new trainer with an old bike?

You got a bike without a quick release axle.

You can get a hollow axle with a quick release skewer and install it. They are only a few bucks from niagaracycle.com or bikepartsusa.com.

Let me know how many speeds you have and the width of your chain, or better yet measure how wide the space in the frame is where the rear wheel hub goes-between the insides of the slotted dropouts which hold the axle.

At a minimum, though, you will need a cone wrench, an ordinary crescent wrench, and will need to learn how to install an axle and adjust the cones, and risk screwing it up. Also, those old "Ubiquitous Bike Boom Ten Speeds" as one site calls them can be a little prone to a bent axle and going to a hollow axle may make it worse.

This is the most straightforward method. Maybe there's an improvisation which works better- extra long threaded axles or something. I don't know.

There is another potential drawback, though. I understand trainers can be pretty hard on tires and I am almost certain they don't make a special trainer tire for an old 27" wheel.

Or you could just buy a new rear wheel and freewheel with qr for $25 and $10 + shipping. Or, you could just get some fenders, a brush and bucket, and some woolen long johns and sell the trainer.

Also, before you start buying axles, make sure the trainer will accomodate a 27" bike. The distance from the axle to the rim is only 4mm greater than the currently popular 700c wheels, but it's better to check. Maybe look at the trainer maker's website.

Cosmic Hippo said:

I just stupidly bought a nice new mag trainer without first considering that it might not work with my bike. The bike I currently have up at my apartment is a 25-year-old Univega touring bike. It's a hand-me-down that is in pretty good condition because it didn't see much use for a lot of that time, at least until I got my hands on it.

The problem is, the trainer I just bought comes with its own skewer. To attach the bike to the trainer, you're supposed to replace the skewer on your rear wheel with the one it comes with, so that you can then lock the rear wheel into and out of the trainer as needed.

The problem? This old bike doesn't seem to have a rear skewer, just the casette and bolts on either end that you change to fasten and unfasten the wheel.

Is there a cheap way for me to remedy this? Should I be able to replace the bar through the casette with the skewer? I haven't touched it yet because I'm not very familiar with working on them.

Or would the only way to make this trainer work with this bike be to get a whole new casette/freewheel for the bike?

A skewer is generally provided with a Mag trainer so you don't muck up what may be an expensive OR odd-sized (e.g., older ROLF) skewer that may be currently on a rear wheel ...

You can simply mount MOST rear wheels which have nutted, solid axles into a Mag trainer ... that is, you're PROBABLY, currently good-to-go.

You probably cannot mount a solid axle that uses wingnuts unless you substitute the wingnuts with axle nuts ... that is probably NOT an issue.

As noted, tire wear is excessive with a Mag/Wind/Fluid trainer, so you'll want to mount an OLD tire that you plan to replace before you hit the open road OR (of course) use the tire that is currently on the rear wheel (it doesn't even have to be roadworthy), and replace it -- AND, the front tire -- before using the bike on the road.

I see two potential pitfalls with Alfeng's suggestion. If the axle doesn't protrude outboard of the nuts much, then the recesses in the clamp which are supposed to clamp onto the special QR may be too small to fit around the nuts.

If the axle does protrude a bit from the end of the nuts, then there may not be a secure grip or you may dog up the threads on the axle.

If either is the case, I think you should send an email to the mag trainer manufacturer and see if they will sell you nuts which are compatible with the trainer. It's worth a shot.

garage sale GT said:

I see two potential pitfalls with Alfeng's suggestion. If the axle doesn't protrude outboard of the nuts much, then the recesses in the clamp which are supposed to clamp onto the special QR may be too small to fit around the nuts.

If the axle does protrude a bit from the end of the nuts, then there may not be a secure grip or you may dog up the threads on the axle.

I do NOT know the outer dimension of BMX or PISTA axle nuts ...

And, I suppose the working end of a 3-speed hub's axle will be too long to allow the rear wheel & frame to be secured.

Regardless, although there is certainly no guarantee of anything approaching standardization, the receiving "cavity" for CycleOps (and, without looking, presumably my older VETTA) trainer's "clamp" ends have an inner diameter of ~2cm & a depth of ~2cm ... typical ROAD axle nuts will fit inside the recesses, so I think the odds are pretty high that you can fit your bike, as is ... UNLESS you have an extraordinary amount of exposed axle beyond the axle nut.

FWIW. I think many older frames are generally as good as contemporary frames ... sometimes, better ... sometimes, not. Your Univega's frame is probably as good as any contemporary frame. Most people gauge a bike based on its weight AND consequently consider older bikes that tend to weight 24+ lbs. (28 lbs. is not uncommon, of course) to be slugs when compared with the typical "new" bike one can buy from their LBS which will probably weigh closer to 19 lbs. BUT, the difference in bare frame weight is probably only 2 lbs + 1 lb. difference in having a carbon fiber fork instead of an all steel fork ... so, while 3 lbs. is from the frame & fork, a lot of the weight difference is in the components; and, updating most vintage frames will result in a bike that weighs in the neighborhood of 21-to-22 lbs.

The spacing on your Univega is probably 126mm ... almost every NEW wheel you will have access to will have 130mm spacing. Respacing the rear from 126mm to 130mm requires a trivial amount of effort on a steel frame, IMO ... but, there is no reason to do so until you decide you really want to update ALL-or-MOST of your components.