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Old 12-14-22, 01:02 PM
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Andrew R Stewart 
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Rochester, NY
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Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB

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The only time front rims are not centered WRT the axle's end caps/nuts is when the fork is purposely designed to be asymmetrical (like single sided forks are). Or when a fork is not well aligned and the shop wants to deliver a bike that looks to have the ft wheel centered WRT the fork crown.

My speculation is that the fork is not best aligned. With a carbon fork the "fixes" are limited to blade length correction. But the blades could also be splayed to one side. With a steel fork this could be set but not so w/ carbon (and I would not do an Al fork too). There could also be some twist between the axle (in the drop outs) and the fork crown.

If the fork's blades are of uneven lengths and if the wheel is dished to center the rim w/in the blades at the crown the tire's contact point w/ the ground will be even further off to one side (from the bike's centerline). The wheel/fork will look right but the tracking of the bike will have been made worse.

That the shop would suggest this suggests to me that they are more concerned about the bike's looking right at the time of pick up than they are concerned about being right in how it rides. Which brings me to ask "have you ridden the bike with the replacement fork and have you confirmed a perceivable steering/tracking /pull to one side when no handed problem?" Until you, the customer, has had a chance to check the bike is real use situations I don't think any solid claims can be made about effects of a possibly misaligned fork, or a miss dished wheel.

Bike brands are famous for not being forthcoming about their alignment tolerances. Of course not many riders are straight or body symmetrical themselves...

I am only an hour down the Thruway so if this gets to be too much for your shop to deal with give me a PM. Here's a link to an old post I made about fork alignment. Front wheel turns hard right. Andy
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