- This is the GMBN Tech Essentials Series,
our easy to follow guide to maintaining
and setting up your bike.
With a bit of basic understanding, just a few tools,
you can all be looking after your bikes at home.
Which basically means, in the long run
it is gonna save you money.
For this particular video we're looking
at the quick release axles out there.
There's quite a lot and it can be quite confusing.
However, they're very easy to use.
And I'm gonna show you how to do it correctly and safely.
(techno music)
So at first, what exactly is a bolt through axle?
So, these days they're often referred to
as a quick release through axle.
So, this is more like a conventional quick release.
Once upon a time they were everywhere on mountain bikes,
but as the technology has developed,
they're quite rare these days,
although you do still see them.
Now, the quick release through axle is essentially
a very beefed up version of this.
The reason for this is bikes now have suspension,
quite often front and rear on them.
And these actually form part of the structure of the frame
to keep everything in check, everything nice and stiff.
And ultimately, they're a lot stronger.
Now, there are various different sizes
and styles of quick release axles,
also known as through axles, on the market.
Now, it does depend on the type of bike you have.
So just for example, just assuming your bike
has suspension forks on there, it's gonna have one
of two main standards up front.
It'll either be boost or non-boost.
Boost means it's 110 millimeters space in between them.
Non-boost is 100 millimeters, nice and simple.
Typically, front wheel axles tend to be 15 millimeters,
although you do still see some 20 millimeter options.
And these are also common in downhill bikes,
just because they're a bit beefier.
Outback is a little bit different.
Axle size tends to be 12 millimeter,
and there are a few different widths
of the back ends of bikes.
Once upon a time all mountain bikes were 135 millimeters.
And whilst you do still see this,
it's far more common for them to be 142 millimeters now.
There's also boost, which is 148 millimeters.
And there's a slightly newer size
that's been referred to as super boost,
and that is 157 millimeters.
Now, downhill bikes tend to have 150 millimeters
and it's quite an exclusive size for them,
but it's no stranger to see the odd downhill bike
having a 148 boost on there, and sometimes 157.
So, they don't kind of fall into the same camp
as conventional mountain bikes.
So, in particular with the rear ones,
it can be quite confusing.
So, why are there all these different sizes?
Originally, they were 135 millimeters because
that was the width of the standard rear hubs.
Now, as cassettes got bigger and you had more gears
on a bike, the hub needed to start getting wider
to accommodate all of that
and still maintain a nice, strong wheel.
If you think about the rear hub of the wheel,
it has to have the cassette on there
and it has to have the nice bracing angle for those spokes
in order to build a tension and strong wheel.
Now, with respect to hub sizing
and how it's changed over the years,
those traditional 135s, like I said,
they were superseded by the 142 size.
And that's still a very common size on mountain bikes.
But 148 is becoming increasingly popular.
And you'll see this on most new mountain bikes.
In particular, ones running a one by transmission on there.
Now, the reason for that is
to get ultimately a better chain line
and also to allow enough tire clearance
for the design of the bike.
And when I'm talkin' about chain line,
it's essentially being able to line up the center line
with the front chaining with the center
of the rear cassette.
So, that means the chain has to do the least amount
of work to get across all of the gears.
Obviously to do that, things need
to be spaced out slightly at the back end,
so you have that 148 millimeter size.
So now, as you can see here on this particular bike,
so this has a boost 148 millimeter rear end.
It's got a one by 11 transmission on there.
Now, as you can see, there's loads of tire clearance.
This is a nice big 2.3 tire on the back.
I can stick my hand down the sides of here,
so you got all the clearance you need for mount.
Nice amount clearance for the chain link there
against the frame, and of course, a really good chain line.
So, of course, I've just explained the 148 to you,
so why is there the need for more axle standards?
Well, quite simply, for more stiffness
and more strength on the back end of a bike.
Now, what I'm talkin' about here is
like enduro racing focused bikes with gravity styled bikes.
Now, the wider you can get the back end of the back,
the further the spoke bracing angle can be
and the stiffer and stronger the back end
of the bike can actually be.
But of course, for normal mountain bikes,
virtually everything you'll see will be 148.
And don't worry, that is here to stay.
Now, there's a lot of different style
quick release through axles available on the market.
But I'm holding here three
of the most common ones you'll see on most bikes.
So, first up there's the Rockshox Maxle.
Now, you see this in front and rear orientations
to fit on your forks or on the frame.
There's the Fox QR15 system,
which you see mostly on forks
but you do see this on frames, as well.
Very simple system.
And then there's the DT system, as well,
which you see on both forks and frames.
And you also see a lot of manufacturers adopt
to this exact system under different names.
Now, there are many other options out there,
and they all tend to work on very similar principles.
