Why is my front wheel so stiff?

[Guest]

My front wheel seems very stiff. When I spin it the wheel slows down very fast, actually it hardly spins. It's very hard to ride up hills because I feel the bike slowing down with some type of force. I have disc brakes on the front. When I loosen the quick release lever the wheel spins freely when i tighten it then the wheel does not spin well. What can I do?
Thank you,
Chris

[Alex Ramon]

Hi Chris,
Sounds like a strange problem. If the wheel spins smoothly when the quick release is undone the only thing I can think of is the quick release might be too tight? But that doesn't really make sense either.... hmmm. Check the following video, where I show how to tighten a quick release lever and let me know if you're already tightening it correctly.
http://bikeride.com/remove-install-wheels/

[Guest]

Thank you for your help. After further investigation I noticed that even with out the quick release brake the tire spun slow then I noticed that with I removed the magnet disc brake the tire spun very well but in return the front tire makes a humming noise besides the fact I have no front brakes. So
1 - How can I make a little more space between the rotor and the disc brakes
2 - Does it matter if I put my tire on upside down? (All the why up in the fork) (because I work with the bike upside down)
3 - What about the the springs on the rod? Are there two or one and which why do they face?

[Alex Ramon]

It does sound like this disc brakes are the problem. I'm trying to track down some bikes with hydraulic and cable discs so I can figure them out and do a tutorial on them. I'll let you know when that is online. In the meantime your local bike shop will have some ideas...
Direction of the wheel shouldn't matter, as it can only be put into the bike one way due to the discs. Just make sure your quick release lever is always on the non-drive (left) side of the bike.
There are two springs on the quick release rod, that slide on narrow end in on the outside of the dropouts. They just help give clearance while you're removing the wheel.
Check the image on this tutorial:<br />
http://bikeride.com/remove-install-wheels/
Hope that helps :-)