I have a 2020 Jamis Renegade with QR front fork and thru axle rear dropout (142x12mm). Buying a set of wheels for road-specific use but have had trouble find a mixed set. Got a good deal on a QR Axis 4.0 wheelset. However, there doesn't seem to be a safe adaptor for converting the rear QR wheel to be used on the thru axle frame. Does anyone have any insight on this or should I just sell the wheels and look for the specific set I need. Thanks!
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there are a bunch of bikes called 'Jamis Renegade'. It would be better if you provided a link to the exact bike you own, particularly as I'm slightly doubtful that someone would build a bike in this way, and depending on the bike a second bike might be a better choice than a second set of wheels.– thelawnetCommented Dec 12, 2020 at 7:34
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It works the other way round: You can fit thru-axle hubs in QR drop-outs. Proper QR wheels have thinner axles with just a 5mm hole for the QR skewer.– CarelCommented Dec 12, 2020 at 8:15
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As @Carel says, there are adapters that work the other way. However, most through-axle wheels (and forks and frames) are slightly wider than their QR equivalents, to allow for "shoulders" that help locate the wheel in the frame before the axle is inserted.– Adam RiceCommented Dec 12, 2020 at 13:36
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2 Answers
Usually, switching axle standards is accomplished by switching end caps on the hub. Whether this is possible or not entirely depends on what hub you have. You will need to do some research on whether your new hubs have convertible end caps.
I believe there’s generic adaptors available to shim down a 12mm thru-axle down to a 5mm QR skewer, but that’s the opposite use case from your intention.
answered Dec 12, 2020 at 7:54
Expanding a bit on @MaplePanda's answer: some wheels use hubs from major known brands like DT Swiss or White Industries. Some wheel manufacturers, especially premium ones like Zipp or Enve, may make (actually, I suspect they supply specifications to someone else, likely a factory in Taiwan or mainland China) their own hubs. Or some wheel manufacturers might have hubs with their own branding, but they actually come from an OEM manufacturer like Bitex, Novatec, Joytech, and a bunch of others I'm probably forgetting.
If you know who made the hubs, you can likely get the thru axle endcaps from that manufacturer's website or one of their dealers, especially if they're premium hubs. If you don't know who made the hubs, you need to go to the wheel manufacturer.
I think that the Axis 4.0 wheelset is a Specialized wheelset. For others' reference, Specialized is a bicycle manufacturer that's horizontally integrated. If that is indeed a Specialized wheelset, you would approach any Specialized dealer to ask.
Specialized has a premium wheel division called Roval. I don't think that the Axis wheels are made by Roval, and they certainly don't seem to be branded as Rovals. I have a suspicion (NB: I don't work in the bike industry, this is somewhat informed speculation) that the lower-end Axis wheels may use off the shelf parts, e.g. hubs by one of the Taiwanese manufacturers I mentioned earlier, probably rims by a Taiwan-based company as well (e.g. Alex wheels, Kinlin). Because the Axis wheels are relatively low end and are probably just specced as OEM equipment on Specialized bikes, it's possible that Specialized may not stock replacement endcaps for them. Or it's possible that the Specialized does but the store personnel have no idea how to find them, because replacing endcaps on a lower level OEM wheelset is probably not a frequent request. In this case, if you knew which OEM hub maker made the hubs, it might be possible to source the endcaps. The problem is, it's not necessarily easy for a consumer to tell which maker did this. On the off chance that you find a Novatec logo somewhere, you could try Bdopcycling.com. If you see a Bitex logo, you could try Bikehubstore.com. If you have a knowledgeable local wheelbuilder, they might even have an account with one of the OEM hub makers, which do produce inexpensive but pretty reliable hubs. The problem is that you would probably need to identify the hub by visual match to the manufacturer's catalog; I have had Novatec and Bitex hubs before but those companies' logos aren't anywhere on the hubs. That's precisely because they mainly sell as OEM equipment to companies or even individuals looking to make wheels. Indeed, my Bitex front hub is branded Speedcific, which was a single-person shop (unfortunately defunct).
The TL;DR of this somewhat meandering answer is that unless you know which company to approach for the correct endcaps, it's best to get a wheelset that has the correct endcaps to begin with. Again, I would try a Specialized dealer, and there are quite a number of them as Specialized is a major brand. I have a hunch that you should first try a store that exclusively sells Specialized bikes first, rather than a store that sells several models of bike that include Specialized. The exclusive dealers (I'm not sure what the correct term is) might be more familiar with Specialized's internal inventory systems.
answered Dec 12, 2020 at 17:34
