Originally Posted by
gman26
Do all wheels require dishing of some sort? This would depend, I assume, on whether it is a single speed, or multi-gear and what frame it is mounted in, correct?
What are the basics here? Are all mountain bike wheels dished, whether they are geared or single speed?
Any wheel that centres the rim over the hub will be considered zero dish so this includes front wheels (non disc), fixed and ss wheels, and the rear wheels on old coaster bikes.
If you look at a multi geared wheel from above or the rear you will see the offset of the rim and difference between the drive and non drive spokes in that the drive spokes will be tighter and straighter as they come off the hub and meet the rim. This is because of the offset a geared hub needs to accommodate those gears... if your dropout spacing was sufficient you could eliminate the dish as RG has with his tandem and it's 160 mm spacing. A modern mtb does not have enough room to pull this off.
Ritchey's OCR and Zero Dish wheel sets are designed for geared applications and they use a custom hub and rim to eliminate dish.