samburger

So I'm going up to the Nantahala this weekend to do some paddling & ride at Tsali, & had my bike on my roof rack since my kayak is preventing opening the hatch on my car (whereas I normally fold the seats down in the & toss it in the back). And of course, my biggest fear & reason for not usually using the roof rack finally happened, & my bike (mounted on the roof rack) hit something.

The good news: it was a relatively small tree branch & my bike is mostly okay. The bad news: the branch ripped my wheels from their slots on the rack & got them out of true. The front wheel is the worst, with maybe 1/2" of bend if that. The rear is maybe 1/4".

My only experience with out of true wheels was with some cheapie x-mart wheels that got relatively taco'd on a v-brake bike, so I obviously couldn't ride them anymore. But now I have disc brakes, so I'm wondering at what point others will stop riding out of true wheels? It doesn't bother me, but I have no idea how structurally compromised an untrue wheel is & I don't want to kill myself bombing a hill & having my front wheel totally taco & throw me off.

jowilson

I think that the trueness of a wheel should not be disregarded if the bike has disc brakes. They are still wheels and that trueness is very easy to see in your bikes handling at high speeds. I true all my wheels as best as I can even if its got disc brakes or rim brakes. Wheels need to be true, not just for brakes, but also for performance and handling.

Josh

samburger

While I do appreciate the input, that provides me with no new information. It basically reiterates what I've already expressed knowledge of.

I guess I should make myself more clear: I'm looking more for detailed personal experiences/decisions regarding whether or not to ride with untrue wheels, & less for what would make a great opening to a Wikipedia page on the importance of truing your wheels.

Edit: Also, this may just be the pre-law student in me, but literally everyone rides with their wheels out of true. There's no such thing as a perfectly true wheel, just like there's no such thing as a perfect circle. My question is HOW out of true others have ridden their bikes without experiencing major side effects/failures.

samburger

So I may have overestimated the out of true-ness just a *little* bit. Here's a video for reference...apologies for the cheapness of the setup, had to work with what I've got at work.

ZManT

get your spoke wrench out and see if you can straighten out that wonk

that's my advice

samburger

I don't know why I didn't bother to check my multitool to find that it has a spoke wrench for several sizes...feeling pretty dumb right about now Still not at all confident that my first attempt at truing wheels will be successful, but I guess it's worth a shot.

dminor 

Honestly, unless a rim is seriously trashed (i.e. - - the pinned joint has separated, as on an unwelded rim), you'd be amazed at what you can salvage. I've had rims bent so badly that I've unlaced them, reefed on them in my bench vise, then laced them back and trued them to rideable again. It's often just a matter of if the one you want to save is worth the effort. The one in your vid is comparatively mild and should pull back into shape considerably with some coaxing.

samburger

Yeah it's just a matter of getting them right in time to ride tomorrow, especially since it looks like it'll be too cold to paddle.

This may seem like a stupid question, mostly because it is, but which way is 'right side up' for the spokes? Or I guess I should say: If I'm tightening the spokes from the bottom of the wheel, which way do I turn to tighten? Having no experience lacing wheels, I don't know if right-tighty applies to the nipples on the bottom of the rim or the top.

dminor 

Still righty-tighty. Just think of the nipple as a nut and the spoke as the bolt. Look at the wheel from the outside looking in toward the hub (straight down over the threadrd end of the spoke) and turn the nipple clockwise.

samburger

Awesome, thanks! Already got the front wheel down to maybe 2mm deviation at its worst spot, feeling pretty confident about the rear. In a weird way, it's almost fun...like sudoku for bike lovers.

krobinson103

A few mm out on my disc braked wheels and I call it good. Not so important as rim brakes where it starts to upset the calipers.