Should the tightness of the QR skewer (rear wheel) affect the freewheel The tighter I fit my rear QR, the less freely my rear wheel spins. It’s very noticeable.
Problem is that when I have the QR quite loose I tend to get a creaky noise from the rear axle under load but when I tighten it, the creak goes away but the rear wheel doesn’t freewheel as loosely.
Is this normal?
Thanks...it’s a 2016 Giant Defy (carbon frame, disc brake - and no, the brakes aren’t rubbing).
Thanks people - pretty much I suspected; that the hubs might need a bit of a service. I have taken them apart myself and given them a good clean up (this is after I had noticed the problem which is no worse since I reassembled the hubs - it's a Giant SLR Wheel System which I think has a DTSwiss 360/370-type 3-pawl hub with cartridge bearings, so maybe something in there has got worn out. Looks clean and nice though. I'm about 17,000 kms on these hubs without a proper service - although I did pay for a full bike service last year, I suspect they had a look, spun the wheel and thought it was OK so did nothing.
I can fairly easily unscrew the hub end caps though but I also read that's how they should be put together - not too tightly screwed in.
I guess I could try taking it all apart again - but probably better getting someone who knows what they're doing to have a proper look.
Thanks again.
You just noticed that quick release tightness affects the bearing preload.
If your hub has cup and cone bearings, you can adjust the bearing preload so that you are able to tighten the QR skewer to maximum tightness without the bearings being too tight. This is one of the advantages of cup and cone bearings and part of the reason why cup and cone bearings are preferable for hubs. Use cone spanners to adjust the bearings. You can measure the required cone spanner size with vernier calipers. Instructions for adjusting the hub bearings.
If your hub has cartridge bearings, there's little you can do. The tightness of these bearings cannot be adjusted.