(funky music)
- Hey guys today I'm gonna
talk about a fairly obscure
topic, one that you may think
you know everything about.
And, that is the topic of bike skewers.
These little clamps, basically
the rod and the clamp
that keeps the wheel on
the forks and the rear
front and rear drop outs.
This is what we're gonna talk about today.
Now, there's much more to
this than meets the eye
because skewer technology
has come a long way
in the last 20 or 30 years.
And, we're just gonna
run through this from the
perspective of safety, from
the perspective of security,
from the perspective of
aerodynamics, yes aerodynamics
of the skewer.
There is such a thing.
And, from the perspective
of weight saving.
So, where to start?
Why don't we start back
in the day, in the 70s
or in the 80s.
We used to have these old
school skewers, didn't we?
Then, you have the old
school skewers like this one
made by Campack.
This, on it's own, is about 86
grammes, 86 grammes for one.
I mean, you can feel the
weight's very substantial.
And even in the 90s we
got Shimano making these
old school steel skewers.
They got steel ends left and right.
Now, for sure, we can beat that.
We can improve upon that a lot.
Now, before you throw these
out I recommend you keep
them, keep them in a drawer
because they are useful,
they are useful when you put
your bike on turbo trainer.
The force of the turbo is
actually clamped onto the skewer
itself and that's, in turn,
clamping onto the fork
and that, in turn, is clamping
onto the hub of the wheel.
So, all of that force is
going through the skewer
initially and the skewer ends.
So, if you've got an old
school skewer that's not
gonna break, not gonna
dent, not gonna jump off
the rack then this is what you want.
So, keep those for the turbo training day
on your winter ride bike.
Now, in the 90s and early
200o we had all of these
kind of Chinese makes coming out with
their titanium skewers.
You remember these titanium skewers guys,
they're around about 40 grammes,
maybe 40 grammes for each
so 70-80 grammes for the pair.
And, these are actually pretty decent.
There's nothing wrong with
them, nothing inherently wrong.
And, you can pick up these
for less than $30 now.
Now, the problem with them,
if anything, although they got
decent weight titanium
shaft, good clamp mechanism
left and right.
Who needs this massive lever on the end?
This massive lever is there
so you can quick change
your wheels in a criterion
race, when you're being
followed by the mechanic.
But, in all honesty
how many people need to
quick change their wheel?
In reality having that clamp
on your regular road bike
for most riders is actually
a liability because
you're leaving it open to thieves.
How many times have you
heard about cyclists
who've lost their front wheel.
How easy is it to get
off that front wheel?
Super easy to get off that front wheel.
If you've just got a quick
release skewer on there
you're basically asking for trouble.
Now, assuming you're not
gonna leave your bike
unattended you can still
use it, but most people
would buy a more modern one.
This is like the Tune,
Tune titanium, you remember
the ends of those, elongated now.
So, in terms of surface
area these are actually
a Chinese copy made by V-Cycle.
And, on Ebay you'll be
shocked these are less than
10-15 dollars for the set and
around about 30-40 grammes
for the pair.
As a no brainer for those
that don't leave their bike
unattended a pair of these
titanium shaft aero-ends,
well at least semi-aero,
shall I say semi-optimized.
Still quick release, but a
clamp mechanism either side.
That is a really good replacement
for your stock skewers
that come with any road aero bike.
However, these days we
can go a step further.
And, we can go a step further in two ways,
the security and the aerodynamics.
Now, what do I mean about security?
Well, if you go onto a review
site here I'll give you
a link to Cyclingabout.com
and that proves ways
to secure your bike.
It will take you through
all of the different
security skewers that have
been released and there's
no end of different mechanisms
that have been invented.
One of my favorite's is
actually made by PinHead.
This pair here made by
Pinhead has got a unique key.
And, that unique key goes
over the clamping end
and means that you will always be able to
secure it to protect your
bike, but it's got another
hidden benefit guys.