There's the sin-tay system.
Of course, there's the system used
by Cane Creek on their own ones.
I think that's called the D-LOC system.
But they all fundamentally work on the same principles
as these, both the Rockshox Maxle, and the Fox QR15,
also known as the Shimano QR15
because they were developed in conjunction.
They both work on the similar principle
of a cam-operated lever.
They're slightly different in the way
that you can adjust them, which I'll show you later.
And then this DT system, which simply screws
into the frame or into the fork,
and then you can adjust the position
of the actual lever afterwards
to orientate it in a suitable position.
Now, whilst they're all fairly self-explanatory,
and they're all very easy to use,
it's also equally easy to not use them correctly.
And what I mean by that is a few different things
that are quite common to happen,
and you might have had one of these happen with you.
So, you might find you're over-tightening them,
which means using all your body weight on those levers
to tighten them into the frame or the fork,
end up with a red mark on your hand from the lever.
You never really wanna be over tightening these.
You simply don't need to do it.
And all you can end up doing is damaging
at the end of the day.
The next option is under tightening them.
So, you're not sufficiently tightening them
into the fork or frame.
Now, you don't need to be a genius to work out this.
It could be very dangerous.
If they're not tight, they can work their way loose.
And the absolute worse case could happen,
the axle could slide out,
which would mean you'd lose the wheel off the bike.
So, it's really important from a safety point of view
to make sure they're done up properly
onto the bike as they're supposed to be done.
Now, the final one is actually making sure the lever
is orientated in the right position in the first place.
Now, as I'm going to explain to you
with these different axles how they go into the bike,
if you tighten this one in, for example,
and it's tight here, you'll find you actually want the lever
to be in line with the fork really.
You don't want it to be sticking out the front.
So, when it's actually sufficiently tight,
you can adjust the end of the actual lever itself
to sit in the correct position.
What you don't wanna be doing is having
to over tighten it to get it into that position,
or under tighten it and it doesn't go far enough.
So, it's not actually screwed in enough,
even if the lever is in the ideal position.
I can't emphasize this enough.
It's a safety orientated product.
It's dead simple to use.
So, this is how you use the main three.
So, the QR15 system, often known as the Fox QR15
or the Shimano QR15, very simple.
There's a lever with a cam, the axle,
and it's got a threaded bit on the end.
Then, of course, there is the threaded captive nut
that's part of the fork there that this screws into.
Now, this does have the facility to allow you
to change the orientation of where the lever locks,
just to make sure it's in the correct place.
Nice, simple system to use.
Simply slide the axle into place,
and then when you find it hits those threads
at the back, tighten up.
Now, you don't tighten it all the way.
So, an easy way to do this is to go all the way
until it's tight and then come back a full half turn there.
And then you need to be tightening the actual lever there
so it sits in front of the fork.
Now, what you're looking for is a gap
of between one and 20 millimeters daylight here
between the actual lever itself and the front of the fork.
What you don't want is for it to be tightened
against the fork, for example, in which case
the cam will never allow you to tighten it fully,
and it could just come undone.
You don't want that to happen for obvious reasons.
And if, for example, yours is tightening up
in the wrong orientation, you can actually change this
on the other side by actually moving a captive nut.
Now, that is very easy to do.
All you need to do is loosen
the 2 1/2 millimeter Allen key bolt just here,
and that gives you access to that captive nut.
To actually move it around, you need
to loosen off the actual quick release lever itself,
and then you can put the nut in the correct orientation
so the lever closes against the fork leg
like we just showed you.
So, there you go, nice and simple.
So, that nut has actually got indents all the way around it
and it's got numbers on there so we can get it just right,
but you can remember that in case you
actually don't remove it in the future.
So, just a quick recap on QR15.
What you're looking for is the lever
to be sufficiently tight.
There's a resistance when you undo it and a resistance
when you tighten it, but nothing too much.
You don't wanna have a mark in your hand
when you're pushing it closed.
And likewise, you don't want this
to be loose so it could come open.
The lever itself needs to sit between one and 20 millimeters
away from the fork leg when it's in the correct orientation.
And if it's not tightening at this point,
you can actually change the orientation
by moving the nut around that's on the other side.
Nice and simple.
(light orchestral music)
This axle is the Maxle.
So, this is the Rockshox system.
You'll see this on loads of bikes.
This is the same system on the front and on the rear.
Exactly the same system applies.
You slide the axle straight through until it locates
with the threads which are on the opposite side.
You simply tighten up that axle till you get to the end,
come back off a turn and then tighten it.
Nice and simple.
As with the QR15 system, there should be a good resistance,
but it shouldn't be like crazy tight,
and neither should it be loose.
