Bicycle Mechanics - How much true can be fixed with spoke tension.

From my accident recently posted, I have a wheel that is about 3mm out of true. Is this fixable by using spoke tensioning alone? If not, what else can I do?

3mm out is not so bad........just tweek a few spokes here and there. Just make sure there was no damage done to the wheel......Check to make sure there are no nipples pulling out of the rim as well.

If the rim exhibits a lazy, gradual run-out, you should be able to fix it with a spoke tweak. However, the sharper the bend, the less likely you will be able to fix it without either replacing the rim, or, with a bit of skill and luck, straightening the rim in a partly-open heavy-duty drawer. If you can make a wheel run true only by radicallly unbalancing the spoke tension, it will not be reliable.

My favorite method of knocking a bent rim back in true is to strike the area of the bend on the floor with a sharp over head swing. Customers find it very disturbing but it works(Takes practice). This is only for a bent rim not one out of true due to improper tension.

There do not appear to be any problems with the nipples and all the spokes are nice and tight. The bend appears to be fairly sharp. The rim goes out and back in a little less than a quarter of the wheel. Is this something I should really bring to the shop to let him clang back into shape?

According to some bicycle articles, trueing can straighten inequalities up to 5 mm (1/5 of an inch).

I'd give it a shot first. 3MM sounds fix-able to me.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Spire
The bend appears to be fairly sharp.
The rim goes out and back in a little less than a quarter of the wheel.


Your two statements seem to contradict each other. Do you actually see a bend in the rim? Otherwise, a 3mm correction within a quarter of a wheel is mild.

I guess I'm not to sure what a mild problem is. I figured it looked pretty sharp. I guess I know better now. You can only just see it in the rim from looking from the side. I'll give it a shot at fixing.

Spire,

A way to tell if it isn't fixable is by how you have to adjust the spokes in order to get the rim straight.

For example, if the rim is wobbling towards the right side(i.e. it scrapes the truing stand to the right, or whatever guideline you are using), you need to tighten some lefty spokes, and loosen some righty spokes. However, if the spokes on the right are ALREADY loose (in comparison to other righty spokes on the wheel), and/or the spokes on the left are ALREADY tight(same idea as the loose spokes), then most likely your rim is shot.

Taking the same case as above, if you get the the spot and the right hand spokes that need to be loosend are tighter than other right hand spokes, and the spokes that need tightening on the left hand side are looser than the other left hand spokes, then your rim is fixable.

I hope this helps, I am not very eloquent.

How can I tell if the spokes are tight or loose?

Originally posted by Spire
How can I tell if the spokes are tight or loose?

Just pluck them........or just take two adjacent spokes and squeeze them and go thru the entire wheel.........you will definitely hear or feel the differences among them.

You can also tell by how far the nipples are threaded onto the spoke..Although this can be a bit deceptive depending on how well the wheel was built originally.

Squeezing adjacent spokes works best for me.