Not sure how this happened, but I just noticed both of my rear dropout set screws are bent pretty badly. Is there any reason I can’t remove them and ride without them (scheduled ride tomorrow a.m., no opportunity to fix this in the meantime), or is it essential to have these in place? (Felt S22 with horizontal dropouts). Thanks.
Why don’t you just leave them in place?
Why don’t you just leave them in place?
They are both bent at about a 30 degree angle, and one isn’t tight & deformed to the point I can’t get a wrench into it. It just seemed to me that whatever purpose these serve, they can’t be serving well in their current state, so just wondering if I can safely take them out until I have the chance to replace them.
Its been said before- the set screws are just there as guides. The thing that truly holds your wheel in place is the QR being properly clamped down.
Theoretically, you dont need em at all, as long as you can properly line up the wheel at the correct distance, and tighten it down.
Is it nice to have them there? sure. do you need them? dont think so
I have an older P2K, the one without the set screws. The only way for me to make this work is by using an older stl. steel skewer, the one you are supposed to use on a trainer. It then has to be closed very firmly. Any aluminum skewer doesn’t tighten the wheel enough, so the axle would actually shift when climbing out of the saddle. Not good.
So my suspicion is that the screws do provide more than just initially setting the wheel. I wished I had them.
…Theoretically, you dont need em at all, as long as you can properly line up the wheel at the correct distance, and tighten it down.
Is it nice to have them there? sure. do you need them? dont think so
Is there a trick to aligning the wheel properly without the screws? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I imagine not havng the wheel properly aligned could end badly & I’ve always relied on the screws for this.
Yeah, but… If you go that route, you may find the rear wheel slips when you reef on it, like climbing hard up a hill. I have found that using an older style steel skewer, either a campy or shimano with a steel face against the dropout will prevent this. A lot of the new cam style skewers are not so hot.
If you are in a pickle on a ride and find the wheel slipping like that, I’ve had good luck turning the skewer around and putting the lever on the derailleur side, it worked for some unknown reason.
The dropout screws hold the rear wheel in alignment and distanced from the frame. That’s why they are there. If the dropouts are perfectly aligned and the rear wheel perfectly dished and the size of wheel/tire doesn’t cause it to touch the frame - you don’t need the screws. Usually you need them.
The skewer is not designed to hold the hold the wheel from moving, only to help stablize it. Under heavy torque they will not hold the wheel in alignment (sprints, climbs). If you use the skewer to hold the wheel the threads will stretch and eventually the skewer will fail to be useful. The lightweight/Ti skewers will not last long, heavy duty steel may last a while.
If the screws are bent they may still be useful temporarily. If they keep the wheel in the right place then you can probably get away with it for a while. It may depend on which way they are bent. If they are bent into the dropout and wedged then they are stable, if pointing in or out from the frame then they are not stable. I rode with a bent screw for years with no problem. I always used the same wheel and adjusted the other side to get it aligned. worked perfectly. It was bent against the dropout (after i turned it to that point).
Still, you want to solve the problem, take them out and replace them. You may need to bend them back and this may snap them but you or the bike shop should be able to get them out. Don’t replace them with lightweight crap, use good strong screws.
You may notice on road bikes (and bikes without horizontal dropouts) that the dropouts are close to verticle. This is why they do not need set screws.
good luck
…The skewer is not designed to hold the hold the wheel from moving, only to help stablize it.
Thanks for the reply. The skewer is the only thing keeping the wheel from moving backwards, out of the frame, correct? Do you mean the skewer is not intended to keep the wheel from moving out of alignment?
I respectfully disagree with the statement that the skewer is not designed to hold the wheel from moving. That is exactly what the skewer is for. If the wheel is moving, there are other things going on that need to be addressed. Either the dropout faces aren’t aligned, the skewer isn’t holding tight enough, or something else. Many of the newer cam-style skewers are junk when it comes to holding a wheel in place on horizontal dropouts. The shimano and campy style skewers work great and often much better than the cam-style.
The skewer can not withstand the force of a hard pedal stroke over time.
Take that as a set of varialbles. A stong skewer can hold better, force is variable, time might be days, weeks, months.
The angle of the skewer is it’s issue. Pinch the ends of a 2 inch long tube between your finger and thumb, put a string around the tube and pull it with the other hand. It’s hard for your finger and thumb to hold the tube by squeezing it. The angle of the pull (string) is 90* from the force of the finger and thumb. The same for the skewer.
The frame dropouts, and in the case of horizontal dropouts the screws, hold the wheel in place against tension from the chain/cranks. That only holds in one direction - forward. The skewer holds in all other directions; up, down and back.
The skewer can help hold the wheel against the chain tension but, if used for that, it will eventually wear out or you will need a really stong skewer. The threads will stretch and it will require you to tighten it more and more as it wear out. People blame the skewer, the materials and the design, but acutally it is them that are not using the skewer properly - as intended.
I believe this was discussed some time ago at length as an issue with the cervelo P?. People were not using the set screws and expecting the skewer to hold the wheel in alignment. You may want to try a search.
JMHO - i’m not a wrench but i’ve had similar issues.
good luck