jonwvara 

I'm fixing up a 1984 Schwinn World Sport as a theft-resistant city rider for my son, and I want to install a hollow quick-release axle in place of the solid bolt-on rear axle that's on there now. They're high-flange aluminum hubs that are stamped "made in France," so I initially assumed that the hub was made by Maillard/Normandy/Atom, and that an axle from any one of those hubs would likely fit.

But after trying the nut from the bolt-on axle on a set of Normandy hubs that I have on hand, I can see that the threading isn't the same. It also doesn't fit any of my Japanese hubs, or a Campagnolo axle. Does anyone know what kind of axle I might be looking for, and where I might find one?

I do have several sets of decent-quality 27" wheels that I could substitute for the originals, but they're all five-speeds, so I'd have to re-space and re-dish the rear for the six-speed Schwinn frame. Not a big deal, of course, but I'm naturally lazy. Also, a Schwinn bike should have Schwinn-approved hubs. Shouldn't it?

juvela

would not think wheels original to bike. was not this model made by giant or merida?

sutherland gives for schwinn approved made in france threading:

front solid - 8mm x 1.0

front hollow - 9mm x 1.0

rear solid - 9.5mm x 1.0

rear hollow - 9.5mm x 1.0

older hollow axle ends are cut off square. they can get deformed making starting a nut difficult. sometimes they need chasing. bicycle research made tools for this. alternately they can be deburred on a grinder wheel.

jonwvara 

Since you've got Sutherland's there in front of you, is the Normandy/Maillard/Atom rear threading also 9.5 x 1.0? Or what?

juvela

yes sir.

jonwvara 

Okay, maybe I just need to force the nuts on a little harder. Maybe I can find a Normandy axle at the bike co-op.

juvela

you could check/verify threads with a metric thread gauge. this is a very inexpensive tool, if you don't already have one.

comes in handy when working on older bikes where you are not sure of threadings. sometimes when parts have been changed threads are not what one would expect...

hope this helps you some.

John E

I wonder if you have an aftermarket axle, because I am surprised yours does not seem to be of standard French dimensions.

juvela

the older maillard axles were bare metal and the cones black oxide. beginning in the mid-'70's they went to plating them. one improvement that was made at this time was to chamfer the ends of the hollow axles so that the first thread did not get deformed with use.

dddd

The OP needs to use a common 10mm hollow axle with cones/nuts for a quick-release Normandy hub.

The solid axle is 3/8" or 9.5mm dia, so the 3/8" or 9.5mm nuts are too small to fit on the French Schwinn-Approved hollow axle, which is 10mm, not 9.5mm.

Most Normandy rear hub axles are 10mm dia with standard 1mm thread pitch.

All of the Schwinn-Approved hollow rear (French) axles here are 10mm also.

Sutherlands is not always the best answer.

zukahn1 

Yes Schwinn only used 9.5 or 10mm at this time if yours is not a 9.5 it should be a a standrard 10mm.

jonwvara 

You're saying I can't reuse the cones from the solid axle--I need new cones as well as a new axle?

dddd

It may be possible to buy a hollow, 9.5mm axle with Schwinn 26tpi threading from Wheels Manufacturing, but it's a thinner axle, not as strong when it's hollow.

Should be ok for most usage with only 5sp spacing in back, and the company may or may not sell direct to consumers.

Determine the length you need, so the quick release will work properly! it will be much shorter than the solid axle, but can be sawed down if needed.

This axle should cost about $15-20 max.

jonwvara 

Thanks, dddd. Sorry to be so dense, but this is pretty confusing. Are you saying that the earlier reference from Sutherland's--which specified a 9.5 x 1 threading for the Schwinn-approved axle--is incorrect, and that the original solid axle actually makes use of a proprietary 9.5 x26 TPI Schwinn threading? Or are those two threadings--9.5 x 1 and 9.5 x 26 TPI Schwinn--two different designations for the same thing?

All other things being equal, it would clearly seem best to use the larger 10 mm hollow axle, especially since it's a 6-speed wheel--it would presumably be a little more resistant to bending. On the other hand, there are so many cone variations, I'd think it would be easier reuse the original cones with a new axle than to find matching replacement cones with the larger threading.

dddd

9.5x1 threading is the same as 9.5x25.4tpi, which is not compatible with 9.5x26tpi.

I'm not calling 26tpi proprietary, but it's what Schwinn used on their nutted (i.e. solid) axles. Campy also chose 26tpi for all of their axles, including hollow axles.

Just about everybody else, from the French to the Japanese, use 25.4tpi threading nearly all of the time.

jonwvara 

Okay, then if I understand you correctly, the 9.5 x 26 listing for Schwinn Approved Made in France hubs found in Sutherlands is incorrect--it should be listed as 9.5 x 25.4. It evidently is possible to order a hollow axle in that size from Wheel Goods. I can't say I'm especially confident that it would actually fit, though. This has been interesting, but I will more than likely end up re-dishing and respacing one of my sets of 5 spd. wheels and hanging the Schwinn Approved wheels on the wall.

dddd

The incorrect item listed by Sutherlands was 9.5mm for hollow axle. It should have read 10mm.

