So it turns out my 26 in wheel was bent on my rear mtb and my lbs couldnt true the wheel.ifi get a new wheel will i need to get it trued?

Hopefully not on a new wheel, as it should be within spec. But it's not uncommon for new wheels to not be true out of the box.

If you buy your new wheel from a bike shop, they should be able to true the wheel for you at no expense, as it's their job to check it before you purchase.

If you buy a machine-built wheel somewhere else - say online - then a bike shop will charge you for truing. Whether or not you can recoup a truing charge from an online retailer is unclear. Typically about 10 bucks.

Depends greatly on the CoL in the area of the LBS - here with our HIGH CoL; it was $30- 8 years ago - which is why I learned to do my own.....

If you buy a new wheel, it should be ready to go, but there is some variability in quality as mentioned above.

You can also buy a replacement rim. If it matches the old rim, then you should be able to reuse all the old spokes if they are good quality.

In that case the wheel will need to be built and trued. It is something you can learn to do, even truing on your bike.

New wheels need to "truing" after you put some millage into it.

New wheesl should not need to "truing" if its really new, you should able to ride it for couple hundred miles without truing it.

New wheels usually don't need "truing". Machine built wheels are usually straight...aka "true"...from the factory. But they may need to be "tuned".

Due to the nature of the way wheels are built, each spoke has to be treated a bit differently in the way that it is tensioned. It's difficult to program a machine to do this so the wheels build by machine can be helped by having a more sophisticated computer go over it and check the build. That's a human, by the way.

The wheel should be checked for spoke tension and have stresses relieved on the spokes. Additionally, all hubs...at least all of the ones I've seen... coming out of wheel building machines are way too tight. The bearing will need some adjustment as well.

If you buy a wheel online, it is always a good idea to have the spoke tension checked by someone who trues wheels, even if the rim is not out-of-true. This is where the artistry comes in.

Good LBSs will remove the wheel from it's packing/wrap and prep it for sale. This means making sure the hub is well greased and the bearings are adjusted. Then the spoke tension/rim true is checked/corrected. At the shop I work at we flag the wheel with the date and our initials after doing this.


We see this as a two fold benefit. First is that the wheel will have a longer trouble free life. Second is when we install a wheel during a repair job that repair will take less time. Andy.

Thanks every1!