UKC

There's been a fair few sales offering decent discounts on bikes recently.

After about 18 months this finally pushed me into getting a new bike. Was down at the shop saw the bike I wanted said yes but after a bit of small talk was hugely surprised to find that the bike was only compatible with the supplied wheels i.e I couldn't use other ones depending on what I was doing. That was a red flag and so decided not to get the bike.

After a bit of digging yesterday it turns out the reason for the wheel issue is that it uses a "through axle" rather than the industry standard skewer. Was told that over the next few years through axle wheels will be come standard.

Seems to me that there is a slight benefit to this change for road bikes but its more than out weighed in my view by the downsides.

Anyone want to comment?

In reply to Indy: Yes, it's a real p.i.t.a. It was bad enough but kind of acceptable with the creeping of groupsets i.e. 7 thro' 8,9,10,11 speeds, and others made sense too - headsets one inch to larger, and more recently wheelsize to 29 worked for me. But now everything is non standard - tapered headsets, hubs, hub spacing, bottom brackets I am not imoressed. Nor motivated to buy a new bike.

In reply to Indy:

It is a pain. I build my own bikes and so i am forever hunting for compatible frames, forks , hubs etc at the right price. I have come to accept that I will have perhaps a couple of different parts lying around that may not get used again or may find a place in a future build. The tapered steerer tube and front through axle is now essentially standard on high quality mountain bikes. however this was a change pushed through by the fork manufacturer and frame makers have had to comply. I dont know road bikes and your post does not make it clear if it is a road frame and if you are talking about the front or rear axles. If it is the rear axle then that is the frame maker pushing the issue and so the future of the standard may not be so clear cut. I think you should take the plunge because what is the worst that can happen. You may have to buy one new wheel and may end up with a spare wheel lying around. You might be able to sell it or even use it to build a cheap second bike.

In reply to david100:

I've noticed a few road bikes using the through axle- it seems to be used for disc road bikes. It's early days for disc roadies though so maybe things will settle down to a new norm at some point (although I won't hold my breath...)

In reply to Indy:

What size skewer size cos most hope hubs can do nearly any through axle size... so all of those wheels would be compatible. Sounds like utter tripe to me.

In reply to Indy:

PS some of the superstar components hubs also can do a few of the road size through axles...

In reply to beardy mike:


I think this is a case that if you have a bike/fork that needs a through axle you can't use anything other that through axle hubs/wheels.

I'm sure you a correct that some top end hubs do come with parts to allow them to be used on both through axle and quick release frames.

In my opinion, for a punter like myself and 99% of other riders it's a a bit overkill, but then I'm still not convinced about disks on road bikes as I can easily lock my wheels up in any weather with rim brakes.

In reply to gethin_allen:


Wouldn't buy a bike now with rim brakes hence having to wait so long for the UCI to get it's sh*t together to get a decent bike with disc's.

Cycling quickly in the wet with rim breaks is just horrible. Have you used disc bikes that have been properly set up? You can grab a whole hand full of rim brake in the wet but not a disc as it stops you despite the wet.

Probably got a month before I need to decide on QR or TA but reckon that in a couple of years you'll have no/little choice.

In reply to Indy:

I've only used mechanical discs on a road (well cx) bike but, I've been using hydraulic discs on all sorts on MTBs since 2001.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Fair enough. However you can get parts more cheaply as I say from Superstar components. They do a 9mm and 12mm bolt though and you can put them on any rim with any spokes or nipples. Works out at about 200 quid for a set of wheels. Plus I'd imagine it's only the front? In which case you only need one posh wheel...

In reply to gethin_allen:

Ps I got my 9mm bolt through on wtb 19mm i19 rims from Cotic with my bike. Really nice wheels and they cost me 120 on top of the frame... I'm sure they'd sell them separately if you asked...

In reply to Indy:

IMHO most modern rim brakes in the wet aren't a patch on the good old MAFAC Racer brakes of the 50's and 60's - even so I can still lock up my entry level Campag Veloce brakes without too much effort nowadays.

Disc brakes on road bikes is just a move by the high end component manufactuers to persuade the gullible public to part with even more cash for something they don't really need.

I can see the value of Discs on MTBs and Cyclocross bikes - but on road bikes - Nah!

In reply to Lord of Starkness:

MAFACs - cool.

I just put a set of Deltas on an old Colnago frame I am building up .

I'm even going to dope old skool and take pot Belge..

Thought the same for a while until I did a couple of steep, twisting down hills on the road on my CX with disc brakes. Give me well modulated hydaulic discs any day. They allow for faster entry into corners and later braking. Next road bike is gong to have discs!