Truing Wheels

harringtonp

Tried to tru a wheel but made it worse. Went for the obviously loose spokes and tightened them but it didn't work.

Just wondering if you used a spoke tension meter such as

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/park-tool-spoke-tension-meter

and went around all spokes setting the same tension, could you reasonably expect a tru wheel ?

magicbastarder

(not that i've any experience)
if a wheel is buckled, you'd expect the spokes on the side it's buckled towards to be loose, i assume? because it's released tension for them.
tightening them will pull the rim even closer to that side - so would you have to work counterintuitively and tighten the *tight* spokes?

Type 17

If the rim is buckled in the direction away from a loose spoke, the spoke has just come loose (or has snapped), and the other flange’s spokes are holding the (actually non-buckled) rim crooked. Re-tensioning should fix this.

If the rim is buckled in the direction towards a loose spoke, the rim is actually bent (buckled) and if it’s buckled enough to let a spoke fall loose, just tightening the other flange’s spokes probably won’t be able to pull the rim back into line. You can slacken all of the spokes and straighten the rim by hand and then re-tension, but it only works well if the bend is long (covers a good bit of the rim) - a short, sharp twist is almost impossible to fix.

Effects

Does anyone ever run wheel truing workshops? It's something I've wanted to do, but have yet to find the time.
I even have a few wheels I've put aside from the scrapheap to practice on.

8valve

In the bike trade, we are sworn to secrecy on the black art of building and truing wheels; I could tell you how its done, but those in power are always listening/watching and within minutes, large men in black polo necks will descend on ropes from a helicopter and burst into your home, spiriting you away.....never to be seen again.




Alternatively, there are some very informative vidjos on youtube; check them out.

The basic premise is this... a wheel out of lateral (sideways) true will be pulled away from a loose spoke by the tighter spokes beside it, laced to the other side of the hub; it's not rocket surgery.

Buy a spoke key and play around with an old wheel.....don't do it with your new €2k Zipps.

Jonesy101

no i dont think a tightning meter would work. if the wheel is buckled in one direction you need to pull it really tightly in the opposite direction. I would help you i suppose not to tighten every single spoke too tightly. Its tricky but i say give it another go after watching a video. A loose spoke might be because of a buckled wheel in that direction, you should be tightening the other spokes pulling it away from that buckled direction thus that loose spoke will become tighter without going near it.