Lawyer Lips - Pain the ass more like

el tel

On a couple of my newer bikes, the front forks cause me no end of grief because the dropouts are not 'clean' but have little tabs, the purpoose of which is to annoy the frig out of you when to try to remove or insert a wheel.

In advance of posting I thought I'd find out what these tabs are for and if they had a correct name. Apparently they are known as 'Lawyer Lips'.


Wikipedia explains (My emphasis added)

Lawyer lips or lawyer tabs (a type of positive retention device) are tabs fitted to the fork ends on the front fork of bicycles sold in some countries (particularly the U.S.) to prevent a wheel from leaving the fork if the quick release skewer comes undone. They were introduced in response to lawsuits supported by experts including John Forester, in cases where incorrectly adjusted quick release wheels came out of the forks. Lawyer tabs are designed to compensate for the fact that many riders do not know how to operate a quick release properly: some riders treat them as a folding wing nut, and others do not tighten them enough for fear of snapping them or shearing the skewer (both are not likely given the normal range of human strength, and the mechanical advantages involved, as long as the skewer is not damaged or flawed).

A side-effect is that the quick release, which was developed to allow the wheel to be removed without having to unscrew any components, no longer works as designed: the skewer must be unscrewed in order to remove the wheel (although tools do remain unnecessary). This means that the tension on refitting must be adjusted again. Some cyclists file off the lawyer tabs so the quick release works as originally intended.

A correctly secured quick release is unlikely to be ejected from the dropout in normal use where rim brakes are in use, although recently there has been some evidence, notably from James Annan, a British scientist working in Japan, suggesting that the moments in disc brake systems can cause quick-release front wheels to be ejected past the lawyer tabs. A small number of serious crashes have been attributed to this cause. This is controversial, and the fork manufacturers have not admitted a fault, although there is some evidence that they may accept the principle, and advice on checking quick release tension has been strengthened.[2][3] A complete solution to ejection risk would involve mounting the front disc brake caliper in front of the fork blade rather than behind, as the reaction force on the disc would then be into, rather than out of, the fork-end. However, this would involve major retooling by fork and brake manufacturers, though at least one manufacturer has placed the disc caliper mounts on the front of the right fork blade. This allows standard brakes to be used, and also makes it easier to mount mudguards.

Well **** my drawers, I thought I'd heard it all.

Thankfully, they may be filed off.

Trouble is, the dropouts on one bike are of the carbonfibre type. Question is, have you or would you?

ednwireland

been around for years, i remember my pace rc-35 forks didnt have them and had to be sold for race only

Mycroft H

Carbon fiber dropouts? Is there such a thing?

I don't like the tabs, they are a pain in the arse. However, I was under the impression that the modern exposed cam QR skewers didn't provide as much force as the old style ones and the lips were sorta a secondary retention system.

hardCopy

Surely the fact that people have to manually adjust the tension to get over the lips introduces an even bigger risk of misuse? Pointless IMO.

kumate_champ07

also its against UCI rules to remove them, but its ok to use forks that never had them!

Dawn Rider

I hate the Lawyer Lips/Lugs on my road bike. Seems the only way to remove the wheel is to yank it off.
And, to replace the wheel I have to line it up and whack it home. None of which must be good for the bike.

Idleater

BX 19 wrote: »

Carbon fiber dropouts? Is there such a thing?

Mine are on the race bike, both front and rear. They happen to have titanium inserts unto which the axles rest, but they are carbon.
The forks have the tabs all right. I've just gotten used to (un) winding the quick release but I agree on the pointlessness of the tabs.

fixie fox

Yes, they are a PIA but I never got around to filing them off. However, earlier this year at an event over some bad roads, I noticed that my front skewer handle was at an odd angle. I didn't want to stop as I'd get dropped from the group. Eventually I went to the back and nudged it with my toe and sure enough it was loose. Looking back, I probably got distracted putting on the wheel, but I can't be sure.
With the roads we were on I reckon there was a good chance the wheel could have popped out without the tabs. I'll be leaving them on.