Halo Hex Skewers (follow up)

When I first got the Halo skewers I loved them but I was a little worried about how hard I should tighten them. They didn’t feel like they could handle a great deal of  force and, more to the point, I wasn’t really sure how much force I was putting through them with my little 5mm hex key. At one point I added an extension to my key so that it felt more like the kind of spanner I’d normally use for tightening my nuts. (Make appropriate double-entendre sound now…eeeewww!)

A couple days after installing the Halo hex bolt skewers on my fixie my bike developed a squeak (and I thought, “Oh no, not the bottom bracket again!”) which I was subsequently traced to the front wheel, which was loose (phew, not BB). I had definitely not tightened the bolt enough so I got bold and tightened the hex bolt properly and was never bothered again. I’ve had the front wheel on and off a couple times recently and had no further problems.

The spare skewer went onto my Cannondale Prophet where it was pretty handy because the front end already zipped up with a 5mm hex key and now I could comfortably leave the bike locked to the car for (very ) short periods with just a single (big beefy D-bolt) lock.

And this is where the problem starts. Yesterday I smashed a classic snake-bite puncture into the rear tube of the Dale, pulled out the multi-tool, removed the wheel, pulled the tube out and patched it, returned it to the wheel and tried to cycle off. Oops, forgot to tighten the wheel bolt. Pulled the multi-tool back out and gave the Halo hex bolt skewer a good tighten…and snapped it clean off the bike.

If it was hard to gauge effort when tightening with a hex key it is even harder to gauge when tightening with a multi-tool. And obviously…obviously…I tightened it a little too much…and the threaded end of the skewer snapped off and shot into the bush.

And I walked home 3kms.