Cleat position is measured in millimetres and so, if you want to change shoes, re-positioning your cleat on your new shoe requires accuracy if you want to achieve the same level of comfort and performance. Let’s go one step further and say you want to change both your shoes and your chosen pedal system, like I did to test Lake’s CX236 shoes and Time’s i-Clic pedals. Here’s a rough guide to how I achieved the same cleat position as my previous Shimano-cleats-on-Shimano-shoes setup.

Most cleats will have a mark indicating the cleat position over the effective centre of the pedal axle – use this as your guide. Attach something adhesive to both sides of one of your shoes, alongside the cleat – you can cut a post-it note in half and attach the sticky side to the shoe – and draw a line to represent the position of the cleat marking. You can also use the same process to measure the angle of the cleat. If using Shimano cleats like the picture above, attach the post-it note so it runs from the top of the cleat to the top-right corner and mark the angle of the cleat.

It’s time to remove the cleat – but first make sure your tape or post-it notes are securely stuck to the shoe, otherwise you’ll lose your reference points. Now, use the same process as above to attach post-it notes to both sides of one of your new shoes and, with the shoes heel-to-heel, mark the centre of cleat position.

Using the marked post-it notes, you can now attach a cleat to one of your new cycling shoes. Carefully align the centre of cleat indicator with the mark on the post-it note and screw the cleat to the shoes. Make sure the centre of cleat indicator is aligned with your post-it note marks on both sides of the shoe to ensure the cleat is straight.

With one shoe done, replicating the position on the second shoe is a case of loosely attaching the cleat and, making sure the heels of the two shoes are together, lining the cleats up before securely screwing the second cleat to the shoe.

Ready to ride… You may still need to fine tune one or both as you do so, but they will be close to where you want them when you start.

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The recent discovery that Lake’s CX401 shoe locates the cleat mounting bolts further back than is the industry norm (for road shoes, not mtb footwear) prompted me to get fitted for a pair. They employ the now-familiar principle of thermoplastic mouldability to provide a near-custom fit. The result of the fitting process, carried out on a standard pair of the shoes, felt so comfortable that on easing my feet back in to my current favourite pair of Shimano SH-M152 shoes, I found them oddly constricting.

More specifically, they lacked width across the widest part of the foot and, in particular, compressed the outside of the little toe’s joint with the foot – the metatarsophalangeal articulation. Not by much; the shoes are better than bearable and even after five of six hours in the saddle present no problems. But there is definitely some degree of constriction that narrows the foot, perhaps inhibiting the application of pedalling force.

Anyway, years ago I interviewed Magnus Backstedt during the Tour de France, the discussion turning on his experiments with shoes in the search for comfort when climbing. A factor often overlooked in this respect is rider weight; the substantial Backstedt, weighing some 90kg, put a lot of pressure on the soles of his feet on long climbs and naturally suffered in a way that much lighter riders would not.

His efforts involved cutting at his shoes to remove unwanted material. Three-times Tour de France winner Greg LeMond did the same. So, why not give it a go? It is worth bearing in mind that cutting into a mesh fabric will probably prompt it to unravel and, in any case, the mesh is flexible by design and should stretch a bit to accommodate bulges. Not so the leather (synthetic or, in this case, real) used for the panels that give the shoe its shape.

Those of the SH-M152s are particularly stiff and unyielding and so offer considerable potential for favourable modification. Having located and marked the exact point of compression, I simply cut away the leather of the panel on each shoe, first with a craft knife and then, to create an oval, using a pair of side snippers.

The result is a real improvement, the toe joints now finding themselves free to bulge outwards (by about 1mm…) without pressing against sturdy leather. Sure, the cuts could be neater, but a) I wanted to get out for a ride as I was maknig them and b) I cover my shoes with oversocks so no one will notice.

Of course, these shoes don’t come in a custom fit option and don’t sell for over £300. In the latter case the potential modifier might hesitate and in the former the problem solved by carving up the shoes should not arise. But if it does, the precedent set by Backstedt and LeMond ( and others) is sound.

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As an ever-expanding lexicon issues from the marketing departments of Campagnolo, Shimano, and SRAM, the customer is left to wonder what distinguishes Hyperglide from Superglide (or even Powerglide), or Power Torque from Ultra Torque. And what exactly is Exact Actuation?

