Buckled Rear Wheel?

YoshiK1

Hi folks,

I've just bought a full sus MTB which hasn't been ridden yet. When I got it home I thought I'd see how fast the fastest ratio on the 11 speed single was so held the bike up by the underside of the seat and pedaled with my other hand fast. The bike felt like it was moving up and down like the rear wheel was an egg. When I look at the wheel it doesn't look buckled. Is this a trait of full sus MTBs as it's my first or should I be looking to return this?

Rest sus is set to a few clicks from the tortoise so that it's slower in the return as youd expect it to be.

cooldad

Your post doesn't make sense. Presume by belt you mean chain. And the chain doesn't go round the wheel, so even a buckled wheel won't affect the chain.

You can see if a wheel is buckled just by looking at it.

YoshiK1

cooldad wrote:

Your post doesn't make sense. Presume by belt you mean chain. And the chain doesn't go round the wheel, so even a buckled wheel won't affect the chain.

You can see if a wheel is buckled just by looking at it.

Phone changed it. Bike is what it's meant to say. Theres no wiggle when looking from the top down and from the sides it doesn't look buckled either. Spokes dont feel loose.

The Rookie

So you don’t think pushing up and down on the pedals as you turn them will move the bike up and down a bit?

YoshiK1

The Rookie wrote:

So you don’t think pushing up and down on the pedals as you turn them will move the bike up and down a bit?

It probably does when I'm pedalling and holding it up but I'm talking about pedalling to a high speed, stop pedalling and just let the wheel spin by itself whilst I hold it off the ground.

mattyfez

Does the wheel wobble when it's spinning freely, as in, crank up the speed of the wheel by hand, then let go of the pedal and let it free wheel, and see if the wheel rim wobbles.

You could do a cheap trick and sellotape a pencil to the frame so the end is close to the rim, like a mm or two and watch whether the gap between the rim and the end of the pencil changes.

They do a similar thing here with a zip tie, but a pencil or even a twig sellotaped to the seat stay close to the wheel will let you see any wobble.
https://youtu.be/fQ4g1QNg4dU

Holding the bike with one hand whilst pedaling it with the other is no good though, you'll have to put the bike on a stand or flip it upside down so its stable.

JGTR

I know what you mean, feels like there’s a weight imbalance and when you spin the wheel you can feel the bike moving......as long as the wheel isn’t buckled it’s not a problem. It’s just slight imbalances in the wheel which feel worse when doing what you’re doI got, won’t affect riding

YoshiK1

Thanks for the replies folks, apologies for not articulating my issue as well as could be. The wheel is 100% not buckled but feels imbalanced as JGTR says. I'll leave it as is and take it out for a spin. Thanks to everyone for the assistance.

swod1

Sure its not just a tyre that isn't all way round seated on the rim properly this can make you think the wheel is buckled when you spin it.

Uber_Pod

I thought my back wheel was buckled. It did the same as yours - hold the back wheel off the ground by the saddle, push the pedal down to spin the wheel and it felt like it was bouncing up and down like it was egg shaped. It even looked off as it went round.

Replaced the tyre (not for this reason) and it's completely normal again. As swod1 says, I guess the first tyre wasn't seated right somewhere. The wheel itself is fine.

swod1 wrote:

Sure its not just a tyre that isn't all way round seated on the rim properly this can make you think the wheel is buckled when you spin it.

mattyfez

A tyre that's not seated properly will certainly wobble, but the rim wont.

It's worth looking closely with a new tyre, and if it's not straight on the rim, pump it up to near max pressure and bounce it a bit, and it should pop in.

Once the tyre is seated properly, you can lower the pressure accordingly.