dangerouos washer

[handlebar]

After 350 miles, I happened to exert side pressure on my Radmission before mounting, and the front wobbled. The nut on the front-wheel skewer had worked loose. If I hadn't discovered the wobble, it might have loosened enough for the wheel to drop off past the lawyer lips. That could be deadly.

I removed my skewer so I could order the kind that tightened with a wrench, and it would fit correctly. That's when I noticed something baffling: a washer 4mm thick under the nut. The bike had come that way, with the skewer assembly clamping the forks to the plastic base. The forks fit the base as snugly as they fit the wheel, so there was no need for an extra piece as packing material. Besides, this washer was outside the forks, under the nut. I assumed this was how Radpower intended the assembly to be used.

I would have expected a shipping washer to be plastic or aluminum. This washer is stainless steel that responds strongly to a magnet. I think that means it's hard enough for cutlery. To resist loosening, a skewer nut clamps the fork with a serrated surface. Instead, I'd had a hard, smooth washer.

Why would Radpower assemble their bike with a washer like that?

[Altema]

That washer definitely should not have been there. The skewer nut should rest on the naked fork surface, and mates with the serrated surface you mentioned.