Greg Needham, senior sales technician at Condor Cycles, and our guide through the linguistic jungle of component manufacture

Those able to penetrate this linguistic jungle and identify the components from the descriptions are perhaps no further in their quest to discover the real differences between the various products. Is the additional investment required to purchase Shimano’s range-topping Dura Ace components over their Ultegra cousins tangible in the relative performance? And how do the products of the major manufacturers compare with each other?

We’ve called on Condor Cycles’ senior sales technician, Greg Needham, in our quest shine a light through the semantic opacity of marketing speak and on to the glittering components beneath. Greg has guided visitors to the London shop through a dense undergrowth of technical description for the last 18 years. “I like bicycles,” he shrugs when asked if he ever becomes blasé about the beautiful machinery that surrounds him. “If I didn’t work here, I’d probably be here anyway.”

We’ll take a long view and zoom in. Three component manufacturers dominate the market: Shimano, SRAM, and Campagnolo. Each has slightly different methods of achieving the same result, whether that be predictable, dependable braking or smooth and accurate shifting. Each produces different levels of componentry within their own output. So whose are the best? And does the most expensive groupset offer significant performance advantages over its cheaper equivalents?

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Shimano, SRAM, or Campagnolo: the factors that affect all of them are weight, materials, and mechanical durability,” says Greg.

Shimano's Dura Ace rear derailleur is more expensive than its Ultegra cousin, but what are the 'real world' differences between the two?

“The most obvious difference is weight. As you go through the groupsets, the comparative weight will decrease. In terms of weight saving for Shimano, there’s a real difference between Dura Ace and Ultegra. Another real world difference is mechanical durability. In simple terms, that’s how many miles it takes to wear it out. They all work similarly when they are new and out of the box, but it is wear that affects functionality; classically with the rear derailleur.

“With materials, the clearest example can be found in the cassette, where, as well as different machining processes, there’s also the use of different materials, such as titanium, rather than steel.”

To prove the point, Greg produces three cassettes, one each from Shimano, SRAM, and Campagnolo. The Shimano and Campagnolo blocks are similar, he explains, with the larger and middle sprockets clustered together, and the smaller sprockets separated as individual units. All are mounted to a carrier. But the SRAM Red cassette is significantly different, with a plate on the rear to transfer the torque to the freehub body.

“The SRAM Red cassette starts life as one piece, and most of the sprockets are machined out. A strengthening plate is bonded to

Unlike its rivals, the SRAM Red rear cassette has a plate bonded to the rear

the back. It allows SRAM to make a very, very light cassette out of standard materials,” says Greg.

A similarity between each of the cassettes, however, are the contours cut into the surface of the sprockets. These minute ramps are the Hyperglide (Shimano) and Powerglide (SRAM) of renown. What is their purpose, and how effectively is it reached?

“All cassettes now have some sort of ramping mechanism as an aid to moving the chain from one sprocket to the next. There’s an optimal point. Older riders will remember blocks without ramps. It was often the case that you had to over shift. The ramps allow the chain to take the path of least resistance when it shifts,” he says.

Shimano recommends using a Superglide chain with its Hyperglide cassettes. More jargon, or a genuine innovation?

“A traditional chain is completely flat: the inner and outer plates and the roller. Flat chains don’t move particularly well. The Superglide chain plates are shaped to facilitate a smoother movement,” says Greg.

Shimano use the term "Hyperglide" to describe the minute contours etched into the surface of its sprockets

And before we finish altogether with gliding, each of the three manufacturers has a variation on the theme of smoothing the chain’s path for the front chainrings.

“Exactly as there is an optimal point for the chain to shift on the rear cassette, so there is an optimal point on the front chainrings. At the front, the job is much harder because the chain has much further to travel. Chainsets have a difference of perhaps 14 to 16 teeth, where at the cassette, the chain only has to move two or three teeth. Shaped teeth are used to ease the path of the chain at the optimum shift point, and often there’s an intermediate stage in the shape of a pin, or a piece of aluminum on the rear of the chain ring,” he says. Clear? Clear.

We’ll be bringing you part two of our series demystifying the semantics of component marketing next week.

Discuss in the forum.

US shoe manufacturer Lake has a long history of making attractive cycling shoes with a difference, this often meaning the use of tough kangaroo-skin leather for the upper. A chance conversation with occasional RCUK contributor Phil Cavell of Cyclefit revealed the firm’s CX 401 model offers another, more important ( at least from my point of view) distinction; it offers perhaps the most rearward cleat positioning possibility of any production road pedal cleat format shoe.

