Originally Posted by
Turtle Speed
Getting some apparent oddities with the wheel-truing process on a kid's bike. It has 18" wheels, really inexpensive department-store stuff. The rim braking surfaces flare outwards, like \_/, and aren't parallel like most wheels, |_|. The spoke pattern seems normal to me. I have successfully trued other wheels before in hobbyist-style, flipping the bikes over and using brake pads as a guide. I don't have a truing stand yet.
The main issue is, it seems like tightening or loosening one spoke causes major changes elsewhere. I know that adjusting spoke tightness can cause minor reshaping of the rim outside the immediate area, but this is beyond what I'm used to. I feel like a cat chasing its tail, trying to get one part straight and suddenly another part looks bent!
The weird thing is that while I was eventually able to get the left side of the \_/ rim in not-too-terrible condition, the right side still looks a lot more wobbly! Is that normal for this rim shape? Am I just going crazy? Any particular tips or things to keep in mind?
The only time I see this is when spoke tension is way off, I have never had trouble truing cheep kids bike wheels for the grandkids. You may want to loosen them all and start over so you know what's going on with the tension as long as the rim isn't physically bent.