Common sense dictates how tight it should be.
Now, for the lever position, it's not quite
as crucial as it is with a QR15.
The only position you should really not have it
in is against the fork leg for the same reason.
It's not gonna tighten properly because of the cam,
and of course, if you do crash or something,
it could well cause some damage to the fork,
and the quick release, or both.
What I would say is for common sense reasons,
you don't wanna have your Maxle
when it's tightened facing forwards.
If you hit some shrubberies, some overgrown bushes
and stuff on your travels, that could flip it open,
which of course, you might not notice,
and it might rattle its way out in actual riding.
Of course, that's not gonna end well.
So, common sense dictates where you tighten it up.
Like the QR15, you can change the orientation
of the lever when it's actually tight.
But unlike the QR15, where you simply loosen it
and you would adjust it, the threaded nut
that sits into the fork.
On this system, the adjustment is on the actual axle itself.
So, you have to remove the axle.
When you got the axle in hand,
you can see there's some markings here,
where the whole line gets correlated to them.
And to actually change the position of the lever
in relation to the axle, you push it in and locate that.
As you can see here, I'm just gonna change position
by moving that in.
And that changes the orientation
of the axle, and you tighten it up.
Okay, so now we're gonna take a look at the DT style system.
So, this is a front one which is a 50 millimeters
and this is a rear one which is a 12.
So, I'm gonna show you how to install that.
They're both exactly the same in the way
that they operate, very simple system.
So, you simply line up the wheel into the frame
as you would with any bike.
And you simply slide the axle through
until it grips into the threads
on the drive side and tighten the lever.
It's as simple as that.
You'll get to a point where it feels nice and tight.
Then you'll find that the lever is not
in a good orientation.
Now, on this system you can literally pull the lever up
and you can adjust it to get it out
of harm's way in a nice position.
Now, some people do like to put them up against the frame.
Some people like to put them in different positions.
What you don't want to do is have it in a position
like this where you could accidentally hit this
with your ankle and undo it.
Of course, the whole point of these is
that they stay tight on the bike.
And you also just get conventional bolt through axles
that use a single Allen key to tighten them in.
You get Rockshox Maxle Stealth is one of the options
which looks like this one here, but all fairly similar.
What you will find on all of them,
though, is a torque setting on there.
Now, that's the recommended tightness
that you should tighten these to.
Now, I'm fully aware that not everyone has access
to a torque wrench, so you need to use a bit
of common sense here to see how tight you need it to be.
I would say like this is loose at the moment
and that's where it catches.
A good bit of tightness and that will be sufficient.
But it is something you should definitely monitor,
because they don't have the cam system that you get
with the levers to make sure
that you can visibly see that they're tight.
These ones could come loose,
so it is worth checkin' them from time to time.
Now, if you do have access to a torque wrench,
this particular one says between nine and 13 UTImeters.
So, I would set the UTImeter setting
on the actual torque wrench there.
So, this one offset at 11 as you can see on the scale there.
And now, you don't really wanna
be tightening up everything with a torque wrench.
It's basically just to check it to the correct torque.
So, you would still tighten it by hand
until you think it's about right.
Remove your Allen key.
Put the correct size bit in.
In this case, it's a six millimeter
in there, and then tighten it.
There you go.
And that's the point where it's tellin' me
I've tightened it sufficiently.
Now, one important thing just to say
about torque settings are they are recommended.
It's not essential, you can tighten it
without having to have a torque wrench.
It's just an advisory.
And because it's a safety item,
I have to recommend that you do use one of these,
but it's not an absolute necessity.
As long as you monitor it and you make
sure it's sufficiently tight, you will be safe.
So, there we go, we've taken a look
at the most common ones out there, the DT, the QR15,
and the two offerings from Rockshox.
Now, there are many other ones on the market,
but they all fundamentally rely on the same principles.
So, you don't want to be over tightening them.
You don't want to under tighten them
for any risk of them coming loose.
You don't want the lever to be fouling on the frame
or the fork, 'cause it could damage those
in the event of a collision or accident.
And of course, it will never tightened sufficiently
in the first place.
The final thing to check is the orientation of the lever,
so it can't accidentally be opened
by shrubbery or anything else when you're riding,
or in the rear axle case, you can't accidentally loosen
this with your foot, nice and simple.
Now, there's gonna be a whole bunch
more Essentials Videos following this very one,
so I hope you've enjoyed it.
And if there are any Essential Videos you wanna see
in a series, let us know in those comments below.
In the meantime, if you wanna understand a bit
about bike setup in regards to how it affects your riding,
the climbing, your saddle discomfort, hand pain,
any of that sort of stuff, check that video out.
It's a good one and it'll explain a lot
of the basic bike setup for you.
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