The other hidden benefit
is that it's aerodynamic.
It's aerodynamic left and
right, front and back.
It's aerodynamic left and
right, front and back.
So, here's the thing guys
when you're going along
on 40 kph on your bike the profile
that you've got of the
drop out and the skewer
in the wind is optimised left and right,
front and back and that's been tested
in the wind tunnel by a few people now.
And, it's surprisingly large for the cost.
The actual saving, okay it's
a large, it's a marginal gain.
It's a small gain, and
the gain is about one watt
at 40 KPH, but that's
still worth a round about
ballpark figure, depending
on set up, depending
on the skewer, depending on the comparison
around about 10 seconds over 40 k.
Now, we've ranked this on
one of our spreadsheets.
We've ranked this under the spreadsheet
32 Most Marginal Gains That You Can Save.
We've ranked them by raw saving
and then saving per dollar.
And, it turns out that
the aerodynamic skewer
is around about the eighth
or the ninth most sensible,
most valued saving in terms
of watt cost per dollar.
This spreadsheet, by
the way, has been out on
Patreon for some time.
So, you guys who are not
subscribing for two dollars,
two measly dollars to the
Fast Fitness Tips Patreon site
shame on you.
But, this spreadsheet
has been out there for
a while guys so this is
basically the ranking
of all the marginal
gains that you can make
on the bike from most to
least both in terms of
aero-watts, and in terms
of aero-saving per dollar.
Okay, so let's summarise where
we've got to so far, guys.
We've got these old school
skewers, don't throw
them away use them on the turbo trainer.
We've got these intermediate,
like 1990 skewers,
they're okay, but not very aero-optimized.
We've got out 2000s Tune
Air-tile clones which are
really a no-brainer if you're
not worried about security.
We've got out security
skewers which are made by
all sorts of different manufacturers,
don't lose the key, guys,
you're gonna get shafted
if you lose the key.
Although, PinHead
actually print the number
on the key and you can write
to them for a replacement.
Actually, you've got
one final catch group,
before I forget, which
is like semi-security
such as the View-Speed
skewer which requires
an allen key to get it off the bike.
But, of course, anyone
could carry that allen key.
And, you've also got
the Tune Skyline Skewer
which requires a special tool to get off.
Anyone could have a tool but the chances
of having that tool is really minimal.
By the way, the Tune Skyline, it's aero,
it's security enabled,
and believe it or not
it's around 20 grammes
for the pair of skewers.
It's unbelievable, really.
And, one last thing guys,
I've been going on about
skewers now for about 10 minutes.
You're probably sick of
hearing about skewers,
but I'm gonna give you guys
who've made it this far
a little free take home.
What if you want aero,
what if you want security,
what if you want weight,
but you also want it
in a cheap package?
You could buy second hand
one, what are some of these
second hand on Ebay, but
I've come across a skewer
by Halo call Halo XL.
Halo XL, hex key skewer set,
it does seem to do everything,
everything in a box for 8.99.
Okay, it's not super light
weight, I'll give you that,
but it's light enough.
And remember, often in
terms of speed it's not
the weight that actually holds us back,
it's actually the aerodynamics.
So, this is semi-aero, semi-weight saving,
pretty good for security,
super cheap, guys, 8.99.
I haven't tested it myself,
but it looks attractive.
Now, this is the mountain
bike set, I don't know
if it comes in a 130 road set.
Somebody will definitely tell
me right in the link below.
All right guys, I'm exhausted,
you're probably exhausted.
That's everything you need
to know about bicycle skewers
in one short video.
So, the take home message
is check what skewers
are on your road bike.
I've given you weight now.
I've given you safety.
I've given you security.
I've given you aerodynamics.
I've given you price,
what more do you want?
Check what skewers are on your bike,
I bet you can make an upgrade
at fairly minimum cost
and definitely enhance your riding.
All right guys, have a
great ride, until next time.
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