frankthetank

Do all new wheelsets need truing? I've bought 3 wheelsets over the winter... 1 29er (stans/hope), 1 26 (vuelta all mtn) and 1 700cc (vuelta)...so far the 1st 2 wheelsets...all 4 tires will need to be trued (the Vuelta are really bad)...i haven't mounted the 700cc Vuelta yet... Is this normal? I bought a new bike last year and one of the wheels was just horrible (online order)... Obviously bike shops take care of this stuff before they send a bike out the door. Now i need a truing stand...and quick! I've never trued my own tires, but i will/need to learn...

Thoughts?

cafzali

I can't see why they would. If they're built correctly, the spokes are already properly tensioned as part of that. I'd start getting wheels from another source. If you have a good set of wheels that are properly tensioned, you can go ages without having to touch the spokes.

HillRider

Machine built wheels are often poorly trued and tensioned so what you are seeing isn't uncommon. At the low mail-order prices the maker can't afford individual attention so it's up to the buyer, or his LBS, to finish the job.

I've bought several sets of prebuilt wheels from Colorado Cyclist and they have all arrived perfectly true, dished and tensioned but they weren't cheap. A wheel set I got from Jenson was much lower in cost and the tension was OK but the dish was off a bit.

Ronno6

Machine built wheels are more prone to need a touch up soon after being built, more so than those built by
hand by an experienced builder.
Wheels I have built in the past needed truing (especially the rear) sometimes during the first ride (but I weigh 245#
and am tough on wheels.) As I became more adept, and with the use of a spoke tensionometer, I have built
numerous sets that have yet to need a tweak. Proper, uniform tension is the key.

rydabent

Not all machine built wheels are out of true. Im pretty sure the wheels that came on my Rans Stratus are machine built. They now have over 10,000 miles on them and they are perfectly true still.

Carbonfiberboy 

I've never bought a wheelset that needed truing. However, the last wheelset I bought was many years ago. Now I either build my own or have them built locally by my wheel guy.

In any case, you need a good spoke wrench but you don't need a truing stand. You can get plenty close just using your brake pads with your bike on a work stand. Flip the wheel to check dish, making sure the wheel is seated properly in the dropouts. If these wheels are that bad, you can't trust the tension, either, so you'll need a Park TM-1 tension meter and read up on how to use it. Or find you own local wheel person.

frankthetank

I have disc brakes on both the mtn bikes...still possible?

I love buying tools, so not a big issue. I really would rather learn myself rather then pay someone. I'm a trial and error sort of guy...bound to make a lot of mistakes, but i usually figure it out. These are the first bikes i've built up (Santa Cruz Heckler FS/Diamondback 29er that i've basically stripped and rebuilt).

FBinNY 

The quality of machine built wheels depends on which machines, and on user settings. There are a few makers of wheel lacing and truing machine systems. Some systems are a bit faster, some capable of producing truer, tighter, more evenly tensioned wheels. As a rule, the best wheels are produced by systems that use 3 discrete machines, one each for lacing, pre-tightening, and final touch-up truing (robotic). These can be bolstered with extra steps, such as a stress-relieving station before the final touch up.

so machines can product good wheels, but like everything else, the final quality depends on the quality of the components they are fed to work with, and on user adjustments. One system I've very familiar with has variable settings for wheel trueness tolerance, with radial and side to side settings made separately. This machine can turn out super precise wheels, but at a cost of a much lower production rate.

In short, good machine built wheels can be just about as good as good hand built wheels. Conversely, bad hand built wheels can be as bad as the worst machine built wheels, so there's no fair way to generalize.

One thing machine built wheels cannot manage is spoke twist, so they are rarely used for bladed, aero spokes, or light gauge spokes. Spoke twist can be managed to a degree with a good choice in thread lube, but cannot be eliminated completely except by humans at the end of the process. The spoke twist issue probably causes the biggest difference in final quality between machine and hand built wheels.

Years ago, the maker of an excellent truing robot handed me a pair of wheels for review. I threw them on the bike and they pinged for a while (something the best hand built wheels won't do) and after a few days needed some very minor touch up, after which they lasted as well with no touch up as anything I ever built. The maker later worked on an anti-spoketwist system, but I don't know if he ever put it into use.

Going back to the OP question, 3 pairs of wheels, all needing work fresh from the box, is a good sign that you need a different source.

400trix

I refer to cheap machine built wheels as "wheel kits": the lacing is done for you, but you need to finish the job. Also check the hubs, as they often are very tight.