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I have a Schwinn Boundary 2017 and it came with a quick-release front wheel. I noticed that no matter how tight I put the skewer it would be in a different position after extreme braking.

The bike shop guy told me that the fork is originally for a 10 mm bolt on axle with the splined washer that secures it. Sadly a front quick-release is as we all know 9 mm and rear is 10 mm. This front axle is allowed to move side to side under large lateral forces and the quick-release axle hits the bottom of the lip on the fork which is about 4 mm. Not a lot but it’s enough to offset the wheel in the fork by dang near an inch and makes it impossible to keep my front rotor aligned properly.

I shrugged it off for about a year then my pads wore to the bone and I replaced the pads and disks. I upgraded from 160 mm rotors to 180 mm and the axle now moves way easier due to more leverage from the rotor. The rear axle had a similar problem but just recently I used aluminum spacers and put them in my mounts to fill the gap between the axle and frame. It has worked for the back, it no longer has movement or at least an unnoticable amount.

I did the same with the front... only it made the front even worse, it just made it move easier and pulled the greatly bonded epoxy holding the spacers in.

I wanted to know if anyone else has had this problem, if there's anyway to fix these two axles because im about to get some grippy Maxxis Minnion DHF tires which will add to the problem and I would like to fix it before then.

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    Isn't the solution to go back to the bolt-on axle that the bike was designed to use, and to stop making upgrades that make your existing problem worse? Any kind of problem related to your front wheel not being properly secured is potentially extremely dangerous. And, it's no help now, but you really shouldn't have ridden around on this defective bike for a year: you should have taken it back to the shop and demanded that they fix it.
    – David Richerby
    Mar 9, 2019 at 18:26
  • Why did you go to larger rotors? Do you have lawyer lugs on the front axle or can you fit them? Personally I'd go back to stock size rotors with a bolt-on front axle, which is more secure.
    – Criggie ♦
    Mar 9, 2019 at 22:49
  • I have no idea where and how you ride, but judging by trail-oriented upgrades that bike is not really a good choice. Maybe consider a better fork.
    – Klaster_1 Нет войне
    Mar 10, 2019 at 12:35
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    I would try bushings of some sort. Either short pieces of pipe or maybe an actual bushing from a hardware store.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Mar 11, 2019 at 2:13
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    I would try bushings of some sort. This is the only real solution other than using a wheel that can't move in the dropouts - like the bolt-on one designed for. Quick releases don't keep wheels aligned, they keep wheels from fallout out. The dropout surfaces themselves are what keeps the wheels aligned. Even the bolts on a track bike don't keep the wheel from doing anything more than sliding forward/backwards. They don't prevent up/down movement, for example. And even then, they have to be real tight, especially compared to how tight any quick release will ever be able to get.
    – Andrew Henle
    Mar 11, 2019 at 15:26

2 Answers 2

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The clamping force should be what keeps the axle in place, not the drop out. As you found out hub brakes, such as disc brakes, put more stress on quick release skewers than rim brakes. While drop out design can help (e.g., forward facing), this ultimately is a failure of the skewer clamping force.

Unfortunately, not all skewers are created equal and many bike builds use cheap skewers. In fact, most quick release skewers I have used are deficient in this regard allowing the front wheel axel to deflect under heavy braking. This is one of the reasons thru-axles have become so popular for disc brake applications.

That said, quick release can still work if you get the right skewer:

  1. High quality
  2. Internal cam design

Shimano skewers (Deore and above) tend to be some of the best in terms of clamping force. See if you can track one down for the front, a better skewer for the rear isn’t required as the braking forces are different.

Note that the bike was spec’d from the factory with a quick release.

schwinn boundary

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  • The clamping force should be what keeps the axle in place, not the drop out. Not for quick releases, else track bikes wouldn't need bolts to hold the real wheel in the slot nor would this question exist. With a quick release, the quick release keeps the wheel in the drop out, and the drop out itself keeps the wheel in place and aligned. It's really hard for a quick release to prevent the wheel from moving a bit in dropouts that allow the axle to move around, as is the case here. The transient forces from hitting a bump are likely to be enough to make the axle move no matter what.
    – Andrew Henle
    Mar 11, 2019 at 15:20
  • (cont) About the only way this could work would be to sleeve the smaller surfaces of the quick-release wheel with bushings as mentioned in the comments above so that there's no significant play. That way the actual drop-out surfaces can do their job of keeping the wheel properly aligned. Otherwise, not matter what the OP does he'll just be one slightly bigger bump from having his front wheel misaligned again. Using a QR-wheel in a bolt-on fork is a really, really bad idea.
    – Andrew Henle
    Mar 11, 2019 at 15:23
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    @AndrewHenle - 1) There are two forces at play that keep the axle in place on the front wheel, weight on the front wheel and the QR skewer. The QR's job is to keep the axle aligned in the dropout. Rear horizontal drop-outs are an edge case where, yes, QRs are insufficient to keep the axle aligned. 2) No where has it been proven that the fork in question requires a bolt-on axle. The bike comes from the factory with a quick release. A hypothesis by a bike shop mechanic was that the wrong axle was used. Why would Schwinn open themselves to lawsuits by using the wrong axle?
    – Rider_X
    Mar 11, 2019 at 16:26
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    @AndrewHenle I read the OP post as well, just because some "guy" in a bike shop says something, doesn't make it unequivocally true. I am happy to be proven wrong, but since the bike is spec'd with QR from the factory I would suggest the bike shop "guy" is in error.
    – Rider_X
    Mar 11, 2019 at 22:46
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    For the record, quick release was invented in 1927 and road bikes had them combined with horizontal dropouts until 1990s. I had an 90s steel frame with horizontal dropouts and quick release rear wheel for years and did not have problems with wheel slipping.
    – ojs
    Mar 12, 2019 at 13:58
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Try cleaning the contacting surfaces of the quick release and fork with some degreaser and/or rubbing alcohol to remove any grease or other stuff that might be causing the slipping.

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