15QR Axles

[sean_iow]

Last night I put the tyre on my new dynamo front wheel and tried it in my forks. The forks are Fox 32 with a QR15 axle. I plan to swap between the dyno wheel and normal depending upon the riding I'm doing.

When tightening up the lever on the QR axle it was not as tight as with the wheel I took out, which has a Hope Pro 2 hub. I can adjust the tension of the axle lever by rotating the adjuster wheel on the other fork leg but this is a bit of a pain as it requires undoing the locking keeper which stops the axle nut from rotating.

Does anyone else swap wheels in QR15 forks and do you have to adjust the tension when doing so? I had assumed that the hubs would be made to close enough tolerances to just be able to swap wheels about even if the hubs were by different manufacturers. If you were an xc or enduro racer in a team using this system and you came into the pits with a puncture it would be a pain to swap wheels if you had to reset the tension. Perhaps they would just swap bikes.

Sean

[Taylor]

I'm assuming you're using the 9mm adapter.
Mine was a fraction too long so I took a file to the shoulder and took a smidge off.
Fits well now.
Don't go heavy handed, it does need much.

[Alpinum]

I haven't come across that issue (yet) with Hope, Atomlab, Superstar.

[sean_iow]

I'm not using a 9mm qr, I've got a QR15 dynamo hub and the normal wheel is also QR15. The axle screws into the fork leg and then it's got a qr type lever which folds up to lock it off. The threaded end of the axle goes into a nut which is loose in the other fork leg but has teeth around the edge to stop it rotating. The nut is held in place by a keeper. It can be removed and rotated to adjust how much force is required to operate the lever. I assumed that the adjustment would be for manufacturing tolerances with the threading of the axle and once set up any wheel would fit?

Perhaps I should of tried my SP hub in the forks before I built the wheel? I will have to measure my hubs and also those of friends to see what the widths are. I could take a fraction off the hope adaptors to reduce this wheel to the same width as the SP hub but I'm a bit worried that it will be pulling the fork legs in slightly and affect the operation of the fork/cause premature wear of bushings and seals? Or perhaps I'm over-thinking it and bike parts aren't made to such exacting tolerances?

[Mariner]

My 15mm axle is sprung loaded at the lever end.
To adjust 'tightness' you screw it in then lift the lever slightly out of cupped washer and rotate to locking position with out screwing the axle in or out and lock off.

[ScotRoutes]

As Taylor says, it's probably just tolerances. I'd measure the SP and the Hope, make them the same length by the use of a little judicious filing and then set the axle up to work with both.

Mariner - that sounds like a Rockshox Maxle. The Fox system works in a different way.

[Alpinum]

My 15mm axle is sprung loaded at the lever end.
To adjust 'tightness' you screw it in then lift the lever slightly out of cupped washer and rotate to locking position with out screwing the axle in or out and lock off.

That doesn't sound like a FOX fork, what fork brand are you talking about?

Perhaps I should of tried my SP hub in the forks before I built the wheel? I will have to measure my hubs and also those of friends to see what the widths are. I could take a fraction off the hope adaptors to reduce this wheel to the same width as the SP hub but I'm a bit worried that it will be pulling the fork legs in slightly and affect the operation of the fork/cause premature wear of bushings and seals? Or perhaps I'm over-thinking it and bike parts aren't made to such exacting tolerances?

I wouldn't worry too much about the width. They all have tolerances and especially since it's a 32 mm model it'd be a no brainer for me as the fork flexes under riding like cooked spaghetti anyways.

[sean_iow]

Sprung loaded might be a bad choice of words is it just the cam action when you move the lever?

My forks are 2015 32 Floats, 120 CTD Performance Series 650B and to be fair to Fox are much better than the older 32's I used to have, although I probably don't ride them nearly hard enough to notice any flex I'll measure all the QR15 hubs I can get hold of tonight and also see if putting the adaptors in other Hope Pro 2s changes the width of them, more out of curiosity now as I'll just 'adjust' the adaptors until both hubs are the same width as suggested by ScotRoutes.

[ScotRoutes]

If there wasn't any variance in tolerance, your forks wouldn't need the adjuster

[Justchris]

I have the same issue if I was to swap hubs on my 15mm bolt through hubs. I have a wtb and superstar hub. So the axle handle would be needing adjusted. The hubs are about 1.5mm different lengths, but that puts the handle at completely different angles once the axle has locked in.

[sean_iow]

The results of my hub width measuring are:-

Hope Pro2, 100.14mm
Exposure/SP PD-8X, 99.90mm
Shimano, 99.40mm
Superstar, 100.00

Also Hope Pro2, same adaptors as first measurement but in a different hub, 100.27

So the conclusion is that there is a vitiation between makes and even between hubs of the same make. I have now set the tension such that with the Hope Pro2 wheel fitted the lever is upright and in front of the fork leg which is Fox's recommended position. With the adjuster set to this when I fit the Exposure/SP wheel the lever is horizontal pointing towards the rear, which is where I used to have it. The extra rotation between the two positions takes up the difference in width

All I now need to do is to get the Panaracer tyre fitted with an acceptable level of wobble to be able to ride it.