2bridges1bike

After riding about 125 miles on my new smart trainer (tacx neo) , I realized that the 130 mm axel adapter on it was too small, and I should have been using the 135 mm adapter. The bike is a 2019 Cannondale aluminum synapse. With the wrong adapter on I could visibly see the stays getting pinched inward by the qr skewer on the trainer. Fortunately aside from a little scraped paint on the drop outs, I don’t see any damage and the rear wheel still fits and spins freely. Is my bike still safe to ride outside?

I feel pretty silly about this, the bike did rock to the left a lot. I mostly did steady riding in the 180-200 watt rage. However there was one indoor session where I did some very short intervals in the 400-600 range and the bike popped out of the trainer.

Thanks in advance. Hope everyone is staying safe.

Andrew R Stewart 

I highly doubt any frame damage was done and that the rest of the bike's life will be trouble free WRT that incident. However your comment about leaning to the left does make me wonder if it's from inadequate QR clamping, the QR end not properly fitting the stand's clamping or your off center fit/pedaling technique. Andy

2bridges1bike

Thanks for the response. According to the pedal dynamics info for the trainer, I do have unbalanced pedaling technique. This is why I didn't pay much mind to the rocking, kept riding, and didn’t check the rear axel width.

Crankycrank

Agreed, not likely caused any damage but have a good look at the welds on the chainstay joints. Long term use like that would probably shorten the frames life.