Bicycle Mechanics - wheel alignment

My bike is 5 years old, and its never had a wheel alignment, I'd take it to the bike shop, but they want $12 a wheel. How do I do it? I know I take that funny looking tool and twist each spoke. Which spoke is twisted?:beer:

eh... i'd just take it to the bike shop and haggle them down. it's a pain to learn as a newbie... and you could end up messing it up worse than it already was

If you want to learn wheel truing and you are starting at zero you really need to find an experienced person to learn you.
Take the wheels off the bike if you take them in. At my shop this will save you a couple of bucks. Less work, less storage.

Here is a articles by Sheldon on wheelbuilding, will give a run down on how a wheel is builtand trued..
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Here is directions at Parktool that should help.

http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_truing.shtml

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It does take a special tool to true the wheels, you can do basic trueing without a trueing stand though. $25 is about average for trueing a wheel they are not trying to take advantage of you. It does takea certain amount of skill to true a wheel and that is what you are paying for.

Originally posted by deliriou5
eh... i'd just take it to the bike shop and haggle them down. it's a pain to learn as a newbie... and you could end up messing it up worse than it already was

Actually sir, I'm not a newbie, it's just the only part of the bike I never learnd how to fix.:beer:

sorry didn't mean to condescend... all that i meant is that you're a newbie to wheel truing. i'm not a newbie either... but i still haven't ventured into the world of wheel truing yet :)

Originally posted by deliriou5
sorry didn't mean to condescend... all that i meant is that you're a newbie to wheel truing. i'm not a newbie either... but i still haven't ventured into the world of wheel truing yet :) :beer:

You sound like a cool guy!! you should come to automobileforum.com, it's a real fun house of madness!!!!!:beer: