Truing a bent wheel

Mrtennis

So I took new build out on it's first big ride on Saturday, 21 miles on and off road. Got round to cleaning it up today and making adjustment etc and I was gutted to find that it seems that possibly both wheels my be slightly bent.
So, how easy is it to true a wheel? I read a couple of articles online, one on sheldon brown, and that one especially made it sound ridiculously complicated. I got confused but it made it sound like I should be going round the whole wheel and adjusting every spoke, not just ones where the wheel seems bent.
Then I found this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6eOamGK2tY
I have to say this guy made it sound pretty simple and I think I could give that a go. I did build the bike myself so I have some knowledge and ability. Or will it be safer to take them to a bike shop? They would be the first part of my "project" that I would have had to do that with!
Just a bit gutted as they seem to have got bent on my first proper ride. The wheels were second hand to me but seemed fine when I was building the bike. Another thing I noticed on Sheldon Brown was that possibly all spokes can need tightning in some cases. Could that have been the problem originally and that's why they got bent? I don't remember any extremely hard bumps etc on the ride so they seem to have got bent quite easily - they are mavic x517 with hope hubs. I use v-brakes so want them as perfect as possible.
Lastly, I may just be the impression I've had over the years, but is it a sign of bad things to come once you start having to straighten wheels? Will they be going out of true often???
Any help much appreciated!

arthur_scrimshaw

This works for me, I leave the wheel in situ and use cable ties instead of a truing stand.

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... rim-truing

cycleclinic

Wheels should not go out of true unless spoke tension is too low or the wheel has taken a very big knock. Even on big hits it should remain true.

How out of true is it? If it's less than 1mm I would not worry too much, unless tension is low.

Mrtennis

thecycleclinic wrote:

Wheels should not go out of true unless spoke tension is too low or the wheel has taken a very big knock. Even on big hits it should remain true.

How out of true is it? If it's less than 1mm I would not worry too much, unless tension is low.

Thanks for the reply. It's more than 1mm, it's enough for the brake pads to bring it to a gradual stop. It may be that the tension is low so I will check tomorrow

The Rookie

Ignore

njee20

Is it new to you, or brand new? Only ask as Mavic haven't done the X517 for about 10 years!

Either way it's easy to do, use the brake pads as a guide (if you're confident the brake is centred).

The Rookie

I use a ruler bluetacked across the frame/forks to make sure it is centred as well as 'trued'...

Levi_501

This is pretty good for the money

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/w ... -base.html

mrmonkfinger

Its still £80 though. A ruler blu-tacked to the frame costs practically nothing.

thelonegroover

Quite!, why spend £80 on something you're only going to use occasionally. If it was £20 then maybe. Use the bike frame as a reference. But remove the tyre first.

pilch

I got this looks pretty good, very detailed, i'm going to have a play with a couple of old wheels to see how I get on

mrmonkfinger

The Wheelpro book is excellent.

His DIY stand is well worth knocking up if you have a couple of hours spare.

Levi_501

mrmonkfinger wrote:

Its still £80 though. A ruler blu-tacked to the frame costs practically nothing.

Granted, but it is just easier, I promise you.

I used to use an old frame and fork, with bit tacked on here and there. But after buying this, I can hoestly say it is just so much easier.

You can set the stand up on a bench or table, pull up a chair and do it being more relaxed. I have found I can get the wheels a lot truer, both left and right run out and the egg shape.

Once you use one, you will know what I mean.

mrmonkfinger

I have a truing stand, so I believe you. I just wouldn't pay £80 for one...

Mrtennis

OK, so I gave it a go this afternoon at straightening me wheels.
The front wheel went really and is virtually perfect.
The back one however is harder and has brought up some problems. It was worse than the front to start with, with it bending one way and then the other in three or four places. So I started tweeking away. Got the worst of the bends out although not quite perfect. But I stopped there because I found I was adjusting various spokes, to get some tighter or loser in the direction they had to go, three or four have become really lose! I'm not certain whether the tension is meant to be the same on all spokes, but this handful of spokes really is very lose! I decided just to stop in the end and come and see what more info I can find online.
I rode the bike a bit on the rode and at first there where a couple of sounds from the spokes on the back wheel. Don't know if this is normal after adjustment because it settled down pretty quickly.
Anyway, help appreciated as usual!

Levi_501

The best advice I can give is take it easy.

Do not try and take the whole bend/all the bends at once. Do a bit, spin it, see what it looks like. Take it out of the jig, Push the hub against the wall while pushing on the rim (not to hard) just enough to relieve the tension.

Slip her back in and have another go.

Also, do not work on one spoke. If the rim rubs at a certain point, tighten the one nearest the rub, say 1/4 of a turn, then let the two either side off say 1/8 of a turn and then the two outside of those do them up say 1/12 of a turn.

It really does just take time and patience.

mrmonkfinger

Mrtennis wrote:

I rode the bike a bit on the rode and at first there where a couple of sounds from the spokes on the back wheel. Don't know if this is normal after adjustment because it settled down pretty quickly.

I'd suggest (not really knowing how bad the wheel is):

first get the tensions (roughly) equal, all spokes on drive side should be the same, all spokes on non-drive side will be the same, but the two sides will be different.

have a listen to the pitch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cC6MynIUsU

the non-drive side will make a lower pitched sound


then adjust out the wobbles.

try and balance the tensions - if you tighten a drive side spoke by 1/8 turn, you need to loosen a non-drive side spoke by 1/8 turn.

Mrtennis

Thanks for the advice everyone.
I gave it a rest for a couple of hours then went back out to take another look. Turns out the wheel was actually extremely straight, i did a better job than I thought. But those lose spokes were still there, and I don't feel comfortable leaving them. And if I start tightening those I know the rim won't be true anymore. That's where I'm getting stuck and not sure what to do next.
If I start fiddling with every spoke so as to get an even tension around the wheel to start with, maybe it's just me but I have images of the wheel just going completely out of shape, worse than when I started!
Wanted to possibly go for a ride today. Would be sticking to road mostly I think but could be about 25 miles. Should I not be doing that before the wheel is sorted? I think if I just spend ages doing it I might be able to do it. But from experience of putting the rest of the bike together, I know that certain bits I have just got stuck on and they have taken ages just fiddling about with them, as in hours! And I just want to go for a ride today rather than start all that again!

mrmonkfinger

Mrtennis wrote:

But those lose spokes were still there, and I don't feel comfortable leaving them. And if I start tightening those I know the rim won't be true anymore. That's where I'm getting stuck and not sure what to do next.

Its the loose spokes that will encourage the wheel to go out-of-true over the course of time.

Get the loose spokes up to tension, then do another round of removing the wobbles. TBH once you get the loose spokes tightened, you will probably not need to do that much straightening.


FWIW when you're truing wheels, mostly its a case of repeating the sequence:

* even tensions
* remove out of round wobbles
* remove left/right wobbles

and you just keep going round and round and round that loop until you're happy with the wheel. Spend a few minutes on each thing, then move to the next. IME a wheel build from scratch, I'll do that sequence three, four, maybe five times. And exactly the same deal when truing a wheel, but maybe only need to do once or twice round.

The Rookie

A 'twanging' from adjusted spokes is not unusual after truing a wheel and going for a ride.

mrmonkfinger

The Beginner wrote:

A 'twanging' from adjusted spokes is not unusual after truing a wheel and going for a ride.

That's the sound of your wheel going out-of-true

Stay on top of the spoke wind-up, and you don't get twanging.

supersonic

If you have warped the rim then it will never be right.