How much out does wheel have to be before truing ?

cbj

New to road biking so here goes . . . Had a focus Cayo 2008 a couple of months, my front wheel has now got its 2nd occurence of coming out of wack, I guess its due to the poor state of the country roads round here, I haven't hit any potholes to my knowledge.

Its about 2mm each way , I have adjusted the brakes this time to compensate, so the wheel rolls freely.

Due to time constraints I paid the nearest bike shop last time to do it, but if its going to keep happening I'd rather get a wheel truing stand.

So here goes the silly noob questions . .

- How often does this happen to normal roadies going out regularly ? I've only had it happen once in 18 years of mountain biking.
- Is 2mm play anything to get obsessive about or shall I wait until its worse before correcting ?
- Anyone recommend a decent home mechanic wheel jig to buy ? I can't be ar$ed paying 10-15 quid every time it happens . . shocking bike shops charge that much really for what must be a 5-10 minute job.

Denny69

Had this problem with my rear wheel a few times, as for getting a stand....I use the bikes frame and the brake blocks, it's not absolutely perfect but you can get those little niggly kinks out with pretty good results just takes a good eye

redddraggon

Touch wood - I've had my rear wheel come out true once, and that was because I got a flat and couldn't stop for about 200m after the wheel bottomed out - so I don't think it happens that much.

If you know how to true the wheel yourself, it'd wouldn't be a bad idea to keep your wheel very true - you notice that they go out slightly and you true them before they get too bad - can't be a bad idea.

Phekdra

cbj wrote:

- How often does this happen to normal roadies going out regularly ? I've only had it happen once in 18 years of mountain biking.
- Is 2mm play anything to get obsessive about or shall I wait until its worse before correcting ?
- Anyone recommend a decent home mechanic wheel jig to buy ? I can't be ar$ed paying 10-15 quid every time it happens . . shocking bike shops charge that much really for what must be a 5-10 minute job.

Hi cbj, I asked some very similar noobish questions on here not so long ago. My two month old Mavic Aksium rear was a similar amount out of true and the gist of the replies was get it fixed now before it gets worse.

I got a Minoura tru-pro kit from Merlin cycles for just over £50, and it really was a simple case of tightening one of the nipples a couple of turns.

Phekdra

P.S. Sorry for the spacing - keyboard on the blink! :x

dennisn

I'm not what you would call obsessive, but I do have a truing stand and do most of my own work. If I can see it's out I true it. Just a word of caution to you should you buy a truing stand. Get yourself a good wheel building manual before you start wrenching away on things. While many people will tell you it's easy, I would tend to say,
yes this
is true, once you've done it a few times. So have a friend show you the first time and
you'll do just fine with a little practice.

Dennis Noward

Denny69

Can quite agree with you there dennisn....it's only easy after you've done it a few times!!

meagain

Really don't see any need for a stand - certainly not just for minor truing. Patience (just-a bit-at-a-time) is the key to learning the supposed "art"!

cbj

Thanks for the replys and sound advice , think I'll just try to correct it slightly without a stand to get out this weekend and see how we go, although I have to say I could see myself buying one to get it bang on because I can get a bit obsessive when it comes to bike setup really . . . .gawd help me

Down the Road

cbj wrote:

New to road biking so here goes . . . Had a focus Cayo 2008 a couple of months, my front wheel has now got its 2nd occurence of coming out of wack, I guess its due to the poor state of the country roads round here, I haven't hit any potholes to my knowledge.

Its about 2mm each way , I have adjusted the brakes this time to compensate, so the wheel rolls freely.

Due to time constraints I paid the nearest bike shop last time to do it, but if its going to keep happening I'd rather get a wheel truing stand.

So here goes the silly noob questions . .

- How often does this happen to normal roadies going out regularly ? I've only had it happen once in 18 years of mountain biking.
- Is 2mm play anything to get obsessive about or shall I wait until its worse before correcting ?
- Anyone recommend a decent home mechanic wheel jig to buy ? I can't be ar$ed paying 10-15 quid every time it happens . . shocking bike shops charge that much really for what must be a 5-10 minute job.

Might take 10 minutes may take an hour hence the charge. A good qualified wheel builder will true your wheel to withing 0.2 mm TOTAL runout and make sure it is ROUND as well. Spoke tension needs to be corrected as factory wheels are made quickly not correctly. Especially OE wheels as these are sold for very little profit.

cbj

Down the Road wrote:

Might take 10 minutes may take an hour hence the charge. A good qualified wheel builder will true your wheel to withing 0.2 mm TOTAL runout and make sure it is ROUND as well. Spoke tension needs to be corrected as factory wheels are made quickly not correctly. Especially OE wheels as these are sold for very little profit.

That's all fair enough, and I'd be happy to pay more than £15 for an hour's graft fine tuning the wheel but the last time I know it was trued it was a minor job which would have taken 5-10 mins , it still cost £15.

I appreciate the econmics of running a bike shop are tight , I feel for them - they have to make their money somewhere , its just at that price I'll be fixing it myself in future. If people agree with the price or aren't confident/arsed enough to sort it themselves then its their call and also fair enough.

I also do it myself because I enjoy mechanical stuff like that and I'll spend time getting it bang on.

Down the Road

5-10 mins , it still cost £15.
a pound a minute is not bad Call a plumber and see the rate Bike labour is under priced by 100%

cbj

Down the Road wrote:

5-10 mins , it still cost £15.
a pound a minute is not bad Call a plumber and see the rate Bike labour is under priced by 100%

I take your point , and hey ho its only 15 quid but erm, actually at that cost my ar$e is it under priced , 5-10 mins at that rate it equates to between £90 to £180 an hour which is not cheap by anyones standards.

Monty Dog

There's no need for a dedicated trueing stand - the brake blocks are more than adequate. Get yourself a decent spoke key and read up on wheel-trueing techniques. As well as getting the wheel true, you might also need to retension the wheel - true up the wheel and then try giving each spoke a quarter turn at a time, working way round the wheel.

dennisn

Monty Dog wrote:

There's no need for a dedicated trueing stand - the brake blocks are more than adequate. Get yourself a decent spoke key and read up on wheel-trueing techniques. As well as getting the wheel true, you might also need to retension the wheel - true up the wheel and then try giving each spoke a quarter turn at a time, working way round the wheel.

I'm going to have to disagree with you MD. I'm not sure that going around the wheel and
tightening every spoke a guarter turn is going to result in a true and properly tensioned wheel. It will probably knock it out of true if it was in true in the first place. I don't see the wisdom in tightening every spoke just becaue you can. There is a bit more to it than that.

Dennis Noward

synchronicity

No mechanic in his right mind would spend an hour truing a wheel...

nmcgann

Monty Dog wrote:

There's no need for a dedicated trueing stand - the brake blocks are more than adequate. Get yourself a decent spoke key and read up on wheel-trueing techniques. As well as getting the wheel true, you might also need to retension the wheel - true up the wheel and then try giving each spoke a quarter turn at a time, working way round the wheel.

Danger! Danger! Don't do that with a back wheel as the dishing will end up changing. Different amounts of tension need adding on drive and non-drive sides to keep the rim centered properly. Also there's a good chance of adding a load of spoke wind-up unless the person doing it knows how to do "overshoot and back-off" spoke tension adjustments.

Neil