Despite a trend towards more rearward cleat positioning for road shoes, almost all have their cleat mounting threads placed to limit rearward cleat adjustment to a position further forward than is possible with most mountain bike shoes. It is not entirely clear why this should be so, but it is odd given that it would seem reasonable for the cycling shoe industry to offer the same cleat positioning range for both road and off-road use.

Personally, I have for several years favoured cleats set well back in the shoe to put the foot – and in particular the ball thereof – further forward over the pedal axle than is usually recommended by cycle set-up authorities . This has generally left me unable to use non-recessed cleat road shoes and pedals without experiencing discomfort in the calf muscles and over the front of the knee.

A pair of Lake’s CX 401 shoes should address this problem and allow access to the manifold benefits of road shoe and pedal technology. The shoes have the further attraction of a mouldable carbon-fibre heel; the thermoplastic resin used for the heel section of the outsole allows the shoe to be moulded to an exact fit for the rider’s foot.

To find out, RCUK went along to Lake dealer Cyclefit’s Macklin Street, Covent Garden premises for a fitting. This involves, firstly, accurate measurement of the feet. Mine both turned out to be size 44.5s, with the right foot marginally larger. We tried both 44.5 and 45 sizes; tried prior to moulding, the 44.5s felt a little small – the tip of the big toe touched the front of the toe box - but the foot was clearly not as far back as the heel cup would allow if wider; 44.5 it was. 

Both are on the borderline between standard and wide fittings; given the mouldable heels, we opted for standard width in order to ensure the feet would be well-supported under pedalling loads. Next, the shoes were warmed to around 70degC in a small cabinet originally supplied for the purpose by Shimano; once they were warmed throughout, Matt pulled them out and offered me each in turn to pull on.

At this point I was both glad of the warmth – my feet were getting cold – and of the insulating properties of the socks I was wearing; 70degC is hot enough to hurt if not actually burn. Both quickly cooled once on, with Matt squeezing and prodding them as they did so to ensure they conformed to the shape of my feet. The difference between the fit of the shoes out of the box and once softened up was immense. The heel counter in particular took on a much wider form, with both shoes offering much more toe space once the foot had moved backwards into the heel cup.

As the shoes cool, the resin stiffens leaving the thermoplastic parts such as the heel cup permanently reformed to the shape of the foot. Having decided they were cool enough to retain their shape during removal, Matt asked for them back and took them away to chill out in the freezer. Returned cold, they felt snug and supportive and were ready for wear.

The test pair has Lake’s Speedplay Zero pedal-specific sole. This has the advantage over the universal three-bolt fitting sole, when used with Speedplays, of reducing the pedalling platform height – distance from pedal axle centre line to top of pedal insole – by some 3mm. 

First Ride coming soon.

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moorelarge.co.uk

Progress on RCUK’s winter wheelset came to a grinding halt in mid-November thanks to the unavailability of the spokes requested from DT Swiss. It is about to get going again thanks to the timely arrival of directly comparable spokes from the Swiss firm’s main rival, Sapim. Established in 1918, the Belgian firm has built an enviable reputation for quality and reliability and supplies many of the world’s wheel manufacturers; its finest moment was perhaps Abraham Olano’s win at the 1995 world road race championships, when he rode the last few kilometres on a flat tyre and on a wheel, built with Sapim’s spokes, that stayed true despite the pounding from the road and valve.

Anyway, a bundle of Sapim Race spokes has turned up along with some heavy duty Strong examples and will now be used for the build. These are Sapim’s regular offering for the building of lightweight wheels whether for competition or fast leisure riding and feature double butting, a choice of 2.0mm-1.8mm-2.0mm and 1.8mm-1.6mm-1.8mm draws and both black and silver finishes.

They are offered in lengths from 182mm to 310mm and weigh 360g for a pack of 64 x 260mm. The nipples supplied are 12mm long Sapim Polyax, which are designed to align with the pull of the spokes thanks to a somewhat spherical surface where they meet the rim eyelet. We will be using black-finished brass Polyax nipples.

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sapim.be

chickencycles.co.uk  

We’ll be bringing you pre-show updates from exhibitors we think you’ll be interested to hear from, such as Willier and their superb Campag EPS-equipped, Cento Uno SL.

