Originally Posted by
hamcereal
I had brought a set of wheels into a LBS last week to have them trued. When I got there, one of the employees said the young man who owns the place is the wheel building master, so that made me relieved after having a bad experience at another LBS.
However, when he started reciting his sales mantra full of wheel building related vocabulary, I had a strange feeling about the place.
The set of wheels I brought in to be trued didn't seem, to me, really all that out of line. Lateral movement was off by maybe 2-3mm, MAYBE 4.
Long story short I paid 74$ tax included, and my wheels don't seem much straighter than when I first brought them in.
They said one of the wheels had a bend in about a 3 inch section of the rim and that there was nothing they could do about it.
All this to say, at what point does a wheel become untrueable?
I'm no wheel builder, and my truing knowledge is very basic, but I can't help but feel I just got played by this shop.
At some point you cannot true the wheel and it is better to simply get a new wheel. I can say though that a rim that is 2-3 mm out of lateral true is out by my definition and 4 is completely unacceptable. I think for a used set of wheels with many miles 1-2 might work fine depending on the bike and nothing really needs to be done. A new set of wheels though should be true and be able to true within reason. I think you paid a lot of money to get a wheel trued and unless you have specifics on the trueness it seems not like a good outcome.