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Question: What is the correct way to replace a damaged QR on a Specialized Allez Elite ?

I broke this whilst trying to open the QR. It was extremely tight. I tapped with a hammer (I know not bright) and boom it broke. This is not a manufacturing mistake it is mine. Thanks in advance.

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Welcome to Stack Exchange! I don’t mean to write a trivial answer, but unfortunately the answer is that you would just buy a new quick release. You can often buy just a front quick release. You could try asking on Facebook marketplace or your local Craigslist. Frequently, cyclists will have some spare QRs lying around. Naturally, your bike store can often help you, although the global supply chain has been disrupted due to the pandemic and they may be out of stock on some items.

Now that you are shopping, you might consider an internal cam or enclosed cam skewer. Sheldon Brown’s site has more detail. However, you had an external cam skewer. For the same amount of hand force, internal cam skewers generate much more clamping force. This means that an internal cam skewer that clamped your wheel as tight as your old one would be much easier to open. Furthermore, the cam mechanism is more protected from external contamination than with external cam skewers. As a side note, it’s possible that if your old skewer hadn’t been lubricated, it might just have been stuck due to contamination. Possibly, some WD40 would have removed the contamination from the mechanism, although I would normally recommend a different lubricant for actually lubricating the skewer cam.

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  • +1 I will go to my local bike store. @weiwen ng I Following your answer I should not need to replace the entire wheel; which looks fine.
    – Anthony
    Nov 22, 2020 at 15:24
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    @user3195446 I see what you are getting at. No, the hub and the rest of the wheel are completely separate from your quick release. Unless you swung the hammer much more wildly than you are letting on, nothing else should be damaged.
    – Weiwen Ng
    Nov 22, 2020 at 15:33
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    To back up the answer, QR shaft diameters and dropout spacing are standardized, so you can swap in a replacement. All road bike front dropouts are 100mm spacing.
    – Argenti Apparatus
    Nov 22, 2020 at 16:55

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