Derby’s Eurobike will be displaying new wares from American Classic and Moda – magnesium and tubeless-ready wheels, and a new entry-level aero bike. We spoke to James Ryan, Eurobike’s marketing manager, who lifted the lid on the importer’s new offerings for the huge show, which opens at London’s Excel centre on Thursday January 12 and runs until Sunday January 15.

American Classic Magnesium Clincher – RRP £799

American Classic will premiere their new Magnesium clincher rim at the London Bike Show

New for 2012, Tampa-based wheel builder, American Classic, has created a magnesium clincher rim with a semi-aero profile measuring 22mm wide by 22mm deep. Company president, Bill Shook, puts great store by the magnesium rim, which weighs just 300 grams, and has refined an extrusion process that has allowed him to make the rims with very thin walls. The result? A rim that American Classic claims is stiff and strong, allowing the rider to accelerate quickly and corner hard. With a claimed weight saving over aluminium, and a durability gain over carbon, American Classic say the magnesium rim has an impressive capacity to absorb road shock and vibration. The rim is coated inside and out for protection from the elements and comes with a free set of Kool Stop All-Weather brake pads.  The manufacturer’s AC Race Blade aero profiled spokes are radial laced at the front, and on the non-drive side of the rear wheel, while the drive side of the rear features a three-cross pattern. The company’s own hubs, the minimalist 58 at the front (so called because it weighs 58 grams) and the wide-flanged RD105 at the rear (with a Shimano/SRAM/Campag-friendly freehub), both roll on ceramic bearings. The magnesium wheel is due to hit the shops in March, but will be displayed proudly at the London Bike Show in January.

American Classic Road Tubeless – RRP £799

American Classic's new tubeless clincher rim will make its UK debut at the London Bike Show

A hit with mountain bikers, road cyclists have been slower to embrace the claimed merits of tubeless technology. American Classic hope to win a few hearts and minds with their new road tubeless wheels, which come fitted with three layers of rim tape: a base layer of fibre tape to seal the spoke holes and two covering layers to seal the rim. An improved bead design has been implemented to prevent the liquid sealant from “burping”. The company claims its tubeless system reduces wheel weight (sealant is lighter than tubes, apparently) and rolling resistance by eliminating the friction that results from independent movement of tyre and tube. So there! And if you’re not convinced by tubeless technology, fear not: these wheels can also be used with conventional tubes. The wheels weigh in at 1179 grams a pair (519grams for the front, 660 grams at the rear) thanks largely to lightweight aluminium rims which tip the scales at 310 grams. The hubs are American Classic’s own: the minimalist Micro 58 at the front and the 130mm AC High Low at the rear (equipped with a freehub compatible with Shimano and SRAM nine and 10 speed set ups, and with Campag cassettes of 9, 10, or 11 speeds). Both roll on ceramic bearings and are laced with American Classic’s own Race Blade spokes. Due to hit the shops in January, you can also catch them at the London Bike Show.

Moda Mossa – RRP £999

Moda will unveil their Mossa entry-level aero bike at the London Bike Show

Ignore the ‘Mosso’ branding in the photograph. This new-for-2012 offering from Moda has since been officially titled the Mossa. An entry-level aero bike, available in tri-bar and drop bar configurations, it boasts a double-butted aluminium frame, a high modulus carbon fork, and a set of American Classic Victory 30 wheels. A 53/39 SRAM chainset provides a clue to the Mossa’s intended use. A Barelli finishing kit includes the same carbon SPS seatpost featured on Moda’s upscale Interval and Sharp models. The rear mech comes courtesy of Microshift White, a little-known company clearly held in high-regard by no lesser institution than the Cofidis Pro Continental squad, who use Microshift White shifters and rear mechs on their time trial bikes. The Mossa has a claimed weight of 8.1kg (19lbs) and is available in small, medium, and large. We also think it looks great.

London Bike Show

American Classic

Eurobike

Winter; rain, mud, mudguards, rough roads, fatter tyres… Put them all together and you may find that the mud, softened by rainwater, collects under your mudguards and rubs on the fatter tyres you fitted for comfort and grip on the rough roads you find yourself riding in the off-season.

If so, it’s because there’s not enough clearance between tyre and ‘guard. Or between tyre and fork crown if it happens and you don’t ride with mudguards. It’s a big enough problem for the pros riding Paris-Roubaix to encourage some to race with cyclo-cross-style cantilever brakes in search of mud clearance.

