I really like shimano midrange(ie ones I got with my dynamo hubs) to durace QR skewers. They seem to be far easier to lock the wheel in with proper alignment/tension than any other skewers I tried(american classic was ok not great, ritchey seemed terrible).

Does anyone have suggestions for either a source of affordable higher end shimano QR skewers or a good light/cheap alternative? I'm happy to consider allen key non-QR skewers too.

I am using Ti QR like these:


seem to go under the name One23 (on ebay); I see now come with carbpon fibre handle - had the best price:weight ratio. Beware that on Fox fork the bolt on the underside of the leg gets in the way if you want to have the skewer lever horzinonatl and poin ting backwards - which is the way I like to fit my skewers.

I am uising Ti Non QR like these:

again ebay, selller id shown in photo. Beware there is slighlty heavier version of these, 40g ish and the piar I have have the hex machined so it is slighlt larger than 4 mm so in order to avoid any risk of rounding, I ground an imperial size allen key to 4.3 mm (this is not a problem on the 30 g ones in the photo).

These are superb, hold really well, light and cheap!
http://www.xcracer.com/shop/viewproduct ... oductid=97

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"I could have done this job myself in five minutes, but as things turned out I had to spend two days trying to find out why it had taken someone else three weeks to do it wrong."

Internal cam skewers like Shimano are inherently more secure as they have roughly twice the leverage ratio of external cam and as the interface of lever and cam is internal it's less likely to become contaminated with debris which affectes lever force to clamping force adversely.
Other than Shimano there was another company who made a lighter weight internal cam but I can't for the life of me remember who - noting that the XT's I have actually weighed exactly the same as the Deore's on my wifes bike despite the lever at least looking much lighter!

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Impoverished weight weenie wanna-be!
Budget 26" HT build viewtopic.php?f=10&t=110956

I personally like the KCNC titanium QR skewers.

They are my top choice for skewers because it uses a brass seat for the external cam of the lever. Brass is good because it doesn't suffer from creep when constant high force is applied to them. Some of the other light weight skewer designs utilize nylon or some other derivative as the seat. The problem with using a plastic material is that it will creep over time under constant high load. What this means for you and I is that even though you set the skewer to be super tight. So tight that it hurt your hand while closing the lever, over time the "tightness" is lost because the nylon/plastic gives. Which means the skewer is no longer clamping down in the fork/frame dropouts as tight as you originally set it.

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Carbon-Ti?
http://www.carbon-ti.com/index.php?p1=p ... LM&Cod=XLM

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No scales on the trails

Tune also made internal cam QR

http://www.starbike.com/p/tune-AC16-17-926-en

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I currently use;

Mavic ti
Shimano deore
Kcnc ti
Mt zoom ti
Hope stainless

Never had a problem with any of them at all. So not sure why you wouldn't plumb for a lightest option.

Kcnc or mt zoom. They are both the same weight 43g the pair if I recall. The arms on mt zoom flex when doing them up tight, where as the kcnc are rock solid, but the kcnc so creak when doing them up, takes your pick... Both my sets came from eBay for under £40, what's not to like.

A fantastic way to trim -70g - -120g off your bike

Ah yes - I initially thought Tune, but those aren't on the current Tune website. They also have the disadvantage of a lack of knurling on the nut to prevent it unscrewing in use - a significant failing IMHO given the issue with disc brakes and QRs (solvable by using a nut from a different skewer, but that seems like a bit of a bodge). That and the lack of a positive stop on the QR lever. Tune make some good products, and those ought to be superb, but they rather dropped the ball with them.

I should point out I have no experience of the Carbon-Ti skewers, but they don't appear to suffer from the fundamental flaws of the Tune ones (I use Extralite external cam skewers which seem pretty secure - have KCNC on my road bike, but not sure I'd trust them on the MTB).

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No scales on the trails

i have a set of those tunes for sale, i have used them in my road bike and just dont like um, not confident with them, let alone using them in my 29 er with disc brakes...
i would like to point towards the quick releases that salsa offers not silly light but light functional and durable !
http://salsacycles.com/components/flip-off_ti/

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/bicycle-bi ... 36?item=50

Friend of mine bought them, and they serves him very well.

I use the ones KingKong has posted on all my bikes, XC, road, TT and even my old DH bike and never had a problem with them. Light, strong and cheap? Not often we find all three at once!

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They are even cheaper than Nest? Can you give some link?

How about Extralite?
I use them for both my road and mtn bikes and they are outstanding. Expensive but usually super good stuff is. I've tried most of the skewers mentioned and I would never use a KCNC skewer again.