Hi,

In my road bike I have installed Bolt On Skewers instead of standard QR.

Do you have experience how much torque is enough? Is 5.5 Nm ok?

Shimano for QR skewers recommends 5 - 7Nm but it is not clear for me. Is this recommended torque before or after clamping? I mean I have to tighten skewer to 5 - 7 Nm and then clamp skewer or tighten and clamp with 5 - 7 Nm force?

I've been tightening my ControlTech Ti skewers with a Ritchey Torqkey (preset to 5nm) since I installed them, probably 7,500 miles or so-- this is in an all-carbon fork, including the dropouts. Skewers aren't really under any force unless someone is pulling on the wheel itself (or a front disc brake, maybe,) so they really only need enough torque to keep from slipping in the dropouts.

I just got some in the mail and haven't yet tried them. They specify 7 nm, but I assume they mean 7 Nm. (7 nanometers is a unit of length).

So assuming your bolt is steel, 7 Nm should be fine. (You have to be more careful with titanium.)

I'm kind of surprised it is that little. My whole point in getting them was to clamp better than my internal cam quick release so that my rear wheel doesn't slip in a horizontal drop-out. Now I wonder if it would make things worse.

If the axle bolts (and heads) are steel, I presume the only thing limiting it is how much clamping force it would take to tear the bolt out of the threads on the aluminum cone-nut opposite the bolt-head.

Torque isn't force, but is the cross-product of force and moment arm. So it is measuring how tight the bolt gets put on. However, the relevant thing for a quick release is the clamping force you apply when it is in the on position. When the lever is in the off position, the torque is zero, or pretty close to zero. So I have no idea how it could refer to that. I also have no idea how you would be able to measure torque for a quick-release.

Maybe it is the amount of torque it takes to undo the lever after it is clamped in the on position. (If so, 7 Nm seems rather feeble.)

I may just put mine on and torque it to about 10 Nm and see if it holds.

BTW, if you are interested in good, standard, internal quick-release levers, you can get Ultegra ones at Jenson for about $12 each. I have these and Dura Ace, and although the Dura Ace are nicer, I don't think they are any better/safer.

I found information that Max torque for your skewers is 6 Nm, so 5 Nm sounds fine. Mine are steel/ aluminium, but I believe it does not matter when we are talking about safe torque to keep wheel in the dropouts.

Just tight enough the lever leaves an impression on your palm. For standard skewers.

A bit tighter if you have horizontal drop-outs. Else the wheel may pull sideways under power.

I think 7nm is about right. The Son 28 hub manual says for sure, but I'm not going to look it up. It is there though.