Yeah, it definitely looks like a lock ring tool should fit over that adapter, I’d be trying to remove the cassette/hub too. Good call.
Some photos look like a cone wrench could get purchase on the adapter, but many home mechanics/riders don’t have cone wrenches. So removing the cassette/one hub to allow more purchase with a vice grip…or a Knipex pliers wrench …could be a solution.
It’s also likely that a local shop could help out. Might not even charge anything if it’s your local shop that you’re a frequent customer at
Agree with the above. I’d take it off. I wouldn’t use vice grips or other serrated pliers on a part made of soft material or it will chew it up more. @GPLama has a video on the cog removal process.
I was able to remove the cog with a lock ring tool, what gave me a bit more space to work with the “quick release” adapter.
I tried a few pliers to remove the adapter, but none of them were very successful. The notches on the adapter for the wrench are really small, and if the adapter is very tight, the wrench included destroys the material.
In the end, I was successful as follows: remove the cog, spray the adapter with WD40, leave it to soak in for a while, try to loosen it a bit with a hammer, then carefully loosen the adapter with a high-quality wrench (not the one supplied).
In general @Ride_Cyclery: don’t torque the adapter so tight! It’s really not a good start with a newly purchased product if you have to spend hours dealing with problems like this right from the start. In addition, the notches for the wrench on the adapter should be significantly larger!
I managed to get my adapter of with a simple pliers wrench (see picture).
However, since this mainly seems to be a problem that occurs with the new Swift One Hub without cassette, I would highly recommend @Ride_Cyclery adjusting the torque rate of the pre-installed adapter
I have the same damn issue. Same Zwift Hub One. I have removed the hub now but as can be seen from the picture, the adapter is quite damaged now and can’t be removed. Since this is a common issue, I would hope for @Ride_Cyclery to take care of it. Can’t be bothered to use brute force or WD40 and destroy it and lose all warranty.
I bet if you take it to a bike shop they can get it off and clean up the damaged bits. It should still be usable but Zwift would probably send you some new adapters. Might be less bother than returning the entire unit.
Yeah but I don’t know why a bike shop would do this tbh since I didn’t buy it from them and this thing is like 5kg. I obviously have my local bike shop but it’s a half hour car ride. I can’t be bothered to do this for something that is clearly @Ride_Cyclery ‘s mistake and problem. Also they are so terrible at Support so far that I can’t be bothered even more.
I contacted support about the quick release being impossible to remove and they sent me a new trainer after multiple follow-ups. The support team is NOT good but eventually I received my new trainer. The new unit has the torque spec written on it and the pre-installed quick release adapter came off with very little effort. Seems like they had a bad batch, knew about it, shipped anyway, and planned on exchanging problematic ones as the new one came in two weeks after receiving my first.
Wonder if the torque spec is for me, or for the assembly factory who over torqued it in the past!
No I suspect it is for anyone who is used to a torque of 40NM for the lockring on most standard cassettes. Possibly a few have already been stripped and returned?
I believe the torque for the quick release adaptor remains at just 6NM
Yeah that 20 is not for the adapter. It’s interesting the lock ring is at 20, but I guess it’s a couple of plastic bowls and not a cassette that will be shifted through.
A good shop will do something like this because that’s generally the shop’s function–fix bikes and bike-related stuff. And if they want to practice good customer service.
They might charge you a few bucks, and if they’re slammed with other work they might not be able to do it right then. But our shop wouldn’t think of not trying to remove what’s effectively a seized nut because you didn’t buy it from us. To be fair, we get that kind of phone call sometimes–“Do you work on bikes that you didn’t sell?” So some people aren’t sure. But yeah, bike shops do that all the time
As to why you might want to do it–sure, it’s Zwift’s ‘fault’, but at some point it makes sense to compare the effort and stress and time that you are spending. You could take the trainer to a shipping center and box it up and send it back and wait how long for a replacement…or you could drive to the shop and have it done in 5 minutes. Sure, Zwift didn’t ‘make it right’. But that second option sounds a lot easier to me (depending on where you live, if you can drive, etc.)
Fair enough and I’m sure my friend at my bike shop would fix it for me but why should they after all? I paid @Ride_Cyclery for it, I would expect them to send me a product that works. And anyway, the way to the UPS center and to the bike shop are about the same.
Yeah, not saying you’re wrong. It’s a matter of priorities. I get wanting to hold Zwift accountable. But I’d also prefer having it done that day. Which route I went might depend on exactly how upset I was, lol.
I know our shop deals with this sort of thing all the time–something that some manufacturer really should have done right, but they didn’t, and so we take care of it that day rather than waiting a week or more for the company to make it right. Two years ago we had a bunch of bikes coming in with wheels that were really terribly built–coming out of tension right under our customers. We could send the wheels back and have the company do it, or we could do it right there, in a half hour. Granted, that was a company we are a vendor for, so you can be sure we charged the company for our time, lol. But we’ve done similar with bikes we didn’t sell too.
I really think and I think that’s unfortunately the case with lots of bike products these days, that due to the high demand and not being able to properly cater the demand, things are rushed and not properly thought through. I mean, why do you screw this thing there in the first place? Just leave it out and everyone can then use whatever it needs. I believe the disc brake/through axle market might even be higher now for bikes (definitely if you count in MTBs) so why bother in the first place. It’s really stupid.
There are still a ton of QR bikes on the road, and in production. Particularly on the low to mid end, which is often what people end up using for trainers.
They’ll probably send you another one, but if you take the Cog off the freehub you should be able to get more purchase on the adapter. The mangled bits can be filed flat.
…could be a solution.
