OK, now I know we call these things lawyer tabs, but are they truely required? I mean is there any federal guideline that forces these things to exist? The reason I ask is I have friend who just bought a tandem and his fork did have these. How did I find out? We had just pulled in after 15 miles and he picks up his front wheel to lean the tandem against a tree and the wheel fell off! Forget the fact that he should have known better. We are just courious if the the tabs “really” should have been on there. The LBS had no clue, but then again they refuse to stock anything that sells for more than $400.
I bet there is not a law…just they all do it…and I am always glad to bust out the file and remove them.
Sounds like your buddy just purchased a winning lottery ticket. The two of you should stage an accident, then you can sue the manufacturer and the LBS for gazillions of dollars because they carelessly left off the safety tabs…
Your experience is a perfect example of why they are there on most bikes and why filing them off (unless you are going to check all the time)is probably an exercise in ego more than anything else. For me, it is not inconvenient to spin the QR 2 or 3 turns.
I agree that there probably is not a law - but the term likely refers to the fact that some lawyers highly recommended them to insulate the mfr. from liability.
Now, as a custom in the industry, the absence of them can probably be used at trial to prove negligence or a design defect. So pull off the wheel and dive off your roof with the bike - then call your lawyer.
I had a lawyer friend of mine ask me to go take some photos for him a little while ago of a bike and a young lady who had come off said bike in a manner described above. It was an old ten speed without the tabs and she bent a wheel on it. The lbs replaced the standard wheel with a new one that had a quick release hub.
Her first ride in the park she went over a speed bump, the wheel parted company with the bike, her face made contact with the pavement, several of her teeth parted company with her head, several important brain functions parted company with her head and a very bright young university student is now sitting at home trying to comprehend “see spot run”. She was wearing a helmet. Very sad and, from what I saw, totally preventable.
J
Yep, totally preventable if the responsible person had simply checked their wheel. The rider.
I’m sorry to hear of people getting hurt and I think product liablility is in general a good thing. However, at what point does the manufactuer or bike shop’s liability end?
Lawyer KNOBS as we call them around here.
I never knew for sure what the reference was. I thought it was referring to the lawyers being knobs! Sorta like “super-models good” 
Personally I think the lawyer knobs/tabs are stupid. If you don’t have them, and the QR is not tight, the wheel falls off, alerting one that the QR is loose.
If the lawyer knobs ARE there, then the wheel can be on, very loosely, and CAUSE an accident!
at what point does the manufactuer or bike shop’s liability end?
I think somewhere else. Often, as here, there are relatively minor advances that Mfrs. can include to save a lot of lives, or teeth or whatever. It cannot be a big deal to the Mfr. So I would say in this case it is a balancing test. But once the competitor’s are doing it, a Co. takes their chances by being the odd (and more dangerous) man out.
However, at what point does the manufactuer or bike shop’s liability end?
Apparently when every product is safe for use by the dumbest person who could possibly use it!
While I agree trhe rider is responsible, the bs has to take some of the responsibility here as well. She went from a standard nut to a QR and two things happened (or did not happen) at that time.1: The shop didn’t notice or didn’t look at the fork at the dropouts and there was a hex pattern that didn’t correspond with the QR. The more you tightened it, the more you distorted the fork.
2: The shop didn’t tell her to tighten it or show her how. We take it for granted, but this was an old bike and an in-experienced rider. I will almost guarantee that your bike has a little sticker on it that says to check the wheel everytime you go for a ride. No sticker on this one. Thats there to protect the manufacturer and the shops.
It also happened right after she brought it home from the shop and she likely has a right to think that the shop has performed it’s job in replacing the wheel in a safe manner.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first person to say you must be responsible for yourself but a lot of things conspired here to allow this to happen. I didn’t follow the case as I just did the photos as a favour, so I don’t know the outcome, but I do know the definition of negligence and if it was my court, I would have had a good hard look at the shop.
J
P.S. The above should not be taken as critisism of bike shops. It is an account of one particular incident in one particular day from one particular shop.
I don’t see how they help: if you spin the QR a few extra turns to get the wheel off, it is extra loose; and if you forget to do it up, it can still fall out! All the lips do is make it a pain to remove the wheel.
Best reason to own a Dremel tool. I will admit that the lbs in JohnG’s story sounds suspect, however I will always maintain that lawyer tabs are just like those reflectors that come on cheap training wheels - meant to be removed as soon as the bike is brought home, not unlike smashing a champagne bottle on the side of a ship on its maiden voyage.
I think TomD said it best when he once strongly recommended that one leave the tabs on the fork unmolested, and that no-one look at the forks on his bike either. 
I worked in a shop for 10 years. The reason the tabs are on a fork is because of liability reasons. We live in a litigious society, where no one takes responsibility for their own actions. I have had customers ask me to file off their tabs for them, and I always refused…even to let them use my files to take them off. This is something that could come back and haunt you later…things like losing your house. If someone did not tighten their quick releases correctly, I would be responsible for the fact that the wheel came off. So be careful what you do unto others…and their bikes.
And yes, I filed my own tabs off of my forks…I am a road racer…seconds count when you flat in a race.
“At what point does the BS or manufacturer liability end?” I recall an instance where an individual in the Northeast(a teenager) had bought a bike from a shop then he took off the reflectors and went out riding one evening ,wearing dark clothing of course. And was struck by a car. The lawyers had a field day.The lawsuit started from the bike company all the way to the salesperson,stating that noone told him not to do that. In this day and age I don’t know where our liability ends. I’d think some common sense would prevail.I mean if you decide to drill out your brake levers or components of your bike thats your undertaking.
Robert
my take would be some kind of a note at the point of sale indicating no liablity if a bike is modified in any way by the person buying it - or something similar
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I think that I need to send a letter to all the car companies on the planet and be sure that future cars do not ship with a lug wrench in the trunk - someone may take off the lug nuts and cause a wheel to fall off and crash…
It’s been done and the manufacturers now protect us from ourselves by putting warning labels on the tire kit that refer you to the owners manual, putting detailed instructions in the manual etc and suggesting that you have proffesional do it.
The day I have someone change a tire (other than on my race car) is the day I give my tool chests to my sons.
J
Race car?
This probably is not the fault of lawyers.
Let’s just say, hypothetically, you manufactured and sold a product. For no increased cost, you could set up your machine tools to make one of the parts with a little extra tab on it that might prevent one of your idiot customers from killing or seriously injuring themselves. The smart customers who don’t like the little tab can easily file it off so both the id
What would you do?
In the US anyway the CPSC has regulations that require them though there are exceptions for custom forks and I think for those over a certain price where presumably the buyer is bright enough to understand the infinite complexity of a QR.
I file them off immediately because they are a pain in the ass and tantamount to tatooing “fred” on your forehead.
Stupid people will always find a way to get hurt and I don’t think anything should be done to try and stop them. Just keep them from hurting the intelligent bystanders and hope they die before they breed.