wheel truing

SRI

Without a truing stand, what's the best way to check my wheels are true.

In the olden days I used to use the brakes to ensure a wheel was reasonably true but this isn't possible in the shiny new world of discs.

Or does it not really matter if your wheel is a bit out of true, since there are no brakes for it to rub against.

Although, I'm guessing it does reduce it's strength after it gets to a certain stage of mal alignment.

Thoughts?

nicklouse

zip ties on the fork legs or the chain or seat stays.

or pencils and rubber bands.

habitrail

buy a portable wheel jig or use ya local bike shop thats what they are there for, it doesn't cost much to pay a mechanic to tru ya wheel like properly.

SRI

cheers nick.

habitrail thanks too, however, the last time I took my bike into my LBS they just made a mess - they do things just to justify their minimum spend. For example I wanted a gear tune, (the cable needed adjusting since the fine tuning screw was out almost as far as it would go) so that's what I asked for.

Got the bike back to find the gears hadn't been tuned properly, but to justify to themselves the £15 quid for two minutes play with the adjuster gear screw, which was the only thing that had been touched and was left about 1/8th of a turn from falling out (which I could have done) they had regreased my seat post, which pissed me off since it had a surface covering of grit and mud, so this means I now have loads of grit scraping about between the post and frame. They also reported to have 'cleaned and oiled my chain' which really just meant chuck some oil on it, no cleaning involved. And then to add insult to injury - there was an entry on the bill for checking pressure and inflating my tyres!

Then there's the time aspect - if you do it regularly (as I did when I had v brakes) it takes a couple of minutes each week to ensure all your spokes are tight and the wheel is true but if you want to go to the LBS, you have to book it in, and take it down there, pick up etc.

Iain W

Kind of off topic, but speaking of crap LBSs, mine is dreadful. Taking my poorly Rockhopper in after some problem had caused the rear mech to go into the spokes, I knew I needed a new hanger, mech, chain etc. The guy took one look at it, did that suckinging air through the teeth (like plumbers do when giving you an estimate), and said "I don't know where to get one from. THey're not standard like the old road bikes. I can't help you"

I went home, got onto Wiggle and had located a new mech hanger in about a minute

And last week I took in my ancient Raleigh Ravine frame (a renovation project I'm working on, it's earnt it though years of loyal service!) to remove the BB which I just couldn't budge. Again the teeth sucking thing, before saying "Oh, they're difficult to do. They get really tight" I really hate these Americanisms, so please forgive me for this, but, well, DUH! :x
To be fair I left it with them, came back later and they had managed to get the retaining ring off, and loosened the BB, allowing me to finish the job at home. I paid a fiver for that. I also took them a wheel that has some really loose spokes, but they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole: *teeth sucking* "We don't do wheels"
They also suggested I not bother with the Ravine frame. So much for passionate bike shops :roll:

There is a decent bike shop a little further away which is going to get my business from hereonin