I have always installed my front wheel with the quick release lever on the drive side. But, more often than not, I see and find bikes with the lever on the drive side. Is this a performance, or maintenance concern? Just wondering which side the front quick release lever should be installed on...

Mine is on the ND side.
Jon

My front QRs are all on the non-drive side, just to be consistent with the rear, which I always put on the non-drive side to stay out of the way of the RD and cabling. But other than consistency or aesthetics, I don't see any functional reason for the front QR to be one way or another.

Convention is to install it on the left. A few years ago, there was a huge Trek recall of quick release levers because of a user error issue wherein some people were putting them on wrong and they would catch on the disc brake rotor.

A really simple solution would be to install quick releases on the right hand side.

I think it's just one of those conventions, like putting the tire label at the valve, that make it easy to for a mechanic to work quickly.

Always on the non-drive side. That helps counter balance the weight from the cranks, derailleurs....etc.

I think it must have been a defective design -- hence the recall/replacement (and external cam, which, when used with disc brakes, is a defective design, ipso facto.)

For tight handed people, it is more convenient on the ND side. Face the bike, release the brake, release the lever, and remove the wheel.
it would be difficult for the rear to be on the drive side. I start the clamp with the left hand and finish with the right. Strange to think about somethinf I've been doing for over forty years.

I don't use Q/R skewers; I use Pitlocks.

When working on the front of my bike, I "address" it head-on; and, because I'm right-handed, it's more convenient to have the Pitlock device on the non-drive side. OTOH, if it's something on the drive side, I locate myself next to the rear derailleur; in which case I have the Pitlock device on the drive side, because it doesn't interfere with any drive-train work (same orientation for the seat post binder -- on the drive side).

I put the lever on the side opposite the brake disc, on a disc brake bike's front wheel,
other wise it does not matter, with rim brakes.. you choose..

I use the Schmidt bolt skewer with those dyno-hubs and a shorty on my Bike Friday Tikit.. with a plain 74mm (o.l.d.) hub..

...so QR lever parallel to fork/chain stay or a different angle?

Conventionally they were always placed on the non drive side. No exceptions.

Front skewer is/was most commonly pointed backwards, but some people did set them parallel to the fork blade.

Rear skewer should be pointed up and slightly forwards, maybe 30 degrees from vertical. The reason for this is so that your rear wheel couldn't be quick released during races by somebody else's front wheel, either accidentally or intentionally.

None of this really matters. Most of it is just convention, except for the bit about the rear QR.

It makes little difference which side the lever is on if you do not race and do not need 20 second wheel changes as long as you can handle being skewered (\with a long rear QR skewer) by an angry crowd of BFers and hung from a bike stand. (Ex-racer here. My levers are always on the left.)

Ben

I match it with the rear. So on the non-drive side since the rear is on the non-drive side.

I put it on the drive side once and tipped over. Never again.

NDS for mine, but what's funny is, on my Spidel skewers, the brand logo on the lever is inverted when on the locked position on the NDS. And that's how all Spidel skewer levers were made.
Did Maillard Spidel mean to have it in the DS afterall??

My rear lever is on the NDS, because it needs to be to stay clear of the RD. So I am very used to loosening/tightening with my left hand.

The front lever is then on the DS, so that I can operate that lever with my left hand. Extra convenient in having it on the opposite side from the brake rotor.

The notion of having both levers on one side of the bike to satisfy some sort of aesthetic is to me, ridiculous. Ergonomics > aesthetics.

It really doesn't matter.

But when you peek down the valve hole you'd better see the hub logo or the wheel will implode.

I use hex skewers but yes always on the nd side.

Consistency and logic:
The rear sets the pattern. As the release lever can't be on the rear drive side on classic bikes and the front follows.

Order out of chaos = Style

Note that the photo of Eddy and De Vlaeminck at the top of that page was carefully cropped to avoid showing that Eddy ran his front skewer horizontal and pointed back. As I said, this was the most common position in C&V days, and this is a C&V forum. Also, positioning it across the fork as the velominati describe makes it difficult to grab. Keep pedaling down those Minnesota mountains dudes.

Yes, back is the classic position.
Velominati are wrong if they state anything else.

https://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#41

Eddy was extremely meticulous with everything and thus one of the clearest style icons of the golden era.