Little Springs

[AlBaker]

Had a weird thing happen last night. Riding down the road and it began to feel like a tire was very soft causing rolling resistance. I stopped to check things out and found nothing. So I had to ride it home in a low gear all the way. If I stopped pedaling, the bike would soon stop. On getting it home I lifted it up by the saddle and spun the back wheel. It was a bit stiff, yet the brakes weren't binding. I released the V brake to make sure there was no binding but the wheel still resisted turning. I turned the bike upside-down and removed the wheel. The axle turned easily. I put the wheel back in and it was fine. So I don't know what caused the problem. I didn't find anything lodged in the frame.

Now my question is: Why are there small conical springs on the skewer? If they were removed, would it create a problem?

 

[midlife]

Springs on skewers help align the two sides and stop them binding in the dropout as it goes in. Never used them in my TT bike to save weight as there was no point in changing a wheel fast.

I used to follow road races ready to change wheels ant speed and all had the springs .

 

[Sharky]

Could be that the axle's cone nuts were overtightened when the QR's were originally tightened. Removing the wheel and refitting could have fixed the problem.

 

[AlBaker]

Could be that the axle's cone nuts were overtightened when the QR's were originally tightened. Removing the wheel and refitting could have fixed the problem.

The bike is just over two years old, and I've changed the freewheel a few times. Never had any problems until last night. I know not to overtighten the QRs. It's been several weeks since I last changed the freewheel, and the bike has worked perfectly. What surprised me was that it was fine for weeks, then suddenly the wheel stiffens up. It's a bit of a mystery. I went out there, again, this morning, to check it out in the daylight. No signs of the tire being scuffed by anything.

A few months ago I believe someone entered my shed when it was unlocked during the day, perhaps to steal a bike. Both bikes have heavy locking cables securing them to heavy objects. It seems that they were thwarted from stealing it so I suspect they messed with the trigger shifter barrel adjuster which was right in front of them. When I got it out and started riding, the gears were messed up so I tried turning the barrel adjuster on the fly. No good. So I rode it home and it had been completely undone. That was in my mind when things went bad, last night. If they can't steal it, they'll mess something up.