Rear axle damage with with shift kit?

[Fabian]

I've heard something about axles breaking but i've never even had the slightest hint of a problem and my bike uses low specification Quando hubs and axles.

On top of that, my shift kit is set up with a super low first gear for pulling massive loads or climbing seriously steep hills.

Many times i've thought to myself: this level of torque should snap axles or snap chains on a regular basis, or even break the welds on the bicycle frame.

The fact of the matter is that the opposite is true.
I've travelled over 5000 Kilometers (3000 miles) and i've never broken an axle.
I've only snapped one chain because i previously damaged the links with early chain suck problems.
The chain ran for 1000 kilometers (600 miles) with damaged links before breaking in half.

Fabian

 

[abikerider]

I've heard that if the dropouts (the part of the frame the axle fits into) are not parallel to each other that it can cause this sort of problem by putting stress on the axle just by tightening the axle nuts or quick release. Also, hubs with freewheels are more prone to bend axles than hubs with cassettes. With a cassette hub the bearings on the right are closer to the frame and put less stress on the axle while going over bumps. You may want to eyeball your rear dropouts to see how square they are. If you replace the wheel, you should get a cassette style hub to replace it. Hope this helps.