Sheldon , And All ,
That was just exactly my understanding of the prohibition , from reading anything I could get my little hands on , c.1970 .
Was it Gene Portuesi's Cyclo-Pedia ?
Was it from Ron Kitching ?
Some such source .
Raoul Delmare
Marysville Kansas
> Chuck Schmidt wrote:
>
> >Well Ken, actually there was a very good reason to have a QR on a track
> >bike in the mid 1960s...
> >
> >I was told that being able to switch a wheel with a flat tire or a
> >crashed wheel quickly would be an advantage in an event as long as a
> >points race on the track. Also in 1967 (when Campagnolo showed the
> >track hubs with QRs) there was no international rule preventing the use
> >of a QR (I have no knowledge about USA rules in effect at that time). I
> >don't know when the legality of using a QR on the track changed.
>
> I don't know where I got this information from, but it has long been
> my understanding that the prohibition of QRs for track use actually
> predates the invention of the QR!
>
> Back in the olden days, the choice was between hex nuts and wing
> nuts. Wing nuts were deemed to be a hazardous protrusion liable to
> injure a rider in a pile up, and were forbidden for that reason...but
> the way the rule was written, it prescribed hex nuts rather than
> proscribe wing nuts.
>
> Effectively, then, QRs were forbidden before they were invented, even
> though they actually don't cause any hazard in practice. Trackies
> are the most conservative of cyclists, and there has been no
> compelling need to change this rule.
>
> Sheldon "Quick Release" Brown
> Newton, Massachusetts
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