My Cervelo P2C rear wheel cutout is driving me insane - I wish I never had a cutout in the first place.
Specifically, one of the screws which control the distance of the wheel to the frame backed into the frame in less than 6 months. When it fails, your wheel jams into the frame on one side. Walked home - sucked.
Backed the screw out so the wheel would spin again, seemed ok even on light pedaling on the trainer, then took it to my triathlon - where it backed right into the frame again and cost me 8 minutes on the bike leg as I needed another screwdriver and a lot of messing around to keep it from completely jamming into the frame…
Brought it to LBS, who changed the screw and said it would work great.
Took it out this morning, and after 2 hard pedals, the screw backed right into the frame AGAIN. This time, I’m sure it’s not the screw, and I suspect the screw threads in the frame have failed.
Don’t know how long my bike will be out, but I don’t think this will be an easy fix if they need to rethread the frame so the screw will seat again.
Has anyone else had this problem? It seems odd to me that an area like that subject to so much pressure, would be controlled by a weak screw. (My bike is <1 yr old - hopefully the warrantee will cover anything major they need to do.)
My Cervelo P2C rear wheel cutout is driving me insane - I wish I never had a cutout in the first place.
Specifically, one of the screws which control the distance of the wheel to the frame backed into the frame in less than 6 months. When it fails, your wheel jams into the frame on one side. Walked home - sucked.
Backed the screw out so the wheel would spin again, seemed ok even on light pedaling on the trainer, then took it to my triathlon - where it backed right into the frame again and cost me 8 minutes on the bike leg as I needed another screwdriver and a lot of messing around to keep it from completely jamming into the frame…
Brought it to LBS, who changed the screw and said it would work great.
Took it out this morning, and after 2 hard pedals, the screw backed right into the frame AGAIN. This time, I’m sure it’s not the screw, and I suspect the screw threads in the frame have failed.
Don’t know how long my bike will be out, but I don’t think this will be an easy fix if they need to rethread the frame so the screw will seat again.
Has anyone else had this problem? It seems odd to me that an area like that subject to so much pressure, would be controlled by a weak screw. (My bike is <1 yr old - hopefully the warrantee will cover anything major they need to do.)
You could put some sort of spacer between the screw head and the frame, this could be several small nuts.
It seems odd to me that an area like that subject to so much pressure, would be controlled by a weak screw.
It’s not controlled by a weak screw. The screws are there to help you line up the wheel. The job of holding the wheel in place is done by the quick release and skewer. Make that tight enough and the wheel won’t move even without any screws in there at all.
I’ve had similar issues and you may already be doing this, but make sure that the quick release is clamped down really tight. To tell the truth, one of my dropout screws is broken so I just set the wheel where I want it and then close the quick release so it’s very tight and that seems to work ok.
I doubt loctite would solve my problem. Or would it? The screw backs into the frame only after I put a lot of pressure on the pedal - I would guess that this pressure would far exceed anything that loctite could put up, as it’s not a cementer.
I did try tightening the QR lever a lot, but even that doesn’t work, particularly once I hit a hill - there’s a “crunch” as you hear the screw drop back into the frame, and then my rear tire comes to an abrupt stop as it hits the frame.
I will NEVER buy another bike with an aggressive rear-wheel cutout - it’s just too much of a hassle once things go wrong, for a miniscule time advantage. (Likely <10 seconds, if not <5 seconds per hour at 25mph)
Are you using a cheap skewer? Mine will move a bit with a ‘trainer’ skewer. It doesn’t move at all with a good skewer - HED, Zipp, DT, etc. regardless of the alignment screws.
Actually, that’s a possibility. I am in fact using my CycleOps rear skewer. I will try swapping it out and seeing what happens, although I’ll still need the screw seating fixed, as it’s likely stripped.
Sometimes the issue is the width of your wheel axle.
If it is short - or does not cover the head of the dropout adjustment screw sufficiently, then when you load up the cranks with power it bends the screw ( which cants the wheel to 1 side ). To check I would leave the rear wheel flush in the dropout but take out your skewer to see if the axle seems wide enough from behind
The problem is your skewer without a doubt, I refer to the cyclops skewers as Ghetto Skewers they are only good on the trainer & do not hold up on the road at all. I had the same problem on my P2C. Also I changed out the screws to a slightly longer screw which seemed to help as well.
Another recommendation for swapping your skewers. I have an older P2k from before they even had the spacer screws and had this problem all the time with my old Nimble skewers. Then switched to Dura Ace skewers & problem solved.
One other option that also worked for me - lower profile tires.
Another vote for the skewer… My P3sl had the right limit screw bend on a ride and allowed the wheel to get sucked up into the seatstay. Like you, I thought, “oh shit”! Took both screws out and tightened the skewer tighter, as it should have been. The screws are there only to set the the spacing distance. Just a scary lesson we learned!!
Get one of the higher-end Mavic QR skewers, like the one that comes with the Ksyriums. You can order just a rear only for like $30 from Excel or wherever. Hands down, the best clamping force of any skewer I’ve ever used (Shimano DA & XT, Campy record, Zipp, Salsa… you name it).
as for the screws, i agree they can be a PITA… I tried using loc-tite (blue) to keep them from rattling loose and losing the adjustment for a particular wheel, but then when I wanted to change the distance for a different wheel/tire, it was stuck and I ended up stripping the phillips head. but again, that’s just a convenience aid to set the cutout gap consistently, not hold the wheel in place.
