WHEEL TRUING - A SIMPLE TO FOLLOW GUIDE

Stills taken from our 'wheel truing'instructionalDVD which is available for 3.97from our okay store
WHEEL TRUING
Wheel truing is one of those tasks that, for some reason, is surrounded by an air of mystery, and whilst it is a bit more art than science its actually quick and easy - and the only tool you will need is a spoke key. But beware,spokes do gee in different sizes so before you go rushing off to the bike shop make sure that you get the right size key for your spokes, if you're unsure you can get multi-headedspoke keysthat cover most spoke sizes in one tool.
Although your local bike shop will use a truing stand most people dont have these at home, and theyre not that cheap either. The best alternative is to use the brake blocks as atruing guide and for basic wheel truingit's just as effective anyway.
Before you start it's worth checking that your wobbly rim is not due to loose hub bearings so just grab the wheel and flex it side to side if you do feel any play at the hub then you will need to fix this before doing any truing. Once youve made sure your hub bearings are okay give the wheel a spin, and what you are checking for is side to side wobble of the rim. Its also sometimes called 'lateral trueness', 'side to side trueness', or 'wheel run out' but these terms all mean the same thing so dont let them confuse you.
As the wheel is spinning bring you brake blocks closer to the rim by turning the adjuster barrel on the caliper anticlockwise - as soon as a brake block starts to scrape then you have found the most pronounced part of the wobble. Now carefully find the centre of the wobble (which is where it scrapes the hardest), then locate the nearest spoke on the opposite side to where its scraping. Just to clarify (because this is important), when i say 'opposite side' i mean the spokewhich connects to the side of the hub which is on the opposite side to the scrape. Tighten this spoke by a quarter turn using your spoke key, and tightening is always anticlockwise as you look down on the spoke key..
Now do the same thing with the two spokeseither side of the spoke you have just tightened - but only tighten them an 1/8 of a turn, againmaking sure you are tightening the spokes which connect to the side of the hub which is opposite to where it scrapes. Now give the wheel a spin to see if the wobble has gone. If the wobble is less pronounced but still there then you can repeat the procedure.BUT! dont spend hours striving for perfection an acceptable level of wobble is between 1/16th and1/8th of an inch.
So the rule of thumb is you always tighten the spokes on the opposite side to where it scrapes making less of an adjustment as you move away from the centre of the wobble.
Modern bicycle wheels are now laced in a number of different ways butexactly the same principals apply. If you're unsure about what you are doing then it's a good idea to keep a track of which spokes you have adjusted and by how much - this way you can always put them back to the original position and start again. Knowing you can do this should also give you the confidence to experiment a little (as i said at the start wheel truing is art as well as science!)
Finally, one word of warning. Only use wheel truing to cure a mild wobble dont use it to try to fix a heavily buckled wheel as this can cause spokes to begee too loose which can result in broken spokes or worse still broken bones.
I hope you found this guide useful. If you did, please take a couple of seconds to vote below. thanks!
You can also see exactly how it's alldone in close-up detail with our easy to follow step by step DVD, which isavailablefrom our okay store - just click on the link below
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