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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