Rear axle: too short

TreborJ

Hi,

Last week I had to purhase a replacment rear wheel for my lapierre shaper 100 from a local bike shop in Waterford.
So this weekend I decided I head out for a spin, went to put on the new wheel and discovered that the new wheel has a shorter axle than the old one, roughly 10mm in the difference, so you would have to compress the frame for the wheel to stay in place.

So brought the wheel back, explained the situation and was told that it wasn't really an issue and was safe to cycle on, just bring the bike and wheel in the next few weeks and they do some adjustments?

Now what has me worried is that a 10mm difference is not an acceptable tolerance in my opinion and I could end up cracking the frame.

I was thinking that maybe I should swap the old and new axle's (Or replace with a new axle) and this would fix the issue, but either way I would like some advice on what I should do?

LeftBlank

Sounds like the shop sold you a wheel with a road hub (they are 130mm wide) as opposed to a wheel with a MTB hub (135mm wide).

They should just replace the wheel for one with the correct hub.

TreborJ

Hi LeftBlank,

The original wheel was a road wheel, but I don't know if there are different standards? Are these parts just normally standard dimensions or can there be differences between suppliers?

seamus

I'm not sure if it is that much of an issue. I run it the opposite way on my commuter - 135mm hub in a 130mm frame - and it's never caused issues. That said, it's a steel frame so much more tolerant of flexing than an aluminium one. On principle I would tell the shop to fit an appropriate wheel, though in their defence it's running 700c wheels. 700c rims on an MTB hub wouldn't be typical afaik.

TreborJ

I don't think it is an issue with the Hub, I measured both yesterday and they were the same, the only difference is the axle.
On the old wheel its 10mm longer and has an additional spacer, but this is not the case on the new one.

seamus

Then it may just be a particular quirk of the bike. I wouldn't exactly hold the shop to ransom on it as it would be easily missed.

Swopping out the axles would seem to be the best solution. Just ensure when you're removing the axle that you only unscrew the cones/nuts from one side and leave the other side intact. This ensures that the hub will remain centered on the axle when you fit it.

mrbike

Typically a hybrid uses a MTB hub and a 700c rim, which has a 135mm axle. It's not a problem on a steel frame as it can flex. It looks like the Lapierre Shaper 100 has is an aluminium frame, so I wouldn't risk it.

They've most likely sold you a wheel with a road hub (130mm). Take it back and ask them for the correct wheel.

TreborJ

Thanks All,

I did a bit more digging and found that mrbike is correct, the Lapierre hybrid uses a 135mm axle Hub compared with the equivalent lapierre road bike.

Thanks for your input.

T...

"edit: credit where credit's due, leftblank was also correct....."

LeftBlank

seamus wrote: »

700c rims on an MTB hub wouldn't be typical afaik.

Pretty sure most hybrids would have such an exotic combination.