wheel truing

greigcluck

hi, can anyone help? slight buckle in front wheel and can't afford wheel truing stand, seem to remember a readers tip in a recent mbuk where they used an old fork or bike and spokes, can't find the issue it was in, can anyone remember or got their own methods, would appreciate any help.

ride_whenever

flip bike upside down, remove tyre and tube, zip ties cut so just touch the edge of the rim, then you can do lateral and radial true as you would with a stand.

greigcluck

cheers mate, but lost with radial and lateral truing, sorry never actually tried this before

ride_whenever

lateral is your wobble, radial is how far the rim is from the hub, ie roundness/egg shaped!

So, if you have the zip tie there and the rim pushes it then you know that the rim is bent to that side. So you tighten the spokes on the other side to pull the rim back across.

Then re-tension by squeezing pairs of spokes really really hard and repeat over and over til it is smooth!

greigcluck

sorry to bug you mate but does that mean you tighten the spoke which is the exact opposite of where it hits the zip tie, thanks

ride_whenever

not necessarily, you tighten the nearest spoke or spokes to pull the rim away from the zip tie.

So say the zip tie touches more on the left, find the centre of the bulge, then tighten the spokes on the right a bit (like half a turn) I usually find for a short bulge the most central spoke is the only one that needs adjusting, for longer ones sometimes i'll tighten two or three all on the same side.

dennisn

I'm not trying to discourage you from trying truing a wheel but you might want to
read a manual about wheel building before you start. Or at least get a friend who
can give you some tips. You can screw up a wheel by not knowing what you're doing.
And always use a proper spoke wrench. It's not all that hard but have at least a bit of
knowledge before you start. Maybe you'll even build a set eventually.

Dennis Noward

ride_whenever

In my experience, the worst you can do is make the wheel less true,

OH REMEMBER TO LUBE THE NIPPLES BEFORE YOU START

in which point you have to pay to get it done professionally, which is the same as not starting in the first place!

benjdr

Sheldon has a nice guide

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html#tensioning

ride_whenever wrote:

Then re-tension by squeezing pairs of spokes really really hard and repeat over and over til it is smooth!

Squeeze them how? Just pull pairs towards eachother?