Personally I don't see the need for quick release skewers unless you're racing. I use locking skewers on my bike and can change a wheel almost as fast as with a quick release. I can lock my entire bike with a Kryptonite Evolution Mini U-lock by either the frame, front wheel or rear wheel. For me, the ability to secure my bike easily is a much greater advantage than gaining a few extra seconds fixing a flat.
http://boulderreport.bicycling.com/-ss
Government In/Action
A heads up from Boulder: A bill has recently passed in the New Jersey state assembly that would ban the sale of bikes with quick-release skewers. Get on the phone.
By Joe Lindsey
Jeebus – just when you need Tony Soprano, the guy up and retires. In one of those “how the hell did this happen” moments we find so often in the law, the New Jersey state assembly passed a bill this week that – I am not making this up – would ban the sale of bikes with quick-release wheel skewers.
Assembly bill A2686, which passed 77-3, is now headed to the other side of the capitol where a state Senate committee will take it up. According to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, the bill originally was limited to bikes with wheel sizes under 20 inches, but was amended prior to passage to affect all wheel sizes. This action came despite the Bicycle Product Suppliers’ Association’s efforts to work with the bill’s sponsor, Paul Moriarty.
The bill says that, in addition to the primary retention device, like bolts, a secondary retention device must be included that – and again, I am not making this stuff up – must activate automatically and always, yes, always, prevent a wheel from separating from the bike.
Personally, I’d propose an amendment to the bill that legislators automatically and always reject all campaign contributions that might be considered a conflict of interest or an attempt to gain influence.
But neither of those things is possible in reality. As Bob Burns, who is Trek’s legal counsel and worked on the negotiations, pointed out to BR&IN, there’s no product known that meets those standards, nor is it possible to guarantee 100 percent safety all the time. The effect would be to basically ban bike sales in New Jersey, which would kinda, sorta, you know, put out of business a bunch of bike shops in that state.
The most awesomest part ever? The bill is intended to protect children, but the amended version stipulates that it’s unlawful to sell a bike without the primary and secondary retention devices if the front wheel diameter is greater than 20 inches or is a "specialty adult bicycle with a front wheel diameter of 20 inches or less" – which is to say it applies mostly to adult bikes: road and mountain bikes (also BMX cruisers, which use a 24-inch wheel size, and many folding bikes used for commuting). There’s no language specifically about wheel retention devices for children’s bikes. Under 20 inch wheels? Make ‘em as dangerous as you want! If something happens to a kid riding a smaller-wheel bike, well, they’re so young then, you can’t possibly be that attached to ‘em. Just make another baby!
(As an aside, most children’s bicycles use bolts, not quick-release skewers, and a number of high-quality ones also have secondary retention devices. If there’s a problem, it’s likely more due to Wal-Mart bikes with shitty assembly jobs, not an inherent problem in the bike design. Having "tested" a big-box store bike a few years back, I can personally attest to the shoddy, borderline dangerous assembly you can find on a department-store bike. Most real bike shops nowadays – smart ones, anyway – have customers sign affidavits confirming that they already know or that shop personnel have shown them the proper way to tighten a quick-release skewer on the bike they’ve just bought. We did this 15 years ago at the shop I worked at, precisely because of civil liability issues.)
So, here’s the action part of today’s post: the Assembly sponsors are Moriarty, David Mayer, Joan Voss (all primary) and Reed Gusciora, Jon Bramnick and Jack Conners as co-sponsors. If you live in New Jersey, do please contact them and let them know what you think of the legislature trying to save us from ourselves. Do also contact members of the Senate Commerce Committee (that would be Nia Gill, chair; Nicholas Scutari, vice chair; and Gerald Cardinale, Raymond Lesniak, and Robert Singer, members) and let them know how you might feel about this bill actually becoming law. Be nice, be civil, but do let your thoughts be known.
If you want to be safe all the time, you might as well stay home, hide under the sheets and breathe from an oxygen tank. And even then you just can’t rule out that piece of aging space junk falling on your head after a dodgy de-orbit. The world can be a dangerous place, folks. That doesn’t mean we should sanitize it to save you from yourself.
