Hi

I have a beloved Koga Miyata tourer which i picked up second hand a few years back .

The other day I went to change out the brake pads on the front Brake (cantis)

I had some trouble balancing the brakes on one side . Then I noticed that the rim on one side of the front wheel was much closer to the inner part of the fork than on the other side . This was stopping me installing the pads I wanted to use .

I suspected the wheel was out of dish so I changed it out for a different wheel of another bike but I still had the same uneven gap between rim and fork .

When I set the wheel in the fork I usually do it with the bike upside down so that gravity puts it in the right position in the dropouts . Then I tighten up the QR.

I have managed to correct it somewhat by pulling the axle on the leaning side back out of the dropout slightly so that it corrects the lean .

So .....questions .....

Is this normal for a front wheel to need to be aligned by hand like this ? I know Koga and Miyata have a good name in the bicycle world so I would have though the fork would have been made to precision and that dropping it into the deepest part of the dropouts on both sides means a centered wheel.

Is it possible to find a replacement steel fork for an old 22.2 headset taking frame ?maybe with a threadless steerer ?

Is there an issue with the fork that a frame builder or good bike shop could fix such as digging out a bit of the dropout to balance the wheel ?

Thanks again for any pointers,

J