Nicely stated, 3a.
Originally Posted by
3alarmer
But the purpose of dishing and truing a wheel is to get those tire contact points exactly centered within
your mass as bike and rider, and the wheels pointing straight on a plane that, ideally splits you up the center.
FWIW, back in my early days I used to notice that my bike always seemed a bit offset to my eye as I was riding. Various frame measurement never showed anything untoward however. Then I picked up a few other nice bikes along the way. Dang if they didn't have the same problem! But of course the explanation is simple - I'm not terribly symmetric myself. Scoliosis is a genetic feature of the family, though usually a mother/daughter thing. I must be holding myself a bit cocked to one side. No matter, it never seems to be a problem with the bike's tracking.
The point being that you should strive to perfection but sometimes all that matters is that it is good enough. None of us is perfect.