Originally Posted by kahn
So what purpose do those ridges/clips/lips serve? None. If I put the wheel back on and absentmindedly forget to tighten the nut, it is just the same as if I had placed a fork with none of that onto a wheel and forgot to flick the quick release.
Not all bike riders are mechanically inclined, and most don't even know how to remove a wheel.
However, I know of one 80s bike race in which six riders crashed, four quickly got up and recovered, but one rider did not see the flipped skewer and the wheel dislodged on a pothole sending him over the bars to break his clavical.
In the era of superlight skewers, I'm kinda glad those little nubs are there.