Will swapping wheels require gears adjusting?

differentstrokes87

I'm in the process of sourcing parts for a wheel build so i have a set for on road and a set for off (its a CX bike) and the questions I have is;

When I'm swapping between the two will I need to adjust the gears or if I run the same cassette etc will it run smoothly?

Superbalicious

I think it depends on whether your two wheels are the same brand. I bought a spare budget wheel to use with the turbo and even with the same cassette the gears are misaligned.

differentstrokes87

Not what I was hoping to hear.

Bozman

Three different brands of wheel and a different ratio cassette on one, they all work fine without any adjustment, maybe I'm lucky.

marcusjb

^^as above

3 different rear wheels, 3 flavours of cassette ratios - never have to adjust them at all when swapping over.

stinger53

i use a spare wheel on my turbo trainer, same cassette but different hub. and it is not aligned

Pross

I switched from Mavic (Aksium) to Pro Lite Braccianos and the flange width must be quite different as I had to adjust the limit screws quite a bit to the point I really couldn't be bothered switching them regularly and ended up using what was supposed to be my best set of wheels all summer. It's the only set I've had where this has happened though, probably because I've always stuck to Mavic previously.

schweiz

I sometimes have to give the cable tension adjuster on the rear derailleur a half turn or so but that's about it.

That's switching between Shimano DA C50, Powertap and Ultegra hubbed wheels.

kayakerchris

Why would you need to adjust the derailleur? The adjustment is to do with the chain length, drop out shape/size and the cassette size ( i.e. the jump from one to the next. these are all standardised and the wheel is actualkly irrelevant.

schweiz

because as Pross said, the flange width of the hubs is slightly different. Although the OLN distance is always 130 mm (+/- manufacturing tolerences), the cassette doesn't always sit in the same position left to right so sometimes you need to re-index the gears.

In terms of chain lengths, I have cassettes with 11-23, 12-25 and 11-28 and never adjust chain length. Also, as the dropout doesn't change, I fail to see how that has an effect.

Pross

kayakerchris wrote:

Why would you need to adjust the derailleur? The adjustment is to do with the chain length, drop out shape/size and the cassette size ( i.e. the jump from one to the next. these are all standardised and the wheel is actualkly irrelevant.

When I switched wheels I did a quick run through of the gears just to be sure and the rear mech ended up in the spokes. I'll stick to Mavic from now on!

CiB

I switched from Fulcrum 5s to American Aero Classics and everything worked just as it did before, with no adjustments at all, not even to brake block positioning.

Judging by previous answers, you might be lucky and get away with it, you might not. I'd have to ask does it matter though? A minute or so tweaking isn't the hardest thing you'll have to do on a bike.

ugo.santalucia

90% of the times you don't have to do anything... the other 10% you need a very minor adjustment to either the limit screws

Anonymous

Can you move the cups on the axle so they are all identically positioned? (i.e move the wheel along the axle)

I was considering this as I have had to change the hub on a wheel to one which is not the correct replacement. What this means is that I have to move a few washers around to get it to fit correctly (which it does now, fine). On the downside this means that I seriously doubt that another wheel will fit the same without some significant adjustment.

slowbike

coriordan wrote:

Can you move the cups on the axle so they are all identically positioned? (i.e move the wheel along the axle)

It's not the axle position - it's the distance between the frame and the cassette that is critical

coriordan wrote:

I was considering this as I have had to change the hub on a wheel to one which is not the correct replacement. What this means is that I have to move a few washers around to get it to fit correctly (which it does now, fine).

So you've moved the position of the drive side nut on the axle using a washer to pad it out a bit - you just need to replicate this on any wheel you buy - or if all the other wheels are the same then I'd undo this wheel and match it to the rest.

I've got several wheels for road & hybrid - including one I've just built up - they can all swap without fuss - but being 8 speed they're slightly more tolerant.

racingcondor

As has been said you'll usually be OK. Unfortunately the only wheels I have that don't swap in with no fuss are my race wheels (1/4 turn on the limit screws does it though) and they're DA hubs on a bike that usually runs an Ultegra hub on the training set so brand has little to do with it either.

CRAIGO5000

Im on 2 bikes with Sram Apex/Force over 3 wheels Planet X AL30s, Mavic Kyserium SL's and some cheapo Rodi (for turbo).

Even with the Mavic spacer, there are indexing issues. Basically, if its a Shimano hub you're fine. If it's Campag, you should be fine. If it's Mavic (which does both as it's longer) then you will likely have issues when swapping to a dedicated Shimano/Campag hug.

I leave my good bike with the SL's on and use my Winter bike as the hot-swapper for turbo/winter use.