You don't have to loosen the bolts to side the axle out but its going to be hard to put it back in while trying to pull the tire back and installing the axle and adjuster blocks at the same time. it would be alot easier to just loosen everything up and then adjust chain tension.Hi, I'm mounting a new rear tire on my bike and was wondering if I HAVE to loosen the chain adjuster bolts to do this, or can I just loosen the axle and slide it out? I appreciate any advice you can give me.