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From: kehoe@reed.UUCP (Dave Kehoe)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: vertical rear dropouts
Message-ID: <1505@reed.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-May-85 16:03:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: reed.1505
Posted: Thu May  9 16:03:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 02:44:23 EDT
References: <907@eisx.UUCP> <284@sdcc12.UUCP> <42@uw-june>
Reply-To: kehoe@reed.UUCP (Dave Kehoe)
Distribution: net
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 42

Thanks to everyone who replied to my "Bicycles,
Violence, Hatred" article.  The article was printed
on the Op-Ed page of the Oregonian, Portland's
daily newspaper, on Friday, April 26.

No track bikes have vertical dropouts.  Track bikes
can't have vertical dropouts because the chain is
tensioned by moving the rear wheel fore or aft
(unlike 10 speeds where the chain is tensioned by
the derailleur).

There is one big advantage of vertical dropouts,
and one big disadvantage.  The advantage is that
you can't pull the rear wheel out no matter how
hard you try.  For the average cyclist this
doesn't matter, but I'm strong, and if I jump
on the pedals I can pull my rear wheel out in any
gear.  The way I deal with this is to either use
Campagnolo hubs, which have nubbies on the locknuts
for better grip, or to tighten my quick releases
very tight.  The former is expensive, the latter
stresses the axle, bearings, and quick releases
unnecessarily.

The disadvantage of vertical dropouts is that the
frame must be built to exacting standards.  If
anything is even a *teensy* bit off, the rear wheel
will always be crooked.  Consequently, until
recently no production line bicycles could be made
with vertical dropouts, and few custom frame
builders wanted to spend the extra time being careful.
Recently, however, some Japanese companies have made
tremendous improvements in robot technology and quality
control, and we're now seeing vertical dropouts on
production Japanese bicycles (Italian bicycle
technology is still 20 years behind the times).

You should definetly buy vertical dropouts if you can.
You'll be able to use Hi-E hubs (made in Tennessee)
which are made only for vertical dropouts -- these
hubs are both stronger and lighter than *any* other
hubs.