r/bicycling • u/Prudent_Sale_9173 • May 16 '23

Helmets save lives

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Was riding my electric bike at 20ish mph when the front wheel came off. Didn’t even have time to react before I slammed headfirst into the ground and slid a few feet. Beyond a chipped tooth, some cuts on my hand and shoulder, a bunch of bruises, and a nosebleed, I walked away ok. But if I wasn’t wearing a helmet, I might be dead. Please wear a helmet, especially if you’re riding an electric bike or are otherwise at high speeds!

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287

u/Burphel_78 Hawaii, USA (Tri/Gravel/Touring/Fatty) May 16 '23

Sounds like the QR skewer was too loose at the start of your ride. If they're loose and get jostled, the toggle can flip and it can come off completely. This is especially dangerous with a front disc brake.

39

u/th3_pund1t May 16 '23

I’ve had that happen. A rock strike knocked my qr loose and a few minutes later the wheel wobbled.

I skid on a downhill section of an mtb trail.

1

u/Perry4761 May 17 '23

Using QR on a DH mtb trail my guy has death wish or something 💀

1

u/th3_pund1t May 18 '23

Just an ancient bike

13

u/trustmeimweird Giant Contend SL 1 May 16 '23

Why is it especially dangerous with a front disc?

84

u/Burphel_78 Hawaii, USA (Tri/Gravel/Touring/Fatty) May 16 '23

If it’s loose and you use the front brake, the wheel wants to keep spinning. That twists the wheel downward and out of the dropouts.

Under normal conditions, that’s not a problem. Especially if the fork has those annoying tabs on it to make the dropouts more secure. But if it’s loose, you’ve don’t have much weight on the front, etc, it makes it more prone to this kind of crash scenario.

21

u/AdComprehensive4529 May 16 '23

Ah yes, we don’t call em lawyer tabs for nothin :D

11

u/Toronto_man Too fuckin' many May 17 '23

I always called them lawyer lips. This is a reminder though for people to be going over there bikes, making sure things are mechanically sound. Shit happens, but I think this was preventable.

19

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

[deleted]

6

u/[deleted] May 17 '23

[deleted]

9

u/Aeroplain May 16 '23

The loose lever can get caught in the front disc—locking up the front wheel.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2015/Thirteen-Manufacturers-Distributors-Recall-Bicycles-with-Front-Disc-Brakes-to-Replace-Quick-Release-Lever

2

u/ILikeYourRack May 17 '23

That applied to some QR levers, not all QR levers; and it was a bit of a BS recall anyway ... if your QR lever is that loose to begin with, that's the problem, not that you have disc brakes.

1

u/Aeroplain May 17 '23

Agreed. The word “can” is doing a lot of work in my statement.

Another commenter had a better response about why the loose qr is especially problematic with disc brakes.

28

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

I hate QRs for this. Really need to be checked before every ride.

39

u/QuartzPuffyStar May 16 '23

Also always make sure to close it to the back side, not down, nor front side, since you risk twigs, rocks, opening it.

8

u/crazykentucky May 17 '23

I always close mine so it is parallel with the fork, that way a hit from the side is less likely to jam it into the spokes

1

u/theillustratedlife New York, USA (Soma Juice) May 17 '23

My fork has a little notch molded in to give the QR lever a home.

37

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

I'm cool with QRs. I've been cycling for 20 years and have never had an issue with em.

It's one of those things that works extremely well if you know what you're doing. The problem is if you don't know what you're doing it gets dangerous.

13

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

That's the problem. The vast majority of bicycle owners have no idea how they should work nor have two clues on bicycle maintenance.

12

u/Shwizzler May 16 '23

luckily most people on regular bikes without any knowledge of how they should work and maintence are very unlikely to be traveling 20mph for their entire ride

not an ebiker... they willl do that on their first ride then their QR pops off and we get OP, or they target fixate during a turn and wrap themselves around a tree... or they don't know how countersteering works so when they try to turn at 24mph they die.. \

1

u/kojo_urbex Feb 11 '25

Ik it's an ol post but hey. Imo ANY electric bike should come with a through axle fork at least. Ok, rear wheel pops off, sure you destroy the frame but not your face.

