Weird wheel problem?

dogboy73

I've noticed that my front wheel seems to be sitting over to one side in relation to the fork bridge. I checked that the QR was tight & the wheel was sitting in the droupouts okay. Seemed fine & the wheel was running okay as was the rotor throuh the caliper. On closer inspection I can't really see what's wrong!! Makes no sense to me. Something is very very wrong but I can work out what :? Could it be my forks? Doing my head in a bit to be honest :?

supersonic

Is the spoke tension even? Hub bearings adjusted correctly?

dogboy73

Spoke tension is as even as the LBS could get it. they said the wheel was warped pretty bad & I may need a new rim. They did say the hub was fine though.

Probably not even done 100 miles on the bike since I bought it but I think my crash has just fooked it completely! Might be time for a new wheel. I was quite concerned I could have twisted the forks but I thought that would have been quite hard to do.

supersonic

If the brake is is not coming on or rubbing when this happens, then most likely poor spoke tension and the rim is flopping about.

dogboy73

supersonic wrote:

If the brake is is not coming on or rubbing when this happens, then most likely poor spoke tension and the rim is flopping about.

Think your right. The brakes are not rubbing & pull up fine when I used them ..... apart from the fact that they cause the wheel to pull over so much!

But what about the wheel not sitting straight in the forks? What does this indicate? I'll post up a pic in a bit to show what I mean.

supersonic

If the wheel was moving in the dropouts, the brakes would grind badly.

There is a possibility I suppose that the fork is damaged. Fork flex can be quite common under braking. I still think the wheel is badly done and needs replacing.

Examine all parts of the sytem, especially the fork brace.

dogboy73

There's no grinding. The brakes seem to be fine. Fork looks okay as well (at least to my untrained eye). Here's the pics of the wheel in the frame;

This pic shows the gap on the left & right sides of the wheel in relation to the forks;




You can see how badly the wheel is scewed from this shot;

supersonic

Need pics of the dropouts too.

dogboy73

Not the best pics but here they are;

myopic

Maybe a bearing missing in the side that the wheel leans over to? Might be OK when just spinning, but when stressed there could be a bit of play. Ssuming cup and cone bearings of course!

dogboy73

It's new wheel time whatever way you look it :?

Reckon I got about 100 miles out of that wheel at most

robertpb

Bring forth the spoke key and adjust rim back to centre.

Could be the fault of a drunk wheel builder.

Anonymous

might just be my eyes after spending too long in the studio, but in the picture looking directly down at the forks, the fork legs/dropouts don't seem right.

dogboy73

yeehaamcgee wrote:

might just be my eyes after spending too long in the studio, but in the picture looking directly down at the forks, the fork legs/dropouts don't seem right.

How so?

Just ordered a new wheel :?

Anonymous

looks like the dropouts are misaligned, but I am very very tired :oops:

dogboy73

yeehaamcgee wrote:

looks like the dropouts are misaligned, but I am very very tired :oops:

That picture is blurry as hell! I need to take another look at that.

EDIT: Just had an idea & tried my wife's front wheel in my forks. That looked a bit like it was off to one side as well :? I tried the same test by braking hard (she has the same disc rotors as me) & the same thing happened. I then did the QR up tighter & it didn't happen. However the wheel still looked a little lobsided in the forks. Not as bad as the pic I posted earlier but that was with my knackered wheel after heavy breaking.

Getting paranoid now. Thinking I've knackered the forks as well now

GHill

yeehaamcgee wrote:

looks like the dropouts are misaligned, but I am very very tired :oops:

Left dropout (as we look at the picture) looks a little twisted to me. Could just be the pic.

nicklouse

if you put the wheel in the wrong way round is it off to the other side or the same side?

dogboy73

nicklouse wrote:

if you put the wheel in the wrong way round is it off to the other side or the same side?

It's difficult to get the wheel in the wrong way because the spokes stick out more on this side & touch the disc caliper. However I gave it a go, carfeully positioning the spokes around the caliper. Wheel looks the same this way i.e. slightly over to one side! So it looks like my forks are fooked. But would the disc rotor run smoothly through the caliper if this was the case? If the wheel was out of alignment surely it wouldn't.

nicklouse

yep it is the forks.

if the wheel was out then the rim would be on the other side. wheel being out has Zero relation to the disc. take the rim away and no effect on the hub.

and even with bent forks you can still set the caliper up to run true.


get the fork looked at as you may be lucky and get away with just new lowers rather than a full fork.

dogboy73

Goooood!!1

I've ordered a new wheel because that thing looked pretty fooked anyway. Looks like another trip to the LBS & possibly some new forks.

Not good. I spent about a year building my bike & after a few hours riding I've fooked it saideways! Incredible. I guess that's the way things go.

Anonymous

Well, on the plus side, my eyes are fine, if that any consolidation :oops:

dogboy73

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Well, on the plus side, my eyes are fine, if that any consolidation :oops:

not really :roll:

Been sizing up some new forks. I'm looking at around £300, which is more than what I paid for the Reba Dual Air's I have now. Not good. Got twins on the way before Xmas. The wife is going to have kittens when I break this to her. I recently sold my Trance as well & I was hoping to be able to save the money from that. Looks like now I'll be spending all on bike parts It never rains it pours. Such is life

Anonymous

I am sorry for you. Incredible bit of bad luck.

dogboy73

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I am sorry for you. Incredible bit of bad luck.

Indeed. I'll never ride over a foot bridge again without thinking about this :x

dogboy73

Just wondering what forks to replace my knackered Reba Race's with? £300 is my absolute limit. The Reba Race's only cost me £259 so £300 is pushing it. £250 would be much more to my liking

EDIT: Current favourites (except these are out of stock);
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=51002

nicklouse

TBH you forks are not totally knackered.

get them checked out you may have only bent the drop outs so new lowers (or used check the year) could be fitted.

Also as the internals are good. a lower level reba and fit your internals.....

there are options before splashing the cash.

Also Call TF about spares.

dogboy73

nicklouse wrote:

TBH you forks are not totally knackered.

get them checked out you may have only bent the drop outs so new lowers (or used check the year) could be fitted.

Also as the internals are good. a lower level reba and fit your internals.....

there are options before splashing the cash.

Also Call TF about spares.

To much faffing about for me. But I guess since they are fooked anyway I might as well give it a go. I'm anxious to get back on the bike again ASAP. Typical that I've ONLY just got this bike set-up right & ONLY just sold my Trance. I had 2 perfectly good bikes a fortnight ago. Now I've just got one fooked bike! I wouldn't wish this on anyone

I'll give TF a call as well.

ride_whenever

i'd book them into tf now, earliest booking date is the 5th.

dogboy73

ride_whenever wrote:

i'd book them into tf now, earliest booking date is the 5th.

Would be quicker to buy some new forks. Think I'll have to do this to ensuire getting back on the bike ASAP & then maybe send the forks off to TF tuned. If they can fix them then great. I'll sell them on fee-bay.

ride_whenever

Not hugely so, if you ask your lbs nicely then they might have something to tide you over, i'd run a set of rigids in the meantime for poops and giggles, ~£40 for steel or double that for carbon ones.

I wouldn't buy a set of decent forks and then sell yours because you'll end up losing loads of money, half the cost of new forks (unless you go 2nd hand) plus the tf job. The tf forks will be better, so if you're really lucky you might get a set of 2nd hand forks to tide you over, but for a week (you'll have them back on the 6th) i wouldn't bother.