QRs have a real history, they were invented by Tullio Camagnolo. He almost despaired when he had to change gears on his rear wheel during a November race in 1927 with frozen fingers (on the wing nut in particular). Did you know that one had to take off the rear wheel and turn it over in order to get going with another gear? It's true! The rear wheels were equipped with sprockets on both sides)... Und this is how Tullio's sparkling idea was formed: The quick-release lever for a light and uncomplicated removal and remounting of the rear wheel was born and Tullio protected his idea by registering his first patent. And even today, it is impossible to image a wheel without a quick-release (or the newer thru-axle) .
The quick release can serve as colour accent on your road bike, but it can also be exchanged for an extra light version for reasons of the weight tuning. Extralite quick releases or Zipp, Tune, Procraft... we offer you a large, colourful selection at top prices. With a light QR, you can save up to 100 g of weight, but be careful, light construction quick releases do not work with horizontal dropouts, such as traditional steel frames are equipped with. If you wish a lighter quick release for such a traditional steel frame, according to our experiences so far, there is only one way, namely to use the Salsa Flip Off made of titanium.
And of course, development never stands still: if road bikes traditionally are equipped with 100 mm in the front and 130 mm in the rear, these dimensions are now changing due to the application of disc brakes and quick-release axles on road bikes. Road bikes with disc brakes have meanwhile installation widths of 135 mm in the rear (and 100 mm in the front). If you use a thru axle, you'll still have 100 mm width in the front, but 15 mm diameter, and in the rear you'll even have 142 mm and 12 mm diameter.