bikeslob

I drove my bike across the country a couple of days ago. To make it fit in my car, I had to take the wheels off. I have not ridden it since.

I got the rear wheel reattached with no problems, but I somehow managed to screw the quick-release skewer on the front wheel far too tightly. Like, so much so that I couldn't even push the lever in to secure the skewer. I left the bike, with the front wheel askew, in this condition for about a day and a half. I finally managed to remove the wheel from the fork after a ten minute process involving a set of pliers and a lot of leverage.

I worry that leaving the wheel on the fork with a too-tight skewer might have damaged my bike's fork and the wheel itself. When I spin the wheel I feel some vibration coming from the hub. Does this mean the ball bearings are messed up? Is it dangerous to ride a wheel that doesn't spin completely smoothly?

Is the possibility of damage to the fork a serious concern? I worry that the quick-release could have bent the two tines in too far. I haven't seen any cracks in it. It's chro-moly, if that means anything.

Jeff Wills

It's hard to imagine that you could tighten the skewer that tightly without power tools. I'll bet the bearings were already rough and you're just noticing it now. I'd recommend you take it to a bike shop for evaluation and a lesson on using the QR skewer correctly. This may help:
https://bicycletutor.com/remove-install-wheels/

It is even less likely that you damaged your fork with the skewer.

deep_sky

+1 to doubting you busted the wheel/fork with your skewer. When my LBS replaced my rear cassette, they apparently decided that ass tight was not enough, they needed double ass tight to affix the skewer in the dropouts. I near gave myself a hernia trying to get the skewer released to replace the tire. When I reinstalled the wheel, I chose only ass tight to make the skewer. Yes I quantify the level of tightness by tight, ass tight, double ass tight, and beyond that its probably affixed with loctite

bikeslob

I don't know why the quick-realease was so hard to unscrew, but it was very, very tight. Perhaps it was threaded on wrong?

I should clarify, this is a cheap wheel (50ish bucks). I guess its reasonable to expect it to wear out.

So if my wheel is damaged, what is the problem most likely to be, and is it possible to refurbish the wheel instead of buying a new one?

My previous experiences with the only bike shop in reasonable distance of me have been extremely unpleasant. They've given bad advice and charged too much for shoddy work. If I can keep riding this wheel as is, I'd prefer to do that.

Are any of the problems my wheel may have serious enough that it would be dangerous for me to keep riding on it?

deep_sky

The skewer goes through the hub, and then binds to the dropouts when the QR mechanism is engaged. How I do it is spin the nut side until its loosely finger tight, then start pressing in the lever to see how much binding pressure its applying. I like to keep the lever at a certain spot cause that spot is what the local LBS said is the deepest the lever can go, and thus is most effective. If its pressing in too easily, I start tightening the nut side, and then keep spinning and depressing, spinning and depressing, until I am satisfied that the compression of the QR mech is sufficient. Now my LBS likes to be thorough, so they installed it double ass tight (must have used a wrench to tighten the nut), but I find that to be a bit excessive. You just want to ensure that the skewer is securely binding to both dropouts.

If you flip the bike upside down and dont engage the qr at all and spin the wheel, does the wheel bind against the brakes or the fork , spin roughly, or wobble like its out of true?