosed cam, i.e. genuine Campag or Shimano, not some boutique shit
2: Forged dropouts. Cheap pressed ones tend to slip, probably a combination of not being properly flat and high surface hardness from the sheet rolling process.
3: Avoid small chainrings. Old road bikes had no less than 42t chainrings, so stick to that as a minimum. Smaller ring = higher chain tension for a given driving torque, and it's chain tension which pulls your wheel out of the dropouts.
How did we manage all those years with horizontal dropouts? A QR will work fine under the following conditions:
1: Use a steel skewer with an enclosed cam, i.e. genuine Campag or Shimano, not some boutique shit
2: Forged dropouts. Cheap pressed ones tend to slip, probably a combination of not being properly flat and high surface hardness from the sheet rolling process.
3: Avoid small chainrings. Old road bikes had no less than 42t chainrings, so stick to that as a minimum. Smaller ring = higher chain tension for a given driving torque, and it's chain tension which pulls your wheel out of the dropouts.