Restoring an older Nishiki and found this guy in the rear dropout. Obviously seems it’s there to keep the axle from going to the end of the dropouts, but what’s stopping me from removing it and sliding the axle all the way in? Thanks in advance!
by andrewsaget
5 Comments
It’s a drop out stop. You can take it out without penalty. They used to put them in there so it was easier to get your wheel in the same spot every time. Your brake pads may need re-adjusting.
Nothing but free will stopping you from taking it out, its just there to help u put the wheel in the same spot as before after taking it out.
Seems like it would be used to center the wheel in case of variation in dropouts.
I learned last week that in ’60s and ’70s, derraileurs had no ‘b’ screw. In place of that, setting the axle to the correct spot in the horizontal dropouts served to adjust the guide wheel to largest sprocket distance. It only took me 50 years…
Campy, of course, included a far more elegant especially machined screw to do the same job in their forged dropouts.
They allow you to set the wheel base, depending on your preference. Further back might make the bike more stable due to longer wheel base, with further towards the front making it a bit snappier to ride. You can see the marking on the horizontal dropout to help you adjust the axle evenly.
I have some old Eddy Merckx as a commuter bike that has the 3mm screw adjuster, for the same purpose.