Late 70’s Trek, new front wheel. New rear wheel axle fits fine but the front doesn’t. What would you all do?
by Imnothere1980
Late 70’s Trek, new front wheel. New rear wheel axle fits fine but the front doesn’t. What would you all do?
by Imnothere1980
3 Comments
This was asked just recently…
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench/comments/1gv96x4/fork_too_small_for_axle/](https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench/comments/1gv96x4/fork_too_small_for_axle/)
File your axle to a flat on either side, or get a different wheel with a QR axle
(1) You could put on two axle nuts to protect the threads, lock it in a bench vice, by the axle nuts and with a good quality file, file a flat on both sides of the axle and both ends of the axle, four flats !
(2) You could change the axle for one of a smaller diameter.
(3) Or, as it looks like a very clean new wheel, you could take it back to the shop where you purchased it and exchange it for a wheel with a smaller diameter axle.
(4) You could take a little bit of metal off the fork tip with a file or angle grider, which I sometimes do with a cheap fork, but probably not recommended with a nice fork.
The fork wants 9mm. You presumably have 3/8″ or 9.525. They’re close enough together that 3/8″ fits on many forks, hence people being confused/underinformed about the distinction.
Most nutted front hubs, though not all, are 3/8″. People are telling you that you must go to QR if you want a hub that fits natively, and that’s incorrect. If for some reason you want nutted, like if there were a front basket or rack going on this that wants to mount on a solid axle, the solution becomes getting a 9mm solid axle hub, which you would do by either getting a 9mm track hub or swapping a 9×1 solid axle into a 9×1 QR hub.