IknowURider

I hate it when you can't ride no-hands, it always seems the bikes pull to the right. This has been one of my criteria for "balance" .

Restored from trash 1988 Peugeot Corbier with Rigida 27 x 1 1/8 wheels pulls to the right, not severely, like you can lean a bit left in the saddle to compensate. No brake pads rubbing.

The wheels are admittedly in need of more truing, but they're pretty ok, they do have a couple dents, flat spots from the previous owner. But they're nice wheels. Otherwise the bike handles amazingly.

I am thinking possibly could this be a slight dishing problem on the rear wheel?

Steev

I am thinking possibly the frame was in the trash because it took a hit and is bent somewhere.

ogbigbird

the happy senario, its just that your front wheel isnt perfectly centered in the drop outs ans a little realignment will fix this.

the not so happy senario is that either your frame or forks got bent somehow. i had a schwinn world that did this and i later changed out the forks and it was better.

smovlov

Just cause they're nice doesn't mean they aren't in need of maintenance. Start by centering the wheels, making sure they follow one behind the other. True those wheels, inspect the fork etc... do like big bird said too.

IknowURider

Thanks to all.

I can't see any evidence that the frame was in a crash. The headset is fine, the forks, stays, and dropouts look ok, and the frame has no dents, chips, or scratches. I think this bike was just left in a barn and was forgotten during the mountain bike fad. But I will take another look soon.

However, it's not a bad idea when picking up a donated bike to ask if it was ever in a crash. Lesson learned.

I will try some new wheels eventually. This is, for now, one of those things you can "live with" . I do love how well this bike corners with these 27 x 1 1/8" wheels. For a base model frame, pretty impressive.

I am also wondering if maybe my bars are slightly off center. They are steel, so that might cause a slight imbalance.

dabac

Brake rub can't cause pulling, as wherever it would rub would transition to the same point on the ground anyhow.

Start by determining that the wheels are sitting vertically in the frame, then flip bike over, sight along wheels (or have a pal help you hold up a taut string) to verify that the wheels are tracking correctly.

rxda90

I noticed a problem with my Jamis (purchased new) where it would lean (but not necessarily pull) to one side when I rode no-hands. Since I didn't do this often, it didn't really bother me.

After having spoke breakage problems on my rear wheel after a few years and several thousand miles, I replaced it with a new wheel, and presto ... the problem was gone.

I suspect that the rear wheel wasn't dished properly.

Berre

It usually is a rear wheel problem; it should be well dished, in perfect vertical position, in the middle between chain stays.

Ride in a perfect straight line and have somebody follow you and observe the heading of the wheels. If one wheel has an offset to the other it is usually fairly easy to spot.

miamijim

sometihngs out of wack....its either the wheel, frame of fork.

Check the wheel dish. Rig up something ot measure the distance from the side of the rim to the inside of the fork. Remove the wheel and flip it around. If the previously measured distance is within a mm or so your good to go on wheel dish.

Check the fork. Assuming hweel dish is OK is it centered directly underneath the brake hole. If it off ot one side the fork blades are bent to either the left or right. Sometimes one balde can be bent back. If your stem is aligned to the fork and frame yet its not aligning well to the wheel chances are one of the blades is bent back.

Check the frame. String it up.

How does the wheel drop in and out of the blades? It should drop in and out relatively easily.

Peace...

waldowales

My money's on a bent fork. Have the LBS check it.

ascend

I guess it could also be that this one rides perfectly straight, but whatever bike you're used to riding pulls left and you're compensating out of habit.

DannoXYZ 

Bah, bars off-centre won't affect a thing since they weigh a small amount. And when riding no-hands, nothing's pushing on the bars either. To have a bike that goes straight no-handed, three points must be on the exact same plane as the main-triangle of the frame.

1. The rider's butt. Unless you've got a severely bent seatpost, we can assume that the rider's butt is in correct alignment with the main triangle. Although we had one guy in the shop with a pulling frame and it turned out that his seat was not comfortable. So he sat on it offset to one side so that one butt-cheek bore the weight instead of the crotch. This would obviously cause pulling on a perfectly straight frame.

2. the front contact-patch. If the front-wheel's not dished correctly, then the contact-patch will be off to one side. Simple enough to check by flipping the wheel left<->right and it should still be centered between the pads the same. Then the fork-alignment must be straight. Both drop-outs must be equi-distant from the plane of the main triangle. Shops have a fork-alignment gauge to check for this.

3. and the rear-contact patch. Again, wheel-dish could be an issue. Flipping the wheel also works to check dishing, although you can't ride it with the wheel flipped as a test. Checking the rear-dropout alignment with the main-triangle can be done with a string clamped outside from outside the dropouts wrapped around the head-tube. Its distance from the seat-tube on each side will give you an idea of how centered the rear-triangle is.

IknowURider

you know, it's funny, I was just thinking about this and about asking more about it. Dudes, you rock!!!
Here's what I tried.. Swapped both wheels prefectly true from another bike, same result. So it's not the wheels.

Carefully inspected left rear dropout, bent it slightly up and left. Helped a tiny bit, or maybe it's my imagination. I did notice the top of the rear wheel was a bit off "camber" to the seat tube. So I realigned that, and rechecked the dropout spacing. It still pulls.

Reinspected the front fork, looks ok, but will follow that new advice more closely. I wonder what a shop might charge for this analysis, my mechanic is fairly cool, though. I will try the drop-line, though.

Maybe I'll swap my saddle, but it feels more like a pull than a weight imbalance. My ass is perfectly symmetrical, thank you

This sort of thing is kind of like having arthritis, you can live with it for city riding. It's just nice to sit up and go no-hands and slug from the bottle at times, though.

DannoXYZ 

If you have perfectly true wheels and they don't centre in fork, chainstays and seatstays, that's a sure sign the fork and/or the rear-triangle is mis-aligned. Adjusting the wheels in the dropout to centre the tyre won't do a thing. The fork-blades and/or the rear-triangle must be bent laterally to centre the wheels on-plane with the main triangle.

Obviously we need some measurement gauges to figure out how far out-of-plane the wheels are. And we also need some brute-force method to bend the fork & frame. Sheldon Brown has some good photos on his site where he uses a long 2x4" to bend the rear triangle.