mnmkpedals 

I am finally getting around to tinkering with a (REVISED) 1985 Cimarron I bought in the spring.

Going to build it into a heavier duty touring style rig for a mix of on and some light off-road touring. Anyway, it has the (as far as I can tell) original wheels which are Araya 26x1.5 rims with pretty nice shimano high flange sealed bearing hubs. Just now realized they are bolt-on, which from checking the posts and pics in here seem to also be the old stock.

I have an alternative pair of QR wheels and could use those, but I am wondering about draw backs? Aside from the obvious quick-release. Is there any other reasons why I need to go to QR? Beyond convenience and some ease? Or, perhaps to look at it in reverse, any burning or good reason to keep the bolt-on set?

icepick_trotsky 

You can replace the axles in your current bolt-on wheels with quick releases. There's no good reason to use bolt-ons outside of fixed gear riding.

How to:
Jim Langley's Bicycle Beat: Q&A: Making a Bolt-On Front Wheel Into a Quick-Release

degan

My Cannondale SM800 from around the same time also had bolt wheels for some reason. The bike is near the top of the line so I just assumed that someone switched it over to bolt on from QR at some point in the past until I dug a little further. I guess it was a thing bike companies did at the time.

The Golden Boy 

Looking forward to seeing this!

I just ordered a set of "butterfly" trekking bars for my High Sierra.

Best!

I was just thinking about this the other day... These bikes are decidedly "mountain bikes." They come from that tail end of the "touring" buzzword into the "mountianbike" buzzword. The Cimarron and the High Sierra were pretty much what a LHT is now, but I think with a higher BB.

That long wheelbase is pre MB-1 geometry, the dual eyelets on the dropouts and fork ends are and the mid fork low rider braze on really show off that they're built as "expedition tourers." The only thing they lack is bottle bosses on the underside of the downtube.

I'm really excited to see how someone else approaches this- I'm really disappointed in how I've done mine. It's such a cool bike, the concept is outrageously cool, the idea of using fillet brazing is so cool and unique, and the fork is really something special- the lugged unicrown- because they were afraid a regular welded unicrown wouldn't handle the stresses.

arex

This is good to know.

non-fixie 

Well, there's one - in my country at least: a better chance your wheels don't get stolen.

eschlwc

a qr modification story ...

i can normally find $5 hollow axles (in the used bin at my lbs) that fit the solid axle hub parts from the lower-mid-level road bikes i sometimes refurbish. it's a nice little upgrade i can do for the next owner. but my last mod of this type for an '84 schwinn didn't go so well. i searched and searched for a hollow axle, and couldn't find one. i tested the axle's dimensions to find it was 3/8"x26tpi. i called around, and shops thought i was calling from the year 1984. then i found this site:

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!...k/zC92sz06iYMJ

it states i could use a 9.5 axle in place of the 3/8" schwinn one. i found a 'wheels manufacturing' 9.5 on ebay for $16, hacksawed it down to size, and it worked perfectly.

.

nobody wants to carry around a heavy wrench with him for changing a flat on a touring bike.

The Golden Boy 

I was just listening to a story on NPR about the guy who impounds illegally parked bikes in Amsterdam.

davester

Note that the bike museum spec listing shows the '86 as having quick release (QR) hubs Schwinn Specs so perhaps those aren't original.

Having broken a number of rear axles while touring with heavy loads, it makes sense to me that a bike designed for loaded touring back in the days of 6-speed freewheels (i.e. at the limit of axle strength for a freewheel hub) might be fitted or retrofitted with a solid axle for a little bit of extra strength.

thumpism 

Lots of early mountain bikes had bolt on wheels and not QR, even at the top of the line. The nutted wheels might slow down a wheel thief. If the hubs are decent there's no reason not to keep using them.

mnmkpedals 

Thanks for that link. Been looking for exactly that info. Turns out I was wrong. Mine's an 85!

4funbikes

85 had the shimano hb-mn72 hubs. They are first Generation Deore XT hubs.

mnmkpedals 

^^
Yep, that's what I have. They're pretty nice. Not gonna mess with them, I don't think.

