Product Overview

During a race in 1927, Tullio Campagnolo, then just another an Italian bicycle racer, flatted and discovered that he couldn't remove the wing nuts on his wheel to fix the flat. The sudden cold had so numbed his hands that he couldn't loosen the nuts. Soon thereafter he invented the quick release skewer.

Signore Campagnolo got the design right the first time. His skewer had an internal cam that gripped well and was protected from dirt. But in the 1980s someone decided to "improve" his design by using an exposed cam. This made the skewers a few grams lighter and more modern looking. But they required a larger cam that offered considerably less holding power when the same amount of force was used on the locking lever. Riders found that they sometimes slipped on bikes with horizontal dropouts or track ends. In addition, the cam was exposed to road grime. Unfortunately, exposed cam skewers have become the norm.

From The VO Site - Did we need to make a quick release set this nice? No, but we did anyway. These QRs feature a lever design reminiscent of our favorite Simplex SLJ downtube shifters, a knurled end cap for easy adjustment, and a brass external cam for durability. The axle is chromoly steel.

While they are designed to work perfectly with 135mm spaced hubs, you can use them on 130mm spaced hubs if you cut off the few mm of excess axle that sticks out.