bobbyl1966

I have one department store bike. The wheel is wobble real bad. I put the wheel on the truing stand. I turn the wheel around example when the rim touch the left caliper i tighten the righ spoke i turn the wheel around find other spot even i lose all the spokes but the rim stay looks like number 8. the wheel not look bent like had hit. that wheel is can be trued or i lose my time to try?

RubeRad

It's hard to tell from your description exactly how bad the problem is. The wheel can certainly be improved, whether the amount of achievable improvement is worth your effort is a hard question.

Are you sure you know which direction to turn the nipple? It sounds like you understand that when the rim touches the left brake pad you need to tighten the nearest spoke; the direction to turn is, if you are looking at the tire, and pretending you can see through the tire to where the nipple head is inside the rim, from that perspective tighten clockwise. So if you are looking from the other side, with your head near the hub looking at where the nipple comes out of the rim, from that perspective tighten counter-clockwise.

Did you say you loosened all the spokes? Like loosened each nipple by a quarter turn? or loosened every single spoke so there is essentially no tension now? If you did that, then you don't need to true the wheel, you essentially need to build the wheel (except it's still already laced up). You might want to pay a bike shop like $25-35 bucks to tension the wheel for you.

bobbyl1966

Thank you for your answer. I use the park tool ts 2.2 truing stand. i have truing few wheels before. But in that wheels the rim is bent. Is not my bike is belong to one man and bring to me to fix. I lose half turn all the spokes i see the rim is stayed wobble i deside to lose all the spokes but the rim stay bent. That i try to found out if bent rim can fixed and how. Truing the wheel or i try truing is not helps straighten the rim

RubeRad

There are (at least) two kinds of wheel problems, lateral and radial. Side-to-side wobble is the kind of thing that you should be able to take out by tightening spokes. But 'hop', where the rim moves 'up&down' rather than 'side-to-side' when you spin it, if you increase spoke tension you can only pull it in further, if you loosen spoke tension you probably won't make much difference.

Only thing I've heard for that is try to locate the center of the hop, where the rim is most bent inwards, and try to bend it out.

Put two 2x4s on the ground, spaced maybe 6-8 inches apart. Stand the rim on the gap between the 2x4s so the center of the hop is straight down, and the wheel does not touch the ground. Put your foot into the rim and add body weight to try to push the rim back out a little bit. Or probably since a foot is too wide, put another 2x4 through the spokes there, and try to push down on both sides to bend the rim back out.

If you want to be really careful, get the spacing of the original 2x4s just right so that the rim doesn't touch the ground at first because of where it is bent in, but if it were perfect, it would touch the ground. That way you can't bend it too far.

bobbyl1966

Thank you for that info. i need found 2x4. no have now. i tried make straight the rim i put the wheel on the floor and i step with my feet where i see the rim is bent but is not helps.

elmore leonard

Some of those cheaper wheels, when bent, are quite hard or impossible to straighten. If you are still in doubt take the wheel into your LBS and they may he able to tell whether it is toast or not you just by looking at it. Also on utube there are some videos, at least one I saw, where mechanic tries to straighten wheels and shows you why it cannot be done.

plonz 

I am currently working on a built wheel that needs truing and the spoke tension is all over the board. I was able to get it mostly true just by tightening certain spokes but the tension still varied too much from spike to spoke. I have a truing stand, dish gauge and tensionometer so I loosened every spoke until it was wobbly and started to tighten each spoke as if I were building a new wheel. Worked out fine in the end but I definitely needed to gauge spoke tension to get there.

dabac

To get a bent piece of metal back to flat, you need to bend it PAST flat in the opposite direction of the bend you are trying to remove.

To save a badly bent rim it's often easier to unlace it completely, then bend it flat(-er).
Otherwise the spokes will get in the way of the required over-bend you need to do.
Tape the spokes at each outer cross for faster reassembly.

CliffordK

I've been threatening to disassemble and bend a rim into shape, but haven't gotten to the point.

If a wheel wobbles, say 1/2", it can probably be trued.
If it wobbles 1 1/2", it is probably toast. You may be able to true it, but you'll induce wild irregular tensions and probably a hop.

There are exceptions, of course, including wheels that have been improperly trued, or have a couple of broken spokes (which need replacing before proceeding).

My technique it to spin the wheel on my stand (or bike).

Determine a range of spokes that cause the wheel to rub my marker (from one to a dozen). Then I'll just place my left hand on the spokes so I know which ones, or look for recognisable features like scratches on the rim. Then I'll alternately tighten and loosen all of the spokes in my designated range. Usually I'll adjust a minimum of 2 or 3 spokes at a time, not just one.

If I'm getting close to being done, it might be just hitting all my spokes in the range with 1/4 turn. If it is just starting, it could be a turn or two. I'll naturally feel for spoke tension. Any spoke that needs tightening and feels extra loose will get a bit more turning. Those that feel extra tight and are on the loosening side will get loosened a bit more. I might even skip tightening some spokes that already feel too tight.