Ban the Quick Release Axle
Better pack that set of wrenches on your next ride, ’cause if the law in New Jersey passes, we might all be losing our quick release skewers. Won’t that make changing flats fun? Why? Seems some kids have been injured by improperly secured quick releases on cheap bikes. But the law doesn’t distinguish between kids and adults. Would bike manufacturers build a special New Jersey bike or would they just do away with the quick release? You worry about it. I’m still in my Lazy Boy. –Corrie
Attention everyone in New Jersey who rides a bicycle: If a bill requiring an improved bike safety device passes into law, your bike won’t pass muster.
I don’t need to visit your garage to make that determination. There is no bicycle available that complies with A2686, which the state Assembly passed last month, 77-3, and S2837, the companion bill that now awaits consideration in the Senate.
At issue here is a safer version of “quick release,” a long-standard technology that lets a wheel be removed from a bike without tools. The updated version would incorporate a locking mechanism so the wheel can’t fly off on its own.
Okay. But there’s another wrinkle here. This device is not available today on a single bicycle. In other words, bike shop owners say, every bike now on their showroom floor could become illegal, rendering their inventory worthless and leaving them nothing to sell.