Originally Posted by
bulgie
In Harlan's defense, he also sold a cutter for machining* a circular groove in the face of the dropout, for the slow-release to positively key into. I have the tool (I'm a toolaholic) but I have never used it! The only bike I had with the wing-skewer had chrome-plated dropout faces, and I assume the chrome would dull that cutter, like instantly. Even tool steel properly hardened shouldn't be used on chrome.
*Is it "machining" if you just turn the cutter by hand?
Harlan must live in some sort of protective field... how did QR skewers end up having to add various mechanisms to make it nearly(?) impossible to hurt yourself with them, but Harlans half wingnut never caused him to get hauled into court?? Was he just too small for the CPSC to see? Or was it that the parts didn't have any manufacturer marks for the lawyers to find?
Or did you have to have some "expertise" just to order his stuff, unlike the random mom and pop that found their way into a Schwinn shop?
Of course, some folks with expertise were not fond of Harlan's work. I recall Larry Black at the 2018 CR gathering giving a talk about Harlan's pedal, with various digressions into some of the unusual things he saw when he visited Harlan's production space. It was quite the talk!
Steve in Peoria