Usually there is a spacer in the dropout slot. If the slot was not widened, it may be OK. Excuse the photo quality, but it was cropped from a much larger photo.

The Quick Release skewer is not meant to screwed tight. It "Flips" open & closed. Look up some videos about bike quick release skewer.

The frame dropout looks like paint damage. Hard to imagine anyone grinding away metal there, but who knows!?

Remove the wheel, or at least slide it all the way forward and backward, and see if it's just paint damage, or metal actually removed.

Horizontal dropout bikes like yours often have a bit of "play", and can be a bit finicky to align the wheel, hold steady, and FLIP the skewer closed TIGHTLY at the same time.

I agree with this. Also, a good trick for centering the wheel is to hang the bike by the saddle, stand behind it, hold the wheel near the seat tube with your right hand and use that hand to center, then use your left hand to tighten the quick release.

That dropout/frame is done. Toast. Finished. Ruined. Finito. Anyone that thinks otherwise is blind or has no clue.

Another photo without the rear wheel installed would be useful.

The OP (who is probably the only person who can settle this) needs to examine the bike and post as to whether the edges of the dropouts are flat and have the paint scraped off, or are beveled.

I know what My eyes see ... but no one will believe anyone else until the OP actually says something---or posts pics which show the situation unequivocally..

Well my 24 hour post limit is up, so I am back. Indeed, the damage is merely paint having been scraped off, and there is no gouging of metal. Which is good news. In fact, somewhat embarrassingly, the right dropout had a flush plastic spacer that I did not see until accidentally pressing it out, as it blended in with the decades old grime. The axle now sits further in and I rode it today for a few miles: good enough to set a KOM!


Thank you for this suggestion! I had not considered the alignment of the bike, and it felt especially important to check, being a 30+ year old bike.


The last thing I expected was to refashion a black/blue vs gold/white dress debate, just the bike version of it.


Thank you for all of the responses, I was not expecting so many of them. And they were all exceedingly helpful. I was able to properly inspect the dropout for damage as well as find the fix. I must be honest I was also not expecting hateful responses (@veganbikes), though what else is there to expect from somebody who advertises being vegan?

This is the news I was afraid of hearing...

At first glance it looked to me like it had depth but when I recognized that this frame has two layers of paint then the illusion was clear. The first layer is white and the second is red. Because the white has some swirls from the QR teeth it has a gradient effect that makes it look like it has depth that run towards the slot, kind of like contour lines on a topographic map. But the metal isn’t buggered up in the least. Once the OP has photo privileges maybe he will post a photo without the wheel in place.

Not a hateful comment at least not directed at you specifically but you came here asked a question realized you couldn't post pictures and instead of becoming a member of the forum decided to knowingly spam just to post your picture in your thread. People sometimes cannot handle honesty but it is what is needed. We have a lot of people who come to the forum who just make a quick post and leave instead of becoming an active member of the forum treating us like a search engine instead of a really awesome forum.

IF it's just paint that's gone then it's fine. It certainly doesn't look like it, though.

Looks to me like a really thick powder coating that chipped off especially if you look at the chip on the rear of the DO and on the eyelet.
I'd be more inclined to say chip off the rest of the paint where the QR needs to sit.

Where is the OP??!!!??? He could clear this up in a moment, if he simply had the awareness... What the heck?

See post 33

Personally, if I had a question regarding the safety of a bike I would take it to a bike shop to have it evaluated. I would rather not rely on feedback from faceless posters on the internet with unknown levels of expertise based on one photo that does not provide conclusive evidence one way or another. I can look at the photo one way and see damage to the dropout, and if I look at it another way it looks like scraped paint, and if I look at it another it looks like corrosion on the quick release nut. But, maybe the poster doesn't have a bike shop nearby, or thinks that the shop would not be honest in order to sell him/her something, or perhaps there is some other reason he/she does not go to a bike shop.

*shrug* I don't see the problem with this. I also don't see a bunch of meaningless posts in this thread from the OP to try to get their post count up (which is what I would consider "spam"). If you don't want to read or respond to someone's post because you consider it "spam", or because having someone come to the forum to just ask one question never to be heard from again offends you, then just don't read/respond. If they are "treating us like a search engine", then they'll quickly go away. It's not like their posts are preventing others from submitting more meaningful (from your point of view) posts. And there aren't so many posts that the "meaningful" ones get buried. Perhaps you consider this forum to be a "community", whereas I do not. It is a source of information and entertainment, and has changed my mind on occasion, but I don't get a sense that I know anyone in this forum from reading characters on a screen.

