Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
Your experience brings up a practice that I train into every person we hire as a mechanic. When inserting a wheel into place, the bike comes out of the stand and is set upon the floor for alignment before tightening a thru axle or a QR. The bike then goes back into the stand for final brake adjustment be it a disc brake or caliper brake.
Interesting approach although it would require a lot more taking down and putting the bike back on the lift. For me I just make note of the alignment of the brake pads and the position of the wheel in the dropouts before removing the wheel, and if the pad alignment looks good then I make sure the wheel goes back in the same position when it is put back on. For rim brakes if the brake pads are perfectly aligned (from all angles including being equidistant gap on each side of the rim, pads contacting the center of the rim, not too high or low, and the pad following the arc of the rim) before removal, and the wheel is properly positioned in the drop outs before removal, then it should be the same after the wheel is removed and put back on. For disc brake pads again the gap between the pad and the rotor should be about equal on each side and the pad should not rub when rotating the wheel. When putting the wheel back on I make sure it goes back where it started, make sure the axle is in the same position in the dropouts, and the brake pads are aligned the same as they were at the start of the process. For most bikes with a quick release axle and mostly vertical drop outs all this means is making sure the wheel is placed up all the way into the dropout before securing the quick release. This is for bikes that come in that require the wheel to come off for any kind of service. However, there are many times someone asks for us to look at their bike where the front brake is rubbing and I just look at the brake pad alignment, see it is off, and with the bike still on the ground I just open the quick release, allow the axle to settle properly and all the way up into the dropout (again assuming vertical dropout) and then close the quick release and check pad alignment and this usually centers the brake pads and stops the rubbing. Of course bikes with more horizontal type dropouts are a little more tricky because one must make sure the wheel is centered between the chainstays as well, and all of the foregoing assumes the frame is not bent.