No cheap lightweight thru-axles? Seriously?

Discuss light weight issues concerning mountain bikes & parts.

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Starter
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by Starter

What? Nobody wants to make any money?

Here's what might literally be the easiest and cheapest bike component to fabricate (assuming you go with a bolt-on design)... And everybody is trying to get $75-$150 for them? Seriously?

How many of these has Tune or Carbon-Ti actually sold at these stupid prices? A few hundred? Maybe?

C'mon Asian aftermarket industry. Let's get a move on already. 20g-40g, $20, on eBay. Whoever does it sells them all day at a $19 profit and clears every other manufactures combined total sales figures in couple of weeks.

Don't get me wrong. I'll shell out stupid money for some stuff like every other obsessed sucker. But this is moronic. It's a tube. With threads on one end, and a 5mm hex indent on the other. Jeez.
Oof.

njee20
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by njee20

We did this a few weeks ago, I totally agree. There's myriad cheap carbon/ti skewers out there, but no one's yet doing cheap alu thru-axles.

by Weenie


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yourdaguy
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by yourdaguy

Speculating, but every fork manufacturer makes them a little different. Fox inserts from the left and SRAM inserts from the right. So it is much harder to do aftermarket since you would have to have inventory of several versions. Also, they seem to have different locking mechanism and more than likely they are patented by each manufacturer. This is all part of the overall plot of the bike industry to make everything proprietary and non-interchangable so we all have to go through our dealer for "special" parts. That is why I pretty much stick to old school parts such as quick release. If I was independently wealthy, I would start a bike company called "Old School Bikes" that made bikes with traditional interchangeable parts.
For certain parts stiffer is more important than lighter.

njee20
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by njee20

Also, they seem to have different locking mechanism and more than likely they are patented by each manufacturer.


Not an issue with a bolt up version, you're right about thread placement and what not, so yes, there would need to be several versions. But it still seems odd that we're seeing all the 'big boys' doing it, and not a single one of the catalogue brands. KCNC have a QR one which is a step below Tune/Carbon Ti etc, but that's still not cheap, and doing away with the QR would make it lighter and cheaper.

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Getter
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by Getter

Stock ones are fairly pricey. Jenson has a stock Fox one for 75usd. Marzocchi is around 55usd.

I was going to pick up a Carbon Ti one...but I have a fork mount roof rack and having to remove the front wheel with a hex key to put my bike on the rack isn't worth the trouble.

njee20
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by njee20

Stock ones are fairly pricey. Jenson has a stock Fox one for 75usd. Marzocchi is around 55usd.


Again, they're QR, which are relatively complex, with expanders and what not, more so than a conventional QR skewer.

The Carbon-Ti ones are just a tube of alu with a thread on one end and a 5mm allen key hole in t'other.

kingkongsfinger
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by kingkongsfinger

"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."

AdyM
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by AdyM

I wouldn't call £60-70 cheap, given that Ti QR axles can be found for £20 at places like Planet X

njee20
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by njee20

The Carbon Ti ones look excellent, but agree that £140 a pair isn't really cheap. That's more than all but the most mental QRs after all!

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by Starter



That's the Carbon-Ti. £140 a set, or roughly $240 USD.

For maybe six dollars of materials and manufacturing cost, due only to the fact that they are a smallish firm.

They are barking lunatics asking that sort of money. Not faulting anyone who buys them... They appear to be one of the best options on the market, and if you need a lightweight TA, you need a lightweight TA.

But any of the larger Asian manufacturers have the tooling and resources to pump out something of similar weight for perhaps 12 cents a pop... Selling them at $20 a set, they'd corner the market literally overnight. And still make great money. No idea why this hasn't happened. Shoot, anybody with access to aluminum and a CAD machine could make these for the same manufacturing costs as Carbon-Ti, and corner the market by selling them at (a still very profitable) $30-$40 a set... Bottom line, somebody needs to be happy just selling them at a great profit, rather than an absurd one.

Any forum members with machining skill out there?.. The market is ripe for a side business...
Oof.

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yourdaguy
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by yourdaguy

Light Bicycle makes killer carbon rims and they also make a few other carbon parts. Maybe they will start to make these at some point.
For certain parts stiffer is more important than lighter.

bombertodd
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by bombertodd

Starter wrote:
C'mon Asian aftermarket industry. Let's get a move on already. 20g-40g, $20, on eBay. Whoever does it sells them all day at a $19 profit and clears every other manufactures combined total sales figures in couple of weeks.



How much is a 160mm long by 20mm diameter piece of 7075 aluminum? :wink:

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Getter
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by Getter

I wonder how much load the QR is actually under? I would imagine a company producing a QR has to put it under some kind of stress test before putting it to market. That could be where a good part of the production cost goes to? I'd hate to imagine if one was to fail and vibrate out during a ride.

The liability is the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about producing something like this. :?

njee20
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by njee20

yourdaguy wrote:Light Bicycle makes killer carbon rims and they also make a few other carbon parts. Maybe they will start to make these at some point.


Not really the sort of thing I'd ever expect to be made out of carbon... Certainly not cheaply anyway.

by Weenie


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jimborello
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by jimborello

I dont think using carbon would be a great idea for a thru axle. But you are right we need more cheap lightweight thru-axles in cool anodized options because my Fox axles might be safe and reliable, but they are definitely not cheap, light, and black is boring.

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