# 5mm QR Skewers VS. 9mm & 10mm?



## mike444 (Apr 12, 2014)

Hi guys, new cyclist here. I wanted to order replacement skewers and I thought QR's were all standard at 5mm diameter and 100mm in length for front wheel, 135mm rear wheel.

But I recently found skewers that were 9mm in diameter as well as 10mm in diameter and it confused the hell out of me since I thought M9 and M10 were sizes for solid axle fasteners.

Can anybody shed some light on what kinds of QR bikes have skewers that are not 5mm and why? Would they be compatible with one another?

Thanks
-Mike


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## cobba (Apr 5, 2007)

Front dropouts are 9mm, rear dropouts are 10mm

5mm skewers go through a 9 or 10mm hollow axle that's attached to the hub.

The 9 & 10mm QR axles are an alternative system to the 9 & 10mm hollow axles that use 5mm skewers.

http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/RWS/RWS-Thru-bolt
http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/RWS/RWS-Thru-bolt-en



> Can anybody shed some light on what kinds of QR bikes have skewers that are not 5mm


Expensive ones that have special hubs.

Some hubs can can be converted to use 9 & 10mm QR axles with appropriate end caps.

http://www.dtswiss.com/Accessories/Conversion-kits



> and why?


Supposedly stronger.



> Would they be compatible with one another?


A 9mm front dropout can use either a 9mm QR axle or a 9mm hollow axle with a 5mm QR skewer.
A 10mm rear dropout can use either a 10mm QR axle or a 10mm hollow axle with a 5mm QR skewer.

A hub that has the threaded hollow axle and uses a 5mm QR skewer can not use the 9 & 10mm QR axles.


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## Flamingtaco (Mar 12, 2012)

This ^

First up was the introduction of thru-axles which thread into the frame or fork on the drive side and have a quick-release on the non-drive side. What they do is make a much more solid connection between the axle and frame. After a bit, people wanted to be able to use their nice, new, shiny thru-axle wheels on their old 5mm QR frames, and so the 9mm and 10mm QR axles were born.

There are actually two methods to go about that. There are direct adaptors that fit into the thru-axle hubs and have a bolt and washer on each end, and there are the DT Swiss RWS style QR's. I am running a 9mm DT RWS with an aluminum sleeve in the front to mate to a 15mm hub, and a 10mm DT RWS with a carbon fiber sleeve in the rear to mate to a 12mm hub. 

As for axle specs? You need to do some cathin' up with the tech!

Rear is 10x135, 10x142 and 12x150.
Front is 9x100, 15x100, 20x110, and i read earlier in the year about a new 24xsomething, I forget.

Anyone, please feel free to list what I've missed.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

You forgot fatbike standards. 

Also, for spacing purposes, 135mm and 142mm are technically the same hub width. Say you have a 135mm hub that is convertible to a thru axle. Swapping the appropriate endcaps would make it 142mm. So looking at fat bike standards, a 170mm QR hub would convert to a 177mm thru axle, and a 190mm QR would convert to a 197mm thru axle. Many fat bike front ends are going to 15x150mm thru axles, also, since the introduction of the RockShox Bluto fork.

Yeah, I think Specialized is doing a 24mm front thru axle on DH bikes. Maverick also had its own thru axle standard for its forks. Then there's the Lefty front hub standard. They're quite a mess.

I DO like the fat DT RWS skewers if you can fit them in your hubs. The wife has them (front and rear) on her DT Swiss wheelset and they do help stiffen up the bike a noticeable bit. Unfortunately, my wheelset (older Mavic) cannot be converted, so I'm stuck with regular QR skewers for them. The new bike is 15x150 and 12x177, however, so I'm somewhat excited for the extra stiffness in rough terrain.


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## cobba (Apr 5, 2007)

mike444 said:


> So those bigger 9mm and 10mm skewers only for mountain bikes?


They're actually a axles not skewers.

These 9 & 10mm axles can be used on any bike that has appropriate dropouts and hubs that are made that uses these axles or hubs that can be converted to use these axles.

1 thread on the subject should be enough.


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