How To True A Bike Wheel? – You Must Understand It
Russell Franklin - October 13, 2022Watch our new video on wheel truing: a valuable skill if you don’t want little prangs to end your ride either at home or on the road
Bicycle wheels have become more intricate as the years have passed. However, almost all still follow the same fundamental design, one that a medieval cartwright would be familiar with.
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The strength of the entire assembly, which consists of a rim held in place by a network of taut spokes extending from a central hub, depends on how well each part balances the one before it. It’s simple to upset that equilibrium if you run them over a pothole.
The six easy steps listed below will quickly get your wheels back in shape if they are starting to look a little wonky.
What Tools Do I Need?
- Truing stand, or another method of fixturing the wheel and tracking deviations
- Appropriately-sized spoke wrench
- Spoke holders such as CSH-1 or BSH-4
- Light lubricants such as CL-1
- Rags
How To True A Bike Wheel
1. Place Your Wheel In The Truing Stand
The wheel is pulling to one side, which is a lateral alignment. Place the wheel in the truing stand after removing it from the bike. Set the calipers on the stand vertically until they are parallel to the rim’s outer edge.
2. Spin The Wheel
In the stand, turn the wheel. The caliper’s jaws should be spaced so that they are just clear of the edge of the rim. Make sure the wheel isn’t bouncing up and down because that needs radial truing, which means a trip to the bike shop.
3. Locate The Buckle
Turn the wheel slowly and adjust the jaws until they just barely touch the rim. This will show you where the wheel is most severely buckled. Rotate the wheel back and forth to locate the center of the buckle
4. Find The Relevant Spoke
If the rim is pulling to the left, look for the spoke that emerges from the hub’s right side closest to the buckle’s center. Find the corresponding spoke coming from the hub’s left side if it is pulling to the right.
5. Adjust The Tension
The nipple should be rotated once. The nipple will tighten clockwise when viewed from above (through the rim), but when viewed from the stand, this is reversed, and it must be tightened counter-clockwise.
6. Check And Recheck
Check your adjustment’s outcome by rocking the wheel back and forth. Adjust the tension further if necessary. Move on to the next buckle after a slight caliper adjustment.
Wheel truing is composed of four fundamental components. The first two are discussed in this article. A skilled mechanic can modify spoke tension to achieve the best results in each area. Thorough wheel truing will result in a strong and durable wheel with the right tools and experience.
1. Lateral Trueness
The most important part of lateral truing is for bicycles with rim brakes because it corrects side-to-side wobbles or lateral deviations as the wheel spins. Typically, correcting the lateral trueness comes first when truing wheels.
2. Radial Trueness
The radial trueness of the wheel is its roundness, or how much it moves up and down while it spins. To address issues with roundness, radial truing involves modifying spoke tension.
3. Dish/centering
The bike’s two wheels should be placed evenly spaced apart within the frame.
4. Spoke Tension
Similar to any other fastener system, spokes have a range of acceptable tightness or tension. Extremely uneven spoke tension will cause wheels to lose their trueness or straightness quickly. Problems can also arise from wheels with overall spoke tension that is either too tight or too loose. The best spoke tension meter (tensiometer) is the Park Tool TM-1.
What Exactly Does It Mean To “true” A Wheel?
A wheel is considered to be true if its rotation is perfectly straight and does not bob or hop (side to side or up and down). When a wheel wobbles, it needs to be trued, which is done by gradually tightening the spokes.
How Can You Tell If A Wheel Is Out Of True?
Lift your wheel off the ground, focus your attention on one area (the brake pad is the simplest), and spin it to check for this. If it veers to the right or left, that indicates that it is not true.
What Occurs If A Wheel Is Not Trued?
Untrue wheels are weaker, can be challenging to steer at high speeds, and can cause rim brakes to stutter or lock up. However, for any of the aforementioned to be a serious issue, it would need to be seriously flawed.
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