YamacrawJ

I read up a bit, bought a spoke wrench, put the bike upside down, and started in. Within a few minutes, I punctured the tube. (Rear wheel, of course.) As long as I had to take off the tire, tube, and liner, and I could see inside the rim, I continued to try to true. I think I made some progress, but I have some questions:

1. When I turned the spoke with the spoke wrench, in the rim, I could see that the end of the spoke nipple was also turning the same amount. Was I actually tightening or loosening, or just twisting the spoke? I tried to keep it immobile with a screwdriver, but I wasn't strong enough or felt I didn't know enough about what I should be seeing. I backed off to avoid further damage.

2. Is it possible to adjust spokes without taking off the tire, tube, etc.? One lesson I learned was at least to deflate the tube to take pressure off of it. But, now that I have my nice adhesive cloth liner tape in place (replacing an obviously worn old rubber liner), and since the whole nipple moves when I use the spoke wrench, is that a good idea? (Would movement of this part compromise the adhesion of the adhesive liner?)

3. One set of directions I read said to tighten, turn counter-clockwise, and to loosen, turn clockwise. Is that with the tire nearest to my body and looking toward the hub or vice versa?

My bike is a Motobecane Nomade (women's), late 1980s, I think. I bought it used from a thrift shop, so I'm not wrecking anything expensive. It's a good bike for me to learn on.

Thank you for your thoughts and help.

- Intrepid Newbie

P.S. I'm as skilled at typing as I am at truing: Mod, would you be so kind as to fix my title to: "Newbie Tries to True a Wheel" ? THX!

bostontrevor

Ths sholud explain a lot: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Skip to the part about tension and true.

And yes, the entire nipple should turn. The spoke remains stationary and you turn the nipple, causing it to thread down on the spoke end and increase tension. Whether you turn clockwise or counter depends on exactly where the rim is in relation to you.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the the spoke and nipple are normally threaded, so if you're looking at the top of the nipple (the part that's inside the rim) from above, it would turn clockwise to tighten and counter to loosen.

There's no need to take the tire off or even deflate to true a wheel, though it can make it easier to see how close it is when you're not distracted by the tire.

supcom

When you use a spoke wrench, you are turning the nipple, not the spoke. The nipple is like a long nut and the spoke is like a thin screw threaded into the nipple.

To tighten the spoke, turn the nipple clockwise as you are looking at it form the rim toward the hub.

YamacrawJ

Do the threads of metric parts go the opposite direction of U.S. parts?

BostonFixed

No.

Parts which "thread the opposite direction" are reverse threaded, most commonly found on pedals and bottom brackets.

slvoid

Just imagine, if you're looking at the wheel, in the direction going from the rim to the hub, imagine that there's a nut (the nipple) there and turn it like a screw. Righty tighty, lefty loosey.

roadfix

Before attempting to true a wheel, make sure you've developed a sense of direction of which way common screws, bolts, nuts, jars, bottle caps, etc......tighten and loosen.