Quick release on a fixed or SS rear, yes or no?
 

What are the pros and cons of using a quick release on a fixed gear or single speed rear wheel? I have a QR on my front wheel as I drive everywhere with a bike in the car on on a roof rack. Putting a QR on the back would make things a lot easier but is it safe?

easier to steal. but if you have it tight you should be alright. or, if you are scared, get a tensioner.

"get a tensioner" assumining you have track *rear* dropouts

i'm not sure they make QR wheels with fixed cog threading. probably for good reason! i ran a SS with QR on a horizontal dropout and it always slipped a little... there just wasn't enough to get it tight, so the chain always went slack. with a tensioner, i suppose SS would be okay.

the general consensus is enclosed cam is ok, exposed cam is no good (http://sheldonbrown.com/skewers.html)

Quick release is fine. Most older road bikes (and some new ones like mine) have horizontal drop outs and quick release. If it was a problem it wouldn't work there. Its no different for a track bike. In fact, I run a fixed wheel with QR on my road bike at times and it works fine as long as it is tight. Just like my geared wheel.

I'm not worried about theft... I never leave my bike chained up anywhere.

How does a tensioner help?

I had a Van Dessel wheel set that used a QR or axle bolts. Worked fine both ways.

http://www.vandesselsports.com/vstuff.html

QR is "safe" if you do it right and quick to change, but a bit more difficult to tension the chain. In my experience though, the back wheel is removed much much less often than the front so why bother?

I dont know how many quick release tires I see every day at school that are locked up wrong. Im tempted to pull off their back tire and flip it around just to show them the error in their ways, but I dont want some person coming up to me and thinking I am a bike thief.

Quick release tires are something to be afraid of.

id be afraid of usiing one on the back because on a fixed gear bike, there is so much force on that rear tire, whether it be the accelerating, or the decelerating/skidding

I can understand the sentiment on brakeless fixed gear bikes, but other than that I dont really see the issue. I have put tons of miles on QR tires and never even had em slip.

You can't generate nearly as much force on a fg with say 48/16 gearing as you can with 22/32 on a MTB and qr are used on those bikes all the time. Skidding force is generally the same on any bike and is limited by how much force the tire can handle before it skids.

Are you calling me out about the use of the word "tire" huerro? Because its really a semantics issue, everyone in here knows what we are talking about.

What are quick release tires**********

No such thing. Was just pointing something out.

That's what you get for being subtle.

Very much true.

it may work for some, but it certainly doesn't work for everyone.

i had a qr ss setup a while back and it was slipping occasionally (yes, it was enclosed cam, and it was clamped on tight). i even put some crown/serrated washers between the qr and the dropout surfaces and that worked out much better, but still was not perfect. maybe it was the relatively high gear inches i was running at the time but inevitably, under heavy load, the rear would slip. switched to a solid axle and never a problem since.

I just made up a fixed wheel from a former freehub with a QR. I'd prefer a conventional axle, but I didn't have any around to swap. It's been on a couple weeks, and it's holding up fine, fully secure. This on an old mtb frame with horizontal dropouts. Tensioning the chain and centering the wheel is a little tricky compared with a bolt on hub. I found the task to be easier if I use an old broom handle as a lever between the tire and bottom bracket/chainstays to tension the tire while closing the QR.

He could be Japanese. In Japanese, they call wheels, tires.

although pro bike shops will say wheels...

Anyways, why start some frackus over a sematic error?

I wasn't being facetious... I thought there may be some new tire the didn't need levers that I'd missed.

no--- nut the axle -- carry your 15 on you at all times

Yea, but most MTB use horizontal dropouts, so most of that force is on the actualy dropout, not the QR. The QR really just needs to be tight enough to the wheel doesn't fall out. Of course disc brakes cause a whoe mess of issues.

You mean vertical dropouts, right?

He may have indeed, but before they used vertical they used horizontal and didn't have any issues. THe lower the gear, the more pull there is on the chain. There are thousands of bikes with QR hubs, horizontal dropouts and lower gear ratios than FG and they don't have issues when fastened correctly.

In Rand McNally, hamburgers eat people.

My rear wheel kept slipping on my ss with QR. I just installed a solid axle this week. Guess what - it slipped too. Now I've got it cranked down (bigger hammer, and all that), so I hope this is over.