2 questions
 

alrighty so i got 2 questions for yall. before you answer please know that i am completely knew to biking so forgive me for my lack of knowledge of this subject.

1. i know this is probably a stupid question but i thought id ask. on my trek 7.1 fx i notice the front wheel is not completely true and its been this way since i first bought it. is this normal with most bikes or is this a problem? could it be that the tire is on there wrong and it not be a problem of the rim?

2. my right knee hurts pretty bad after doing a 10 mile ride yesterday. i just came to visit my parents and thought i would bring my bike with me. around where they live have lots of hills and there are gravel roads and lots of bumps. this was probably one of my most challenging (but fun) rides and my knee started hurting after turning around and heading towards home. it was to the point that it hurt so bad to go up hills but i kept going until i came home. today the pain is still there only if i am going up stairs or standing up from sitting, other than that i cant feel it. the pain is only on the right knee on the upper right side. should i stop biking for a while and start again later or does this sound like i need to see a doctor? can this be fixed with proper bike adjustments like seat height? or am i just having horrible biking form that i caused the pain on myself?

any help would be appreciated. thanks for yalls time in reading this.

The answer to the first one is easy- it's not normal, it is a problem.

The answer to the second one isn't easy- so much so, that I'll pass on even hazarding a guess.

just hazarding a guess, but the sore knee could be from riding in too high of a gear and trying to use raw strength. this is known in cycling circles as 'mashing'. you should instead run a lower gear and spin faster, this is especially true on hills

mashers blow their knees out.

thanks for the reply nomad, just for knowledge sake whats the risk of riding with an out of true wheel?

yeah i think i was mashing actually im still trying to learn how to cycle properly. so the trick is to have the gears lower and to not feel too much pressure pushing the pedals right? its hard from having my childhood mindset of cheap walmart bikes and riding for 10 minutes to actually getting into cycling haha i didnt think biking was this complicated!

a wheel can be out of true several different ways. up and down is bad, and harder to adjust. side to side is more common, that can usually be fixed via spoke adjustments. side to side makes the wheel hit the brakes which slows you down.

what Nomad is talking about is tightening up the spokes for equal tension while keeping the wheel straight and true, this will make the wheel stronger so it will stay straight longer.

most any new bike comes with machine assembled wheels that were just quickly put together and shipped. on a higher end bike, the bike shop is more likely to retune and true the wheels as part of the bike assembly, but on a $500 hybrid, they aren't as likely to take the 10 or 15 minutes this takes to do right. also after riding that new wheel for 100 miles or so, the spokes settle in, and any error gets exaggerated, so they should be retrued. generally if this is done right, they'll stay straight for a long time afterwards, unless something catastrophic happens like hitting a curb hard enough to bend the rim, or break a spoke. my back wheel needs this now, it has a couple millimeters of side to side, not bad, but not perfect, I've ridden the bike aobut 220 miles since I bought it and started on my recovery...

YOUR knee pain can be caused by a few things-
Mashing
Seat too low (likely for a newbie)
Knees/legs not used to this type of exercise.
Cranks too long.

Check out the first 3 before worrying about the 4th.

It's hard to know what you mean by out of true. Does it wobble from side to side when you watch it spin between the brake pads? That would be adjusted by tightening or loosening the spokes.

Or is it at an angle so that the top is closer to one side of the bike, not centered? Unbolt the axle and you should be able to sort that out.

I'd have a shop true the front wheel(really if it's been that way since new the shop that sold it should do it as a warranty fix),and have them check your seat height/positioning while you're there. Knee pain is usually mashing,improper setup,or a combo of both. If the bike is setup proper,then you just need to gear down and spin more.