Standard dual-pivot road bike calipers offer limited reach, the maximum usually being  49mm between caliper bolt  and brake block centre lines. While just about enough for 23c tyres and mudguards provided the frame and fork are built so that the block shoes must be placed at the ends of the caliper arm slots, standard calipers don’t offer sufficient room for mudguards and fatter tyres. About the only drawback of my Roberts P-B-P Special was the limited tyre clearance afforded by the standard calipers I rashly chose when specifying the bike.

The alternative would have been to go for one of the several versions of Shimano’s long-reach dual-pivot caliper. The maximum reach of 57mm is a significant increase over standard and allows the rub-free fitment of 25c or even 28c tyres with conventional full mudguards.  

There is a small increase in weight – some 50g per pair – thanks to the extra metal in the longer arms. Feel and power, however, are the equal of the comparable standard caliper as the pull ratio – the distance the blocks travel for a given cable pull at the lever – is preserved by increasing the dimensions of the entire caliper in proportion. Indeed, fit a long-reach caliper with the blocks at the top of their slots and power is greatly enhanced over a standard caliper with the blocks at the top of the slots.

The “comparable standard caliper”? Shimano’s current long-reach caliper range comprises two models, the BR-R650 and BR-R450, which are manufactured to Ultegra and Sora/2200 quality respectively. This means that the finish, bearings, quick-release mechanism and cable adjusters are the same on the standard Ultegra and BR-R650 calipers; the latter is a fine piece of kit in its own right and a fine substitute for the former where necessary. Earlier versions have included an RXS variant along with the BR-R600 model offered to go with the 6600 10-speed Ultegra group.

Which is the case with the UWH; a quick measure-up reveals that it was made for long-reach calipers. Hooray! ‘Cos it could hardly be the ultimate winter hack bike without them.

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Work proceeds slowly on the RCUK test Enigma Ethos all-rounder.  As ever with my new builds, the first task… er, the first task is to get it home, followed usually by fitting the headset and fork and then a pair of wheels. At this point I can determine the stem length and, before cutting down the steerer tube, decide on the handlebar height required to get my favoured riding position.

The latter can be got to within whatever thickness of stacking spacers are available, so 5mm easily and 1mm with some difficulty if it is that important. Handlebar horizontal placement depends largely on stem length increments, which in practice, since they come in 10mm increments, means it can be got to within 5mm of the position required. I doubt many cyclists can feel a difference of 5mm in the position of the bars and saddle relative to the bottom bracket, all other dimensions being the same.

On measurement, it turned out a 130mm stem was 8mm too far forward. Going to a 120mm stem would make this 2mm too far back, which I can live with. I ordered a PRO PLT 120mm stem from Madison and received instead a 120mm PLT CC model. This baby is made by wrapping carbon twill around an aluminium forging and bonding the two materials together.

The carbon twill finish is all very well and indeed very nice if it is what you want. However, it isn’t quite what I had in mind for the Ethos, which boasts polished lugwork and a steel fork. So I requested a sample of the original request. When it turned up, it proved to be the same weight at 125g. The plain PLT is forged from 2014 aluminium alloy, while the non-carbon part of the CC version is forged in 7050 alloy. Both alloys are high-strength; it is not obvious why both stems should not be forged in the same alloy unless the 2014 is stronger while the 7050 is better suited somehow to bonding.

In any case, their weighing the same means there must be more metal in the PLT. The addition of a carbon wrap of the same weight as the missing metal might be expected to add stiffness, since carbon is a lot stiffer than aluminium. However, the bonding agent between the two, which must transmit loads between them,  is a not-very-stiff epoxy resin. It is likely to stretch or compress rather than transfer said loads directly, surely negating any stiffness benefit the carbon wrap might have conferred.

Given that they weigh and most likely perform the same, the £50 price premium for the CC seems a lot to pay for the carbon finish. While fine if a carbon look is wanted, it isn’t here. Back has gone the CC, while the PLT will kick the Ethos build forward a step.

PRO PLT stem £39.99

PRO PLT CC stem £89.99

www.madison.co.uk

www.pro-bikegear.com

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Sometimes there are no easy answers. Here’s one of them. So far, RCUK’s “ultimate” winter hack comprises a frame, fork and wheels with a bar/stem combo straight out of the parts bin. That’s the first leg of the journey to hackdom completed: fit a part or parts that somehow spoils the appeal of the machine and renders it suited to being hacked about on.