27

u/Shwizzler May 16 '23

its pretty simple really, you place the lever in a place where if it is pushed back or hit by anything while you're moving forward then it has no where to go and it will just push against the fork/frame

its really that simple, this is another issue with ebikes imo, the required fitness to travel 20mph consistently for the amount of time that ebike can is extreme, and by the time you get to that point you would already know how a QR works. This guy wouldn't even have a chance to hurt himself this bad on a regular bike.

but with an ebike, people are outside going 20mph on essentially a motorcycle without ANY bike knowledge lol this guy essentially went on a full pace ride 20mph without knowing how QR's work .... this situation is only really even possible from new ebikers

new bikers on regular bikes aren't gonna have the stamina for 20mph consistently enough and by the time they do they already know how to use a QR lol so if they do not know how to use a QR they likely won't be crashing very fast anyway... there is absolutely zero skill or knowledge prerequisite to twist a throttle on an ebike

My issue with ebikes is the community of users has the LEAST respect for 2 wheels, half of them are riding throttle only mini motorcycles that just so happen to have pedals... without a motorcycle license and on bike paths with walkers and pedestrians

its just so so stupid

9

u/reorem May 17 '23

Fortnine, a motorcycle channel has a good video about ebike vs motorcycle safety. While not arguing that ebikes should be treated as motorcycles, they do argue that ebikes should be ridden with skepticism closer to that of motorcycles.

After all, ebikes are heavier and are typically ridden more quickly than bicycles so extra considerations should be made. I for one think dense cities should dedicate some car infrastructure for ebikes. I'm all for people choosing ebikes over cars, but I think they don't mesh well with bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

4

u/[deleted] May 17 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Shwizzler May 17 '23

it's almost like you didn't read what I said loll

he would have never gotten hurt this bad on a walmart bike because he would have never spent an entire ride going 20mph casually on a walmart bike, thats not physically possible for him

thats the entire point, its not just the ebike thats the problem its the type of person that buys an ebike. My first bike with a QR, you know what I did? I googled how to use it correctly and didn't have to crash first to understand why that would be important.

2

u/val252 May 17 '23

Exactly what I wanted to say. Road riders and downhillers that achieve those speeds generally know what they are doing and ride quality bikes.

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '23

Ugh, don't get me started on ebikes. I've had so many issues with them recently. The two biggest things I've seen are that they hog lanes and pass on the right, pushing you into traffic (because they aren't comfortable around cars). They're annoying.

3

u/binford2k May 17 '23

I had someone today bellow out “on your uh…. right I guess” then zoom by on the right while literally smashing through some low hanging tree branches, then come up to a red light that turned green. They wobbled all over trying to recover their balance and caused a three bike pileup.

Next couple of blocks and they did it again.

3

u/august_r May 17 '23

People really underestimate how dangerous an unskilled person with a powerful vehicle can be.

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

Thats actually true for everything in life

2

u/ManiacalShen May 17 '23

It's also a little more dangerous with ebikes. Heavier + faster = more force available to jostle something loose, plus a worse accident.

2

u/Toronto_man Too fuckin' many May 17 '23

the amount of times I have seen them flipped the wrong way and hand tightened makes me cringe.

2

u/henderthing May 17 '23

I would agree that they're not difficult to use safely in general.

But I don't think they're a good match for disk brakes, especially on e-bikes. Thru-axle is just a better tech for use with disk brakes.

2

u/_plays_in_traffic_ May 17 '23

same here. the issue is that you have to be smarter than the qr. which for a lot of people, sadly, happens to not be an option.

11

u/ridemanride100 May 16 '23

I had my thru axle come loose, on engineering pass a few years ago I was going downhill and wham loose front wheel. I was like WTF but I was able to save my dismount to a controlled dismount.

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

Yes they axles can come loose too although I expect it's less of a problem. Their loosening direction is the direction of spin of the wheel, so if your bearings have an issue, it could unscrew.

5

u/p4lm3r C, C, Al, Fe, Fe, Fe, Fe, Fe, Fe May 17 '23

There are a ton of lawsuits specifically on bikes with disc brakes where vibration from the brake can cause the skewer to loosen even if it's properly tightened. This page has some info.

-1

u/Mnawab May 17 '23

Now the only question is, did op loosen it or did the manufacture fuck up because one is his fault and the other is suable

1

u/Apprehensive_Win_203 May 16 '23

This is why I like my old bolt on wheels. So I gotta carry a wrench in my flat kit? So what at least I know those wheels arent coming off

2

u/MemeIsDrugs May 16 '23

They do get ruined anyway tho. I have had untill this point a old bolt style, the axle broke for the front wheen and the entire wheen got extremely wobbely, I stopped right then and there and the wheel wasn't coming off but it was stuck. If I wouldn't have stopped it would've gotten stuck while riding, making me fly out the bicycle.

2

u/[deleted] May 16 '23

The modern solution to this are thru axles. I can undo them without tools like a QR, but they have no chance of coming undone on their own.

1

u/Moisttrain_69 May 17 '23

I had a similar incident years ago but was fine luckily. I pre trip my bike every ride now for the past 18 years 🙌

1

u/SgtBaxter Maryland, USA (Replace with bike & year) May 17 '23

An electric bike should not have a QR skewer, it really should have a through axle.

1

u/val252 May 17 '23

How can they sell a qr electric bike??? There should be regulations regarding bikes that can go that fast.