Bicycle Mechanics - quick release too short too/ too long?

So i'm putting together a bike so that my girly can ride with me. I had some 27inchers just lying around that I thought I'd use for her. Anyways, when I tighten the quick release as tight as possible it's still loose in the dropouts. What do I need to do to make them work?

tia

-ryan

You probably don't have the right size QR. They come in different sizes to match the distance between the dropouts. Fronts are mostly all the same size but rears are different from fronts and can be different sizes depending on how many gears the bike is designed to have in the back. Your LBS can probably dig up a cheap old QR if you tell them if it's front or rear and how many gears are on the bike.

So i'm putting together a bike so that my girly can ride with me. I had some 27inchers just lying around that I thought I'd use for her. Anyways, when I tighten the quick release as tight as possible it's still loose in the dropouts. What do I need to do to make them work?

tia

-ryan

A very common problem - particularly on rear wheels - is that the amount of axle protruding past the hub locknuts is too much. If that amount is equal to, or exceeds, the thickness of the dropouts, you will never get the QR tight enough. Just as you state. Take the QR skewer out and place the wheel in the dropouts. If either end of the axle is protruding past the outside surface of the dropout, or even flush with it, it needs to be trimmed down. The axle end should be at least 1mm short of being flush with the outside of the dropout, or the QR will not work properly.

It's possible that the wheels you had laying around were used on a bike that had thicker dropouts and worked just fine on that bike. You need to check that the axles are not now too long.

The classic symptom of this problem is that you think you have the rear wheel in tight and, as soon as you put pressure on the drive side pedal, it pulls forward, right out of the dropout on the drive side.

Yeah thats what I kept thinking. The axles are slightly longer. Instead of trimming them could I just use washers to make them shorter?

-ryan

Yeah thats what I kept thinking. The axles are slightly longer. Instead of trimming them could I just use washers to make them shorter?

-ryan

You could do that, but then you are going to have to spread your dropouts (some amount) every time you mount your wheel. It's not the best solution, but it will work. Just keep in mind that the ends of the axle MUST be less than flush with the outside of the dropout.