Mountain Bike Quick Release Standards

As always there are some exceptions but we will focus on modern axle standards that are supported by pub wheels.

Mountain bike quick release standards. The first crop of disc bikes used quick release with 100mm axle length at the front and either 130mm or 135mm at the rear. Many bikes sold still use frames with open dropouts. When choosing a quick release the most important things to note are skewer diameter skewer length materials and cam type. 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.

For most standard road and mtb bikes the wheel hubs will accommodate standard 5mm skewers. The width from one face of the hub to the other a k a. 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. Thru axles work better to keep wheels attached to the bike.

A guide to mountain bike axle standards. Quick release skewers were a huge innovation for cycling offering fast reliable wheel swaps. If it is a thru axle it would have a ta in the description such as 110ta. Again the axle is part of the hub.

These were used for many years on mountain bikes using 100mm front and 135mm rear axle spacing i e. Some wheels and forks have swappable end caps or dropout inserts allowing for the use of either. This works on frames with open dropouts only. Skewers use a camming mechanism to secure the wheel to u shaped fork dropouts.

Quick release thru axle. Then along came thru axles borrowed from mountain bikes where they. Which quick release is right for you. 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. Traditionally frames and forks had slotted dropouts. In bicycle nomenclature qr refers to a skewer and ta refers to a thru axle. Thru axles thread through the wheel hub and circular dropout holes.

So the width hasn t changed from quick release wheels on the front. The end of the quick release skewer era.