I have this problem on two 1970s French 531 bikes (PX10 and Jeunet 630). The forks "look" straight, but when I put a properly dished wheel in the fork, the wheel is canted to one side, i.e., the center of the tire is a few mm to the left/right of the brake hole in the fork.

My LBS, which is pretty good, looked at one of the forks, and did some minor adjustment with a dropout alignment tool and what seemed to be a VAR 478 fork alignment jig (https://sheldonbrown.com/var/pages/var0006.html). But, the wheel's still off center.

I’ve seen all the posts about filing dropouts, but can I simply center the wheel in the fork, then close the QR, even tho one end of the axle is not fully seated in the dropout? Isn’t this what we do with rear wheels?

Both bikes are long term projects, although I have collected enough French threaded parts to start getting them on the road. I haven’t ridden either bike yet to see if it pulls to one side or has other problems.

I could start filing the dropouts or send the forks to a shop such as Yellow Jersey in Madison WI who seems to have the tools/expertise to delve deeper into the problem, but just centering the wheel seems so much easier!

Thanks for your thoughts on this,

Marty

I had this problem, guess what, it was on an old French bike! But mine was a beater that had clearly been crashed a number of times.

So yes, you can definitely just center the wheel and close the QR. Make sure you're using a good quality steel enclosed cam skewer. An exposed cam skewer will not hold the wheel in place like that and when it slips it will jam right into the brake pad. Also make sure to get the skewer nice and tight!

If this is a "nice" bike I would take the time to have the fork straightened or the dropouts filed (mostly because it would not be "right" and it would bother me.) But if it's just a beater I had no problem just putting the wheel in straight as you describe.

No problem doing what you suggest, and with an axle that has decent bite on the face it'll stay put very nicely. OTOH, of you have a more modern hub with a plain (non-serrated) axle face, especially an aluminum one, the hold won't be as secure and a hard bump may shift the wheel.

Also life is easier if you can simply slap a wheel home and know it's in the right place. If you're not comfortable filing, consider using a bit of body filler in the opposite dropout to limit how far the axle goes.

Afterthought --- I let this go earlier, but in retrospect, I can't understand why the dealer couldn't do a complete job using the 478 tool. The normal correction is to curve a blade slightly to get the two dropouts to the same height. It's a very easy job using the gauge.

So either you have a mechanic who doesn't know how to use the fork gauge and do the job right, or possibly the fork is OK, but the wheel is off. Eliminate the second possibility by flipping the wheel and seeing if it's still off to the same side. If so, go back to the shop, and have someone else finish the job properly.

You have a safety issue jury rigging the front wheel, especially after the LBS has bent the fork. I'm surprised they'd bend it with the attendant liability issues. I'd try to find a replacement.

There's no safety issue here. Wheels have been mounted exactly as the OP proposes on low end bikes for decades. One of the defining marks of better bikes was that the forks were square enough that this wasn't necessary.

Likewise tweaking a fork to align it as SOP, and presents no risk of failure. Most of the forks on the most expensive hand built bikes were precision aligned exactly this way.

most of my bikes have horizontal or semi horizontal rear dropouts. when i pedal, especially uphill, i am putting a LOT of force on the rear wheel that is desperately trying the pull the wheel forward. but it won't because the QR is preventing it. i would imagine front wheels have less force on them.

it just so happens that the other day i switched tires on my bike. from 20mm to a 28mm. guess what?
the tire hit the inside of the fork just underneath the brake mounting hole. i was surprised. anyway, i just mounted the wheel a little short of "home" in the fork ends. haven't had any trouble with it for several hundred miles.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on this. As FBinNY mentions, I suspect the LBS mechanic, in this day of aluminum and carbon forks, hasn't had a lot of practice with tweaking old French forks into alignment. They're nice guys at the shop, but I don't trust them to do any better with these forks. If I decide to really get these bikes into top shape, can anyone recommend a shop that could do a good job aligning the forks? Yellow Jersey in Madison WI seems to indicate on the their website that they can do this sort of work....any others? I wouldn't mind shipping the forks to a shop if I know they'll come back in good shape.

A few mm at the top of the wheel is a fraction of a mm at the dropout. I'd just take a round file to the dropout for a few strokes and call it fixed.

If the fork is tweaked such that one dropout is above the other, there's no reason to assume that this is the only problem. Usually bent forks have compound issues, like being offset to one side, or one tip forward of the other. The OP hasn't said, and I don't know if he's fitted the fork and ridden the bike, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are handling issues.

If this is just for an around town beater, it might be fine as is, and maybe a bit of filing for convenience is all I'd do. But if this is for something better, than a proper alignment is warranted. Yellow Jersey does this stuff routinely at decent prices, but there are a number of other places. If the OP had listed his city of residence in his profile, someone might offer a local referral.

Since the shop has the right tool for checking the fork, he might go back there and ask if there's a more experienced mechanic who can check and correct the fork properly. It's easy enough to do, that the OP could probably do a decent job if they'd let him.

I've solved the same issue by simply aligning the fork's dropouts. It sounds like they bent the blades? Whatever they did, you may be able to tweek the dropouts yourself, if you're technically inclined. I just put the wheel in with the quick release loose. I then slowly close the QR and observe the dropouts. Usually one will be parallel with the hub's axle. The one that is not parallel when slowly closing the QR is the one that I align. I use a 12" adjustable wrench to clamp the dropout and make minor adjustments until it's straight. That usually does the trick. Good luck.

I had the one side of the axle half-seated in the dropout to keep the wheel in central line, but still had handling issue that bike was leaning to one side.

The mechanic in LBS added a spacer at the outer side of the dropout, at which side the handling was leaning to. what a necromancy it was, problem solved, thought I can still not figure out how this method works.

You have a bent fork and possibly a bent frame. Adding spacers doesn't unbend anything.

What a necropost it is.

I’m still intrigued by this - like, I don’t think so but have I been doing it wrong? Were things different in the olden days?

Kontact aha of course

Whatever you do with this bent fork, the bike is going to ride like crap and you won't be able to sell it for what you probably think it's worth. Buy a replacement fork and compatible headset and stem at your neighborhood bike shop (they'll order from Q or JBI) and let the world know you're looking for a replacement Reynolds road fork.

The place that used the 478 alignment tool must have done it wrong. Take it back.

why couldn't a welder braze a bit of metal to file?

One thing to try is to take a metric tape measure and measure the length or each fork blade, from the bottom of the brake bolt hole to the top of the dropout slot. At the “end of the day” those distances should be the same and the perpendicular distance of the two dropout holes from the steerer center line should be equal.

The lengths are pretty easy to measure, but the perpendicular distances take some more trickiness or special alignment equipment.

You can always use a rat tail file or a cylindrical Dremel grinding stone and file/grind out the dropout for a better fit/better alignment.

Personally, I would not do it. Fit, in my world, is enormously important. If the wheel does not center, when seated in the drops, fix the fork or check the dish on the wheel. You do not want any kind of front end failure when riding - especially really fast down hill riding.

That's just plastering over the cracks if the cause is a bend somewhere. It's not hard to take the fork out and measure it on a flat surface, which should reveal what the problem actually is. Then you can take steps to correct it.

this thread is so old, the Zombie retired.

Times are tough. Zombies can't afford to retire.