Why is there such emphasis on the dropouts on a frame? I've no doubt the type of frame, Columbus / 531 etc, are all relevant, in terms of weight, strength and so on. But I also see folks putting some emphasis on their dropouts, e.g who manufactured them etc. Surely they are negligible in terms of the overall bike?
What's so special about dropouts?
- Thread starter OldFrank
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Midlife
Retro Wizard
Pressed steel droputs are a bit of a pain with QR's as they are sometimes not thick enough, Vertical Dropouts are not very helpful with a fixed, tricky to use a portacatena without the correct dropouts, titanium campag dropouts are worth a fortune........ and good dropouts are the sign of a quality frame. 
Shaun
Shaun
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OldFrank":y5hnef8x said:
Its one of those questions that I was scared to ask - but now I know
Pressed steel droputs are a bit of a pain with QR's as they are sometimes not thick enough, Vertical Dropouts are not very helpful with a fixed, tricky to use a portacatena without the correct dropouts, titanium campag dropouts are worth a fortune........ and good dropouts are the sign of a quality frame.
Shaun
Well this is good, it starts to address some issues. However...
Ok, i see the problem with pressed steel not being thick enough, and perhaps being weaker.
And vertical droputs, yup get that, but that is more about geometry than quality. The portacatena? surely niche.
So, why would titanium campag dropouts be so desirable? other than bling? They don't strike me as being a key component where there can be a great range of quality or demand. Sure, Ti is expensive, so any Ti part is valuable, but surely there is little to be gained with a Ti dropout.
Good dropouts as a sign of a quality frame, what is a good droput as compare to a mediocre dropout?
Sorry, I may be being slow
....well for one, a Ti frame would pretty much require a Ti drop-out.
Sure enough they all serve the same purpose to essentially secure the wheels in their proper place, but it's like anything else where there are variations in strength, weight, aesthetics and cost to play with. Campagnolo drop-outs is largely a sign of a quality frame and not too shoddy.
Sure enough they all serve the same purpose to essentially secure the wheels in their proper place, but it's like anything else where there are variations in strength, weight, aesthetics and cost to play with. Campagnolo drop-outs is largely a sign of a quality frame and not too shoddy.
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torqueless
Senior Retro Guru
Back in the 70s all lightweight frames with any pretensions to quality had Campag dropouts, or similar forged dropouts from another manufacturer - it was as simple as that. Those Campag dropouts just went with 531db- It'd be very unusual to see the one without the other on a road frame.
Midlife":3kltd9da said:
Also a potential pain in the bum if trying to struggle home on a badly buckled wheel; horizontal ones have more "breathing space" to jiggle the wheel about to make it run without rubbing on some other bit of the bike. Then again, horizontal ends can annoyingly cause back wheels to slip if the skewers don't "bite" properly when putting a short burst of big effort through the pedals. Oh, and one final thing - on old frames there can be subtle differences in compatibility between different makes of drive side dropout and different makers' rear mech fixing bolts.
David
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