Greg R

I recently put new tires on my 65 Schwinn Racer. The new tires are correct for the old S5/S6 rims. The bike now wants to lean/turn right when hands free rolling. It didn't before the tire change. I've checked the tire's bead seating, wheel straightness, the axle seating in the forks, the seat alignment, and my riding posture. All is the same, as far as I can figure; except now I have to really lean my body to the left to keep the bike rolling straight when hands free. Please no comments on hands free riding. It is fun, helps with balance skill, and I only try it when there's no other traffic i.e. an empty road and just me. Just trying to figure what I might be missing.

shelbyfv

Swap your tires front to rear.

SkinGriz

Huh. I’ll put that in the quiver.

Trakhak

Double-check that the axle is fully seated in both dropouts.

Frank S

Have you tried string wheel alignment?

Greg R

Is this the same as using a straight edge?

Maelochs

Take the wheel off and install it with the current left side, on the right.

Frank S

It would work the same, yes. If the rear wheel isn't aligned with the bike, it will always want to go one way or the other. Obviously, this is much less critical with the front wheel.

Wheels can also be out of alignment, vertically. That would force the rider to lean slightly, to compensate. I'm not sure that that would make much difference, though.

FBOATSB

A '65 Schwinn eh? Does it still have the original headset and is it regularly serviced/in good adjustment? Those same symptoms have presented themselves to me and that is what the cure turned out to be.

Greg R

Okay. I checked the wheels front to back with a straight edge. Sure enough, one side of the front tire won't line up, the other side shows a 1/4" or so gap between the straight edge and front tire with the tool flat on the rear tire. (I used to do work like this for aligning industrial belt drives) Swapped the front tire 180* as per Maelochs. A test spin later and the bike rides normal again. Curious as to why this is. The front axle was seated in the forks, both axle ends nutted the same with 2 threads showing on each side. As far as I can tell it was centered. Could it be the way the wheel was built to run with the rear wheel on a 3 speed hub?

Iride01 

Before the tire change, how long has it been since you rode it hands free? If the bikes been sitting around and you finally drug it out of years of storage and had to put new tires on it in order to ride it then maybe the rider isn't as good as they once were. <grin>

Flip Flop Rider

I was thinking this as well

Iride01 

Also, are you sure it isn't a brake or shifter cable bend from bars to frame pulling or pushing it one way?

Greg R

haha, that's a big 10-4 good buddy but since the front wheel swap the bike tracks good as before the tire change I don't know why at this point unless it's the way the front wheel was built

So, how come I'm limited to 5 posts per 24 hours? I haven't been onboard for a few years and I updated my email. I went to reply yesterday but the board says I can't because of my posting limits.

Iride01 

Mostly spam protection. Spammers and bots can do just like you. Lurk for a time without posting and then suddenly post a bunch of spam that takes time to clean up.

Once you get past your tenth post I think they'll trust you. While you may not have run afoul of this on other websites, most that I use have the same policy.

Greg R

Thanks for the info. Yes, I'm on other forums and spammers take their toll, this is the 1st I've read about bots in the mix. That and constants ads are interrupting my internet. I suppose all those seminar attendees for "market penetration" are now at work