Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
I will disagree with this statement. The most easily snagged position for a QR skewer lever to be at is when is points away from the stays/blades. For a front wheel this means pointing forwards or down. For a rear wheel down or rearwards. Having the skewer lever run parallel or slightly crossing the stay/blade reduces the ability for something to snag the lever as the frame acts as a guard of sorts. Additionally if a rear QR lever is positioned running rearwards the rider behind you might not like having their ft wheel trapped between yoiur lever and rear wheel when you slow down faster than they do and they overlap wheel with you.
I generally position the lever to run parallel to the blade or stay, just off enough to easily grab with you hand but not hanging out like a hook looking for it's fish. Andy
While I still believe that having the lever pointing to the rear is "best practice" (and I believe it's the way the designers intended), I can see some validity in your method IF the tip of the lever crosses the blade or the stay as that would offer some level of protection from a branch snagging the lever and popping it open. You lost me tho on your description of how the front wheel of a rider to the rear would somehow manage to wedge itself between the rear pointing QR lever and the rear wheel and pop the lever open. In a tight peloton of highly competitive riders, I would suppose the situation COULD present itself but for the majority of the rest of the cycling world, I doubt it. For the record, the position of the lever in the OP's photo does not seem to meet the description of how you describe the best method and I stand by my suggestion that it could be subject to being popped open if snagged by a branch! There's no need to start a "range war" over this issue so we may have to "agree to disagree"!