Rim run-out tolerance before re-truing?
#1
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Rim run-out tolerance before re-truing?
How much run out before getting a wheel trued?
The front wheel is currently out by ~0.5mm. Its enough to be visible but doesn't seem to cause issues. Have the wheel trued or not?
The front wheel is currently out by ~0.5mm. Its enough to be visible but doesn't seem to cause issues. Have the wheel trued or not?
#2
Portland Fred
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OP, your question brings to mind all the statements one reads about this set of wheels and that set of wheels that have been rolling for years without needing to be trued. While such testaments are generally thought to speak highly about original material selection and build competence, one has to wonder if the claims aren't really about low expectations in the first place. I say keep your wheels spinning like you would have expected to them to be when new. Jed19 seems to agree although he and I differ on what tolerance is acceptable for a new wheel. I shoot for the best I can do before I start to go nuts which I think is more like 0.2 mm or so.
Wheels don't usually become progressively more and more out of true over time at the same spot on the rim. Mostly there is an "event" which kicks a spot on the rim out of true. Then that spot stays that way until the next event at that spot. Other events affect other spots. It is easiest to true a wheel when it has only one bad spot. So I say, "If you see it, fix it".
Wheels don't usually become progressively more and more out of true over time at the same spot on the rim. Mostly there is an "event" which kicks a spot on the rim out of true. Then that spot stays that way until the next event at that spot. Other events affect other spots. It is easiest to true a wheel when it has only one bad spot. So I say, "If you see it, fix it".
#8
If it's a localized bump, no more than 3-4 spokes, I'll take the key to it if 0.5mm out of true. If it's a longer section, I typically won't react if it's less than a millimeter out. On the other hand, I don't really check the wheels for trueness all that often, so I will sometimes ride a wheel with a bigger wobble than a millimeter for a while before I notice it; my brakes are set up quite open, so I don't get any rubs either way.
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#12
#13
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Huh. My Park truing stand came with the gauges but I put them eBay and just use the caliper with black "nubbies". Or as often as not I use the brake pads on an upside down bike. I get it to a point where I can't adjust my guide any finer without getting a touch pretty much the full way around and call it done.
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Why wouldn't you mount a dial indicator, and have direct reading? And don't you need a matching indicator on the opposing side to rule out rim width variation, especially at the seam? If you aren't going to take it seriously, why bother with the shims?
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Dial indicators give a quantitative indication while the calipers are qualitative, go or no go, rub or no rub. For truing I think the latter is easier. I could see using the dial indicator right at the end to quantify the final run out, but I don't think it would simplify the truing process.
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Robert,
Really, I was just poking fun toward Jed and his shims. For the OCD, anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and if you are used to using indicators, a .100" dial with 1/2" travel is incredibly easy to use, even in truing. But so are your ears. If one is going to use shims, then an indicator is less effort, IMO.
So it was playful. I decided to give up emoticons, to see if people can see if a post is playful without them.
Regards.
Really, I was just poking fun toward Jed and his shims. For the OCD, anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and if you are used to using indicators, a .100" dial with 1/2" travel is incredibly easy to use, even in truing. But so are your ears. If one is going to use shims, then an indicator is less effort, IMO.
So it was playful. I decided to give up emoticons, to see if people can see if a post is playful without them.
Regards.
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Robert,
Really, I was just poking fun toward Jed and his shims. For the OCD, anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and if you are used to using indicators, a .100" dial with 1/2" travel is incredibly easy to use, even in truing. But so are your ears. If one is going to use shims, then an indicator is less effort, IMO.
So it was playful. I decided to give up emoticons, to see if people can see if a post is playful without them.
Regards.
Really, I was just poking fun toward Jed and his shims. For the OCD, anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and if you are used to using indicators, a .100" dial with 1/2" travel is incredibly easy to use, even in truing. But so are your ears. If one is going to use shims, then an indicator is less effort, IMO.
So it was playful. I decided to give up emoticons, to see if people can see if a post is playful without them.
Regards.
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If you notice there out compared to the last time you checked, fix it. Using brake rub as a tolerance is very poor upkeep of your equipment.
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![Smilie](https://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/smile.gif)
I deal in tolerances as tight as .0001" (a ten-thousandth of an inch) on occasion and .001" routinely. When I true my wheels, the little OCD bastid in my brain starts wanting to set up gauges... I have so far resisted and can do "ok" with relatively primitive methods. Certainly into the half-a-millimeter range.
By the way truing up a chuck or workpiece in a lathe is very analogous to truing a wheel. Y'all would enjoy it.
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OP, sometimes we get obsessed with the wheel being 'true' to the determent to being strong. It doesn't do any good to have a perfectly true wheel if the spoke tensions are all over the map. As long as I don't feel the wheel pulsing under braking, I'm more inclined to shoot for a uniformly tensioned wheel than for a perfectly true one.