Stage two requires a delicate balancing act, for it means deciding between nine and 10-speed transmissions. On one level, the decision is easy; go for nine and wear out old, obsolete components that will otherwise hang around my spares bin, getting in the way and reminding me that they need using, preferrably in place of nice, new 10-speed parts.

On the other hand, those nine-speed Shimano Ultegra (it will have to be Shimano if I go for nine) STI levers are remarkably unattractive. They may as well stay in the bin for all I care, while I fit nine-speed bar-end shift levers in accordance with my current “retro-tech is appealing” perspective.

Or, do I opt for a nice pair of used but decent 6600 Ultegra 10-speed levers and embrace the performance benefits provided by that extra sprocket; benefits that will not only back up the “ultimate” claim but which may well be useful later in the winter when training starts to get meaty?

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One of these must fit...

The quick-release skewer sitting inside a hollow wheel spindle was the invention that made Tullio Campagnolo’s name. The story goes that, on 4th November 1924  during the Gran Premio della Vittoria road race,  he was halfway up the vicious climb of the Croce d’Aune in the Dolomites when he stopped in a snowstorm to turn his rear wheel around in order to access a lower gear ratio.  Finding himself with frozen fingers and unable to slacken the wingnuts holding the wheel in place, Campagnolo is supposed to have uttered the words “Bisogna cambiar qualcossa de drio” – “something needs changing at the back” – before setting about changing it. The back of the bike, that is.

This fortunate event led to the invention and, in early 1930, patenting of the wheel retention system now universally adopted for performance lightweight cycles. The skewer, or rod, inside the spindle is only part of the system. It acts in tension, pulling the nut on one side and the lever head on the other up against the frame or fork dropouts and clamping them hard against the wheel bearing locknuts.

The system is actuated by a lever, which acts on an eccentric sited in the head. Flipping the lever through some 180degrees rotates the eccentric, moving it relative to the skewer head and thus either pushing the head against the dropout or moving it away. Sliding inside the spindle, the skewer itself transfers the movement to the nut on its other end. A thread on the skewer allows the nut to be adjusted to give fine control of the tightness of the lever – and of the point at which it begins to bite. Small springs keep the nut and head set equidistant from the faces of the dropouts to ensure quick and easy wheel fitment.

Alternative ways to tension the skewer involve the usually inferior concept of employing it as a very long, thin bolt, turning it by way of a lever acting as a wrench kept in situ; the need to turn the lever through several rotations to tighten it makes this process, which being in concept  simpler than the eccentric must have occurred to Campagnolo, slower as well as requiring more space for the lever’s arc of operation.

Campagnolo’s original design placed the small-diameter eccentric on the shaft of the lever. Flipping the lever moves the centre point of the eccentric within the skewer shaft and keeps the moving surfaces away from contamination. Many low-cost designs of modern manufacture place the eccentric on the outside of the lever, where it presses against a seat on the face of the head. The moving surfaces are much larger in diameter and hence circumference, adding to friction, and are exposed to dirt and grit. Their action is inferior to that of a skewer with internal eccentric.

The skewer shaft is made in either high-tensile steel or titanium. The former is heavier – of course – and, since titanium has a lower Young’s modulus, also stiffer by a factor of two. Provided, that is, the steel and titanium shafts are of equal diameter. In practice, manufacturers of titanium skewers, perhaps looking to save as much weight as possible, compound the effect by making the shaft more slender still.

A typical example will have a shaft 4.5mm in diameter compared to the 5mm of a steel shaft. This gives the latter a cross-sectional area some 23percent greater which, added to the doubling of stiffness under tension of steel, obliges the titanium skewer to stretch around 46percent more to obtain the same clamping force. This, of course, comes from the degree of eccentricity of the eccentric and more of it requires more of a force applied to the lever. For this reason, steel skewers, especially if combined with an internal eccentric, give a much lighter action when being closed.

It is a mistake to try to obtain massive clamping force from the skewer. The lever should start to bite turned just past 90degrees so that closing the action does not require great force at the lever. Start the bite too early and not only will the lever require excessive force but the wheel bearings may undergo unwanted side loadings as the spindle is compressed.

Until recently with the introduction of better materials it was easy to stretch a skewer shaft so that it would neck down and possibly snap under the high tension that can be applied by a small-diameter internal eccentric. But then, that ability was what made Campagnolo’s seminal design so effective; not only was it truly quick in action, but it was – and is – more secure than threaded spindle nuts. Especially ones with wings on them. 

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