giant99

Ay guys I have been building my fixie over the winter. The other day I put it together and took her out to see how it road before paint. The chain isnt lined up. My question is if I loosen everything tighten the right side then the left will the sprocket just line up and do I just have to true it. I have a front fork I can put in my vise and do it that way or can I put it on the bike and and try and line everything with the front sprocket. I tried to centre the axle by balancing it out with spacers but the tire rubs. Ex 5 speed wheel 27" Never done this before or seen it done. Just been told what I need to do. Thanks.

lightgraphs

This is what I did.

Loosen all the spokes on the cog side and tighten all the ones on the other side. Try and do it all uniformly (one full turn on each spoke to start). That way it will make truing a little easier later. I did this with the wheel on the frame and just eyeballed it until it looked like the chain would line up and the tire was in the center. Then I put a break caliper on with the pads on backwards so the nuts were on the inside and used that as my truing mechanism. You can also put a piece of tape or something across your seatstays so you can listen for virtical true.

You runnin' a suicide hub?

If so, and you haven't already, do a search on this form for "Italian Method" or read some other suicide hub threads. Don't just use a chain whip on that cog. You'll need more force to make sure that little b-stard stays down. I used that italian method and a BB lockring and had no troubles skidding. I'm happy to say that I have real track hubs now and feel safer.

marcusbandito

I'd say buy a cheap dishing tool or make one, its not that hard with some wood. You can always use your brake calipers as a quick reference to true the wheels, but once you start to change the dish you can get in trouble real quick with out the proper tools.

check https://www.parktool.com/repair_help/wag.shtml for a great dishing explanaton.

giant99

Well I have done something wrong. I put the bike on my trainer to try lightgraphs sugestion and jumped on and started pedaling my ass off all of a sudden the wheel started to rub against the frame. Yu know that liittle disk on the left side of the rim well thats come off and the berings have come out.. dam.. now I have to find an new axle I tryed to put the berings back in but I buggered up the little disk that holds them in. Cant dish it till I get it spining right. The only allum rim I have the rest are steel and weigh a ton. Very hard to change an axle guess I find out. Thinking maybe I should practice dishng on one of the steel rims. I shall return.

labratmatt

I'm not sure what disk you are talking about, but the cone should hold the bearings in. Did you not have this tight enough? It should be just tight (so there is no play) and no more.

Axles are very easy to replace. You shouldn't have a problem with this.

marcusbandito

The wheels "dish" and its true (both lateral and radial) will not have an effect on your chainline. These olny relate to the wheel and it being centered on the hub and with in the seatstays & chainstays. Check the your hub's manufacturer's website for a exploded parts diagram to see if eveything is in its place, I know shimano provides them.
Sheldon has a great article on chainline: https://sheldonbrown.com/chainline/index.html

gally99

redishing your wheel will move the rim, not the hub... it ain't gonna effect yer chainline at all...

Phatman

but if you repace too...

I did this with my freewheel wheels...respaced so that there were even spacers, then dished the wheel back to the middle.

gally99

i should really start reading whole posts before replying... i miss key words like "spacers"...