You don't see those meaningless posts because a moderator deleted them and warned the OP to stop spamming. Does that change your perspective?

Ok Kid....... If the grumps and frumps didn't chase you off, I'll throw out some gray beard wisdom (actually I only got back to riding 3-4 years ago, but I do have a grey beard).
Chances are that you and your bike would make it a hundred miles if you had to go right now. The bikes bearings might be toast and you might be walking funny for a while. Or you might end up broken down 70 miles from where you want to be because any number of things went wrong. So with a little luck you can be the kid that barely survived a 100 mile ride. Or with a bit of prep work and training you might make it look easy.

First thing I would do, if possible, is find a bike co-op. Co-op have parts tools an folks who want to help kids get on bikes. If you know how to fix everything on you bike, and have gone over everything, the less you will be worried about something exploding's at mile 99.5. Working with a Co-op will also be a lot cheaper than a bike shop, but your still going to end up putting another $100+ into an old bike getting it ready to ride another 1000 miles.

The other 900 miles are training. I'm not a juvenile sports doctor, but I've seen kids get hurt with to much too fast in school sports. At least for my knees its important to build up mileage slowly. If you haven't been riding much a couple miles every other day, riding a little farther every time, and adjusting the bike fit as you go will help keep you from trashing you knees . 100 miles is a long time to do something that hurts you 1.3 times per second. Even though it feels good to mash on high gears, its better to be spinning the cranks in a gear that feels too low while training. A rule of thumb that I read on the internet is that if you can easily ride a hundred miles spread out during a week, your ready for a century. I haven't done a century in one shot , but have done a 300 mile week loaded touring, after building up to a regular 100 mile week. I didn't die while having fun. Good luck on your adventure.

Regarding the spam posts, yes. I don't know how you tell that there were meaningless posts that were deleted, as I said I don't see them.

Regarding whether coming to the board to get a specific question answered rather than to "join the community" is a no-no, no. As you can see, I've been on the board for years, but I don't post much. I read posts for fun and to learn, but I often don't have anything to say because I'm not competent to comment on the subject under discussion, or because someone else has already said what I would have said, or because I'm not on the board due to life is getting in the way, or for some other reason. I can see a newbie coming to get a question answered, leaving for a few months to ride, then coming up with a new question to ask, and so on. I don't agree that this constitutes mis-use of our time and effort or that it is damaging to the integrity of these boards.

I understand the minimum post rule, to stop true spammers from flooding the board with ads. However, I also understand the frustration of newbies who come for help with a specific question but can't provide the information, due to this rule, that is needed so the forum can help. Perhaps the mods can use their judgement and let the content-free or -light posts go if it is obvious that someone is trying to get a question answered? Sorry, I don't know enough about moderating a board to tell if this is practical. (I also imagine that being a mod is a thankless job, though I have no direct experience.) I don't know the content of the posts, so if the OP was snarky, or downright abusive, I could understand them being warned. Not that any hypothetical snarkiness, IMO, would have been totally unjustified, given that he/she was treated unkindly for trying to get a question answered and for trying to circumvent the limitations of being new to the forums.

I saw the posts before they were deleted.

I agree.... when I first joined, I needed to have a question answered and having to wait for my post to be approved....on top of a daily limit....on top of not being able to post pictures until you have 10 posts.... drove me up the freaking wall. That is way overboard IMO and almost drove me away.

Have ever noticed how little spam you ever actually see on Bike Forums? These policies have worked well to keep the forum very clean.

I wholeheartedly agree, the Bike Forums are very clean (other than the standard ads which enable the forums to operate in the first place), and that is a ringing endorsement of the effectiveness of the policies.

I may be risking a warning for an off topic post, but here goes anyhow:

Yes, I have noticed, and thank you and thanks to the other moderators who keep it that way. Merry Christmas!

Not disputing that controls are not needed. I just think a lot of frustration could be avoided if there was not a daily limit since new posts have to be reviewed anyway. I know when I came looking forward answers I needed to interact with members and the limit meant I had to wait days for an answer.

Having been here a while, the moderators (unpaid) have a big job to do, and by and large do an excellent job given the diverse sub forums that attract all manner of people.
OK, Some forums may need more moderation than others (P&R?) but I see them to be both firm and fair.
They deserve all the thanks for being able to mostly herd cats efficiently.