i've been overhauling vintage bikes for a long time. lots of bicycles. i've never encountered this particular fork attachment : looks like a flip down lawyer lip to capture the front axle?

Exactly. I don't think it satisfied the lawyers though, because it's not passive, it requires the user to do something. My guess is, most owners did not do it, probably ignored or removed the thing.

Looks like it was influenced by the earlier, and IMHO much better design that Schwinn used as a safety feature.

Manufacturers were clutching for straws in that era to try and lower the number of Product Liability lawsuits.

Yes, it's a CSPC-required axle-retention device. And yes, Schwinn's design was much better.

All the CPSC-approved front wheel retention devices require user intervention to remove and reinstall the front wheel.

You gotta hand it to the guy that realized that bending one tip on each side of the front dropout out would satisfy CPSC.

I never had difficulty operating QR skewers but a lot of people do. I'm sure many of us have seen people who screw the skewer tight without flipping the lever. I taught a class for adults and was very explicit: "Test to see if it's adjusted right by flipping. It should be hard but possible to close. When you have it adjusted right, do not screw it tight; flip it closed." I showed it very clearly. And half my students screwed it tight anyway. Oy vey. And I suppose this is a reason thru-axles come on new bikes.

Given that we can't change human nature, I'll concede that the change is a good one. I don't wish a falling-off front wheel on anyone.

I've seen people treat QR skewers like wingnuts too, and was a bit amazed. Perhaps I over-estimate the mechanical aptitude of the average person?

The through-axle does seem like a solution that satisfies people's urge to screw things together, but I've wondered if bikes with rim brakes wouldn't be better off with wingnuts? ... at least for those folks who are challenged by QR's? My first 10 speed was equipped with them, and for a Montgomery Ward bike, they were a bit exotic!! There's a bit of a compromise in the wingnuts, though. The wings weren't long enough, on average, to get much torque. OTOH, I still use a Hi-E hub with its little half-wingnut method of attachment. The wing is only a bit under 1" long, and it is adequate to hold the front wheel on.



Steve in frigid Peoria

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

Wingnuts didn't work so well on rear wheels of bikes with horizontal dropouts. As you pedal, you can pull the wheel forward and jam it into your seat tube or chain stay. It's hard to get the wing nuts tight enough to prevent this. This, I believe, is why Campagnolo invented the QR skewer.

My experience with wingnuts was limited to that Montgomery Wards bike, and I don't recall any issues with them... but I wasn't putting a ton of miles on it. I wonder if any of our C&V friends have extensive experience?

Considering the general popularity of wingnuts for high end bikes for some time(?), I'm guessing that slippage wasn't a serious problem. If it was, it wouldn't have been that hard to just go back to nuts and a wrench. Tullio Campagnolo is said to have invented the quick release because he couldn't loosen a wingnut. No mentions of any slippage issues. If I had to guess, it might be the case that you had to really lean on those wingnuts to avoid slippage, thus making them hard to remove when dealing with cold temperatures??

Looking at Tullio's timeline again, I see that he came up with the idea in 1930. I think wingnuts continued to be used for some time after that, but don't currently have any data to support that hypothesis. I still find them interesting.

Steve in Peoria

Yes pro racers used wingnuts with horizontal dropouts, so it's clearly possible to do them up tight enough for a pro.

The origin story (which might even be true...) of Tullio's QR says it was on Croce D'Aune, a pass in the Dolomites, where his fingers were too cold.

I found out that they don’t work well on front wheels whilst popping wheelies…

Ah -- the QR "skewer of death." I bought a pair of nice wheels with tubular rims and low-flange Campag. hubs and a hi-E front skewer. That thing is neither quick nor safe -- there were a lot of scary stories of skewer snappage. I switched to a conventional QR skewer and never looked back.

Fortunately, I have four ca. 1960 frames whose forks are devoid of gimmicks.

I find that telling people straight out, "It's not a weirdo one-armed half-arsed wingnut." pretty much always works. You have to break through the fact that not only do Q/R skewers not work like how they look like they work, they don't work the way anything else the newbie has ever used works. And I do mean nothing. I can't think of anything that J. Random Larval Cyclist will have used that uses a side-turning camming clamp to pinch a thing into another thing.

We forget it, but quick release skewers are really friggin' weird.

--Shannon