Fidbloke

I would say the opposite: There's no good reason to use QR hubs outside a track or race event.

QR hubs allow you to get the wheels off quickly, and without tools, but that's about it.

Nutted hubs will slow a thief down a bit, as they scrabble for the spanner. The daftest thing I ever heard of were 'theft resistant' QR skewers. You need to carry a TOOL to undo the damn things, just so you can get the wheels off! Why not have nutted hubs and take a spanner with you.?

I think the QR marketing has gone completely out of control now, as they seem to appear on even the nastiest supermarket BSO nowadays. What's going on here.? Has the world gone mad.?

Ex Pres 

The need to remove the front wheel to attach to a rook rack, haul in the trunk, etc. yes, an everyride occurrence.

tjkoko

In early 1987 I purchased a red Cimarron that came with QR hubs.

davester

I'm not sure why you're getting your knickers in a twist over quick release skewers. As noted by Ex Pres, there are plenty of reasons to want to get the wheels off easily for many people. I frequently take the wheels off our family's bikes to facilitate car transport. It would be a royal PITA without QRs and I'd be up a creek if I lost the wrench.

Also, if your bike has QR hubs already it is generally cheaper and easier to buy some theft resistant skewers than to change out the axle, plus you have the advantage that you can use those skewers for commuting but then do a super quick changeout if you're travelling (by car) with your bike Not daft at all.

Fidbloke

Yeah. Maybe I went a bit overboard with the 'Smite the Unbelievers' there...
I do the odd voluntary shift in a local community bike kitchen place and we see people coming in with skewers hung up in all sorts of funny ways, and the wheels hanging off. I can see that they'd be quicker to remove (without tools), but so many people seem to have problems with them that I still think it would be easier to have nutted axles instead. QR skewers are a nice idea if you know how to use them, but they're a disaster in the hands of the wrong people. That's where a lot of my grumpy attitude came from...
I'm still not sure about theft resistant ones though. It seem that you're throwing away much of the advantage of QR, to make them theft resistant. I suppose that your comment about swapping them for commuting and rural riding makes sense though.

OK. I'll get back in my box...

thumpism 

Right. This is where lawyer nubs came from. The bike boom introduced the QR skewer to the great unwashed. So many people could not or did not properly operate QR skewers, with the result that lots of wheels fell off moving bikes and lots of bike companies got sued, that the "safety" fork tips were mandated by the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission), along with lots of other groovy stuff we'd not otherwise have, like pedal reflectors, wheel reflectors, three-angle reflectors instead of flat ones, spoke protectors (AKA pie plate or dork disc), etc. All things designed and ordered to protect us from ourselves.

brianinc-ville

Yep, also true in the U.S. -- if this bike is going to spend a lot of time parked on the street in a city, the bolt-on axle is a bonus. Otherwise, I'm not really sure that the solid axle is stronger than the hollow QR axle. I've broken a bunch of the latter on loaded six-speed bikes, but I've also seen (sorry, can't find it now) an explanation by an engineer of why the hollow design is actually stronger.

brianinc-ville

If you need a car to ride a bike, you're doing it wrong...

Ex Pres 

I do agree with you there - and I realize the irony of driving to go ride. My excuse is my old & out of shape legs having to climb over two miles straight out of the gate, cold, to get over the hill to my favorite LBS and group ride start. Add to that the last time I did ride from home I was nearly hit by a pick-up, and then the guy threatened to get out of his truck and beat me up - all this while his ~15yo daughter is in the passenger seat. It's safer riding in groups around here.

brianinc-ville

Yep, I've been to the 35223, and I believe you. The 27858 isn't a lot better. But (wrong forum for this, I know) this is why we should all be working to improve bike routes in the Sunbelt sprawl. It can be done!

Yep, I've been to the 35223. I believe you. The 27858 isn't a lot better.

Ex Pres 

Well, next time you're down, hit me up & let's ride. I was in 27893 just a couple weeks ago, but had no time (unless I skipped the beefmastor). I did get RT out on the road once a few years ago during a business trip up there.

brianinc-ville

Ah, yes, the Beefmastor. Too much of that stuff, and you'll definitely need a stronger rear axle.