Traditionally Schwinn solid/nutted axles use 26tpi threading, but I'm seeing your bike is 1984, so should be verified as 26.0 tpi thread pitch before ordering, since at some point just about every imported bike went to 25.4tpi axle thread pitch.

dddd

Again, since this bike is 1984, and has French Schwinn hubs and solid axle, the original solid axle may be 10mm.

Though this also goes against what Sutherlands says a solid axle should measure, not all of these kind of updates are captured in the literature.

A 10mm solid axle would explain why the nut from the other solid-axle hubs doesn't fit, since it's 9.5mm.

So at this point, it is necessary to measure the diameter and thread pitch of the original axle before ordering the new one.

And the length of a quick-release hollow axle needs to be 8-10mm longer than the inside-measured spacing of the frame, with the hub then needing to be assembled to that over-locknut dimension.

I was a little confused myself as to which hub's axle parts that you were wanting to use in the bike's hub. Go for the larger-diameter axle's parts and then order a hollow axle with matching threading and diameter to the cones and locknuts.

jonwvara 

This particular dead horse has been thoroughly beaten by now, but I think I'm finally clear on the threading (something I could have done at the outset by finding buying a thread gauge). The solid Schwinn-approved axle is 9.5 x 25.4, based on the fact that a nut from a solid 10 mm axle that came from a Suntour cartridge-bearing hub--probably a bmx hub--threads readily onto the Schwinn-approved spindle but is obviously too loose with a lot of slop. The same Suntour nut threads cleanly onto my other Japanese rear axles. That being so, a 9.5 by 26 TPI obviously will not work. What I evidently need to reuse the existing cones is a hollow 9.5 x 25.4 axle, which apparently does not exist.

I could try to find a set of French cones that are outwardly identical to the cones I have now but are threaded to fit the 10 mm hollow French axle I already have, but that sounds like a difficult quest. Probably best to hold onto the rear wheel as it's now configured until I hear from someone who wants one.

Hudson308 

My question is why you would want to put QR wheels on a "theft resistant" bike anyway? Thieves are less likely to be interested in a bike with bolt-on wheels, and would have a harder time snatching a bolted wheel that wasn't chained up as well.

The Golden Boy 

My sister's stock 84 "step through" World Sport had Sanshin/Araya wheels.

Metacortex

There still seems to be some confusion over these Schwinn Approved hubs. Just to set the record straight those with solid axles are 5/16" x 26tpi front and 3/8" x 26tpi rear. Those with hollow quick-release axles are 9mm x 1.0mm front and 10mm x 1.0mm rear (1.0mm = 25.4tpi). Most of the confusion stems from the fact that 5/16" is about 7.94mm, which is sometimes incorrectly stated as 8mm and 3/8" is about 9.53mm, which is sometimes incorrectly stated as 9.5mm.

To go quick release you could use the complete 10mm x 1.0mm hollow axle set (incl. cones, washers, locknuts, etc.) from a quck-release hub or get a 3/8" x 26tpi hollow axle from Wheels Mfg. and re-use your existing cones, etc.: Wheels Manufacturing AXLE-10

jonwvara 

Boy, I love confusion.

As I mentioned above, a nut from a bolt-on Suntour hub--which I believe must be 10 x 25.4, since the same nut threads cleanly onto every other Japanese rear axle I've tried it on--threads onto the Schwinn Approved solid axle without binding, but is very sloppy and loose. Is that consistent with the Schwinn axle being, as you say, 3/8 by 26 TPI? That doesn't seem likely to me, but what do I know?

Metacortex

That is indeed the expected behavior when threading a 10mm x 1.0mm (25.4tpi) nut on a 3/8" (~9.53mm) x 26tpi axle.

dddd

jonwvara, your patience/persistence is paying off.

I just threaded a 10x1 cone fully onto a 3/8x26tpi axle, and it is just as you described. The cone goes smoothly on, all the way, yet of course is rather loose-fitting.

I also found some coarser-threaded solid axles, both front and rear, in my collection. One was 24tpi. I'm nearly certain these are rare parts though, and that your rear solid axle is the common 26tpi.

juvela

jonwvara-

my apologies for the incorrect information from sutherlands. when i read that in the book i thought "wha...this can't be right." but then thought that any discorrespondence between howie and my "memory" likely lies with the fault of the latter, as it typically does. repacked several score of atom/normandy/schwinn approved france hubs in the '70's and '80's but have not done any in over twenty year.

dddd -

thank you very much for correcting this error. it not only helps op but means that the incorrect information will not go into the archives uncorrected.