cyrano138

No particular reason other than that I kind of just don't like qr.

Any thoughts? Both are older 70s/80s road bikes. Does anyone know for sure what the diameter of those old hollow qr axles was?

I can measure but I never quite know if I'm measuring the diameter of the axle correctly. Do you measure over the threads, between them, in the middle where there's no thread?
How long should the axles be? Both bikes are 100 in front and 126 in the rear.

Bill Kapaun

Usually they would be 10mm rear & 9mm front.
There are other sizes like 3/8x?? etc. but they're typically on the lower end bikes.

IF you had the brand & model# of the hub......

Crankycrank

You could also replace the QR skewers with some security skewers. Most need their own special wrench but it's also usually small to carry with you and you have the added bonus of these making your wheels harder to steal. (1) security axles skewers for bicycles - Bing

cyrano138

I figured 9mm and 10mm. I can look at the brand today.

cyrano138

Security was a thought. I'll check those out. Thanks

2old

I did it with a Shimano rear cassette hub once (already had an appropriate axle in my parts bin) in order to convert to SS. Very easy with the only consideration getting the cones adjusted which was simple.

Moe Zhoost

F/R are usually 9mm/10mm with 1.0mm thread pitch for hollow axles. Most front solid axles will be 8mm diameter, though track hubs usually have 9mm axles. Also, there are a lot of Japanese solid axles that are 5/16" x 26 tpi. As long as the new axle is designed for the same size bearing balls, threading and diameter usually don't matter assuming that you plan to replace the cones (except that an 8mm axle may not fit well in a fork end designed for a 9mm axle). Keep in mind that you will need a longer axle (20-25 mm) to allow for the nuts.

Good luck

JohnDThompson 

Most front hub axles will be 9mm x 1mm thread; rear hub axles 10mm x 1mm thread. There are exceptions, notably Campagnolo and some clones, e.g. Ofmega, Miche, Gipiemme, which use 9mm x 26tpi front and 10mm x 26tpi rear. Others may include tandems (oversize axles front and rear), older American bikes (SAE spec diameter and thread) and some British bikes (Whitworth thread spec).

cyrano138

Of course it couldn't have been one or two standard sizes.
The wheels in the bike in question (an 86 or 87 Schwinn Le tour) are weinmann lp 18. I'll have to see what hubs. I have a thread measuring tool and few other wheels have what I know to be 9 front/10 rear, so I'll see what matches up. Thanks guys!

JohnDThompson 

The rims may be Weinmann, but what are the hubs? My guess for a Schwinn of that era would be something Japanese, Suzue, Sanshin, Shimano, etc., maybe Atom/Maillard from France. In which case, bog-standard 9x1 and 10x1 are most likely.

That is the decisive test.

cyrano138

Well, no clue.
I guess whatever hubs wheelmaster is throwing onto the wineman dp-18s aren't worth putting a brand on.