If you walked into my shop here is what I'd do as a quickie check-

* put a rear wheel without a tire in the frame. Be sure it's seated as it should be and clamp it tight.

* turn the bike upside down with the BB up.

* if there are cables running under the bb shell do what you need to do to get them out of the way.

* put a piece of masking tape on the bottom of the BB shell.

* here's the thing that is hard to describe but easy to do - take a long straight edge and lay in wide side down on the underside of the BB shell and then touch the edge of the straight edge up against the rear wheel in two places. So now the ruler is flat against the shell and edge-on to driveside of the rim. It should be nice and stable like this as it has three contact points - just make sure the ruler isn't hitting the spokes - you may need to move the ruler further away from the hub if it's hitting spokes.

* with the ruler in place use a marker and make a mark on the tape on the bottom of the shell on the edge of the ruler. You have in effect projected the rim edge forward onto the BB. Try it again and see if you get the same results. If you don't, figure out why - you should get the same thing every time.

* now take the wheel out and flip it around so it's in the frame backward. Be sure it's seated properly and tighten.

* now repeat the ruler trick on the other side and make another mark on the shell. Double check your work.

* now measure how far from the edge of the shell each of your marks is. If they aren't the same then the rear wheel isn't pointed straight ahead. If they are the same you are good to go.


Measuring the distance from the rim/tire to a chainstay is not a good way to determine proper alignment. It could be all kinds of things that would cause this. But if you do the above it will tell you if the wheel is pointed forward or not.

Give it a try and see what you get and report back. It would be interesting to see what you get.

dave