jsjcat

JamieElenbaas,
How much tolerance do you shoot for in your uniformly tensioned wheels? I ask because I just got a Park Tensionmeter and am getting anal with it.
jsjcat

cycledogg

Are you sure it's only .5? My biggest pet peeve is having a true wheel. .5 and I'm a happy camper.

hueyhoolihan

you're right. it's only going to get worse.

Thumper1279

i know my question is about a MTB not a Road Bike
but im wondering about the Truing
how do you know how far it is out how do i know if im .5mm or 1mm off ? or more or less ?
i do see the front wheel moving and notice it and the rear wheel seems to be riding sometime moving but aims closer to the left side of the rear fork frame
so im wondering how can i tell how much it is off and if its bad or not ?
the bike shop wants 20 dollars each wheel to true it on a stand

gsa103

If you have rim brakes you can use the brake pads as a reference for the brake track. If you have disc brakes, its not clear it really matters at all.

Looking at the wheel may not tell you much since you may see variations in the tread and tire more than the actual wheel.

Thumper1279

look cool thanks I just worry mostly about the rear wheel just seems like it's running way close to the left side of the frame and noticeably different then the right side will have to get that checked out
the shop wants 20 is that a fair price for having it trued

gsa103

Loosen the quick release and make sure the wheel is properly centered in the drop-out. If that doesn't fix it $20 seems like a fair price.

martinus

You are over thinking it ...

martinus

: D

krobinson103

With my two 'good' bikes I'll spend hours getting them perfect. With the beaters? If the brakes work and the spokes aren't loose, its good enough.

Weatherby

If I can see any lateral movement in the wheel assembly when I am riding, I check the rim trueness. With good wheels this is a rare thing for me to have to do. Once the spokes and nipples are seated and dialed in, I don't monkey around with runout. Hop is more annoying.

I just got two new sets of wheels of wheels recently. The set with around 300 miles has not needed any touchup while the set with 1000 miles needed 3 spokes tweeked maybe a quarter turn after the seond ride.

How often do you repack or changeout the bearings?

martinus

I just wait 'till the guy on my wheel freaks out ... "dude, your wheel is soooo out of true."


What is wrong with your LBS ? ... I bet they can answer these questions better, since they would be able to see and touch (spin/true & "feel" your hub/axle/bearings ) your wheels... and maybe even tell you why... and maybe even, give you a quick run down on maint.( if any... if you need a feeler gauge, or an dial idicator. I also bet, they are fine ... )

All that is assuming you can find time to get to one WITH the wheels in question ...

I understand that can be hard for some to do, with todays instant gratification crowd.

Jed19

Yeah, the $20 charge to true and tension a wheel is probably fair. The better thing to do is to buy yourself a truing stand (bought a brand new Park TS-2.2 on my local Craigslist for $100, sold by an injured ex-mountain biker who got it as a gift) and an appropriate spoke wrench, then look on YouTube for tutorials on wheel truing. Pretty soon, you'll save yourself a bundle of money.

rpenmanparker 

Within a side on the rear or for the entire front I shoot for +/- 5%. So if the average tension reading on the meter is 20 units, I would like to see all the spokes on that side between 19 and 21. That hasn't been hard to do except when the rim is defective.

Thumper1279

i just called earlier today the LBS well not to local to me but local to my school asked them about the wheels and what they would charge and they said they have a special now a Tune up that included wheel truing and tuning and a few other things for 44.95
so i dropped it off there today