Originally Posted by godspiral
I'm not that experienced with Quick release wheels, but a couple of times now, even though I thought it was very tight, and the wheels started out straight, the back tire has ended up scraping against the chain stay for "no good reason."
So were the invention of QRs a conspiracy between bike thieves and tire makers?
Should I tighten down the QRs with pliars? The wheel was actually very difficult to release the last time. I imagine if I had tightened it with tools, I wouldn't of been able to reset it on the road.
If your QR's don't hold your wheel tightly enough, even with horizontal dropouts, you're doing something wrong. There are several possibilities:
1. If your axle is too long, the QR won't hold. The axle can't extend past either dropout by even the tiniest bit. Check this first before wating your time doing anything else.
2. A QR isn't a wong nut. Many people use them improperly. Hold the QR lever parallel with the axle and tighten the nut on the opposite side until it's just finger tight. Now push the lever in perpendicular with the axle with your hand. That will be much tighter and hold better than using the QR like a wing nut. No tools are necessary.
3. All QR's aren't created equally. A genuine Shimano or Campy QR, or a clone that hides the mechanism on the inside, will hold much better than one that has an exposed cam.