Bumer

Last night, while swapping wheels on my bike I noticed that rear wheel is not straight, which probably means it needs truing, right?

Is there a "rule of thumb" at what point a wheel should be trued?
How much will it cost to have LBS to true it?

Thanks!

canam73

The quick answer is whenever they need it.

Check lateral trueness along with wheel/caliper alignment by spinning the wheel and checking the gaps on either side. I might not do it every ride but fairly often as it takes about a minute.

I look for vertical hops less often, usually after I've hit a big pot hole or before a big ride where I want to make sure everything is in top working order. I guess that still happens often enough.

Shops will charge different amounts but $5-25 is typical depending on the shop, how bad the rim is (it's much faster to laterally true than vertically) and how often you shop there. Even if you don't plan on wheel building it pays to know the basics of truing as it saves time and money, keeps your wheels rolling well and can literally save a ride if you have a problem out on the road.

Bumer

I was checking trueness by spinning the wheel and checking gaps between the brake pads, and that's when I noticed it. So, it sounds like my lateral trueness is off, then.

I am going to take my bike to lbs and ask them to true it, in addition to couple other things (need to swap cassettes between wheel sets). May be I can ask for a discount.

cafzali

As far as your basic question, my experience and that of most cycling friends I know is that if you've got a wheel that's been properly designed and built for the riding you're doing, you almost never need to touch them unless you hit a pothole or some other similar situation comes up. I haven't had to true either my set of custom aluminum wheels or the set of DT Swiss wheels I have since I installed them. And at 190 pounds, I'm not exactly what you'd call a light rider either.

achoo

How much off? A bit of side-to-side or in-and-out wobble is not really much of a problem. How much is "too much" depends on a lot of factors.

Bumer

Couple things happened to this wheel:
- One day I did hit nasty pothole, got flat because of that,
- And another day I was going over some rough section of the road, when my water bottle ejected, flew into the wheel, and jammed it.

I'd say about 5mm - 8mm of side-to-side... Is that too much? It's not something noticeable when I ride, but I just want to check if it's time to true it.

merlinextraligh

If it's enough that you're noticing it, it likely needs to be trued. What you don't want is to ride it with spokes out of tension accelerating the braking of spokes.

dtrain

$5?! That's cheap.

$15 -- 25/30

frankenmike 

Personally, I consider it good enough as long as my brakes don't rub.

Jed19

Every enthusiast cyclist should learn how to true wheels. I learnt it thru Youtube and reading some books. And you do not need a truing stand, as you can use your bicycle fork and brake pads as truing guides. You never know when you might hit a pothole, and the idea of running off to the lbs each time you need slight wheel truing is silly.

So, get yourself the appropriate spoke wrench and get busy. The most important thing to remember is patience, and do not make huge corrections. An eight of a turn at a time. Or may be a quarter.

adrien

Well, especially for Clydes, truth (as the Brits call it) and tension are very closely tied.

Any new wheel set should be re-tensioned (typically about making sure it is high enough and consistent around the wheel) usually once, after the set is broken in. For me, that's around 300-500 miles. Have it done by a wheelbuilder (most good LBSs have one) and be specific -- true, tension and check dish. If you have never had this done, it is important to have the wheel set in and avoid future issues.

Beyond that, any need for truing which you notice that is not connected to a crash or another impact is a sign of an issue.

mihlbach

If I had a dollar for every cyclist riding around with poorly built wheels I would be filthy rich.

Wheels go out of true for two reasons (1) undertensioned spokes, and (2) damage to the rim. Undertensioned spokes will gradually loose tension, causing the wheel to go out of round. If a wheel suddenly goes out of true due to impact it is either because spokes have been broken, or the rim itself has been warped, causing changes in tension among the spokes.

If you have to have your wheels trued on a regular basis, it means your wheels are incorrectly tensioned and/or not appropriate for your weight and riding conditions. This is only going to lead to premature spoke failure. A good wheel with appropriate tension will hold its true indefinately, and should last much longer than an undertensioned wheel. If your wheels are going out of round from hitting potholes, then it means you should ride more carefully, and possibly consider replacing your damaged wheel with something stronger.

mihlbach

I find it astounding how may LBS's have no clue how to properly finish a wheel. I learned to build my own wheels years ago and have since never had a single wheel go out of true. My custom wheels have never needed adjustments. The few factory built wheels I own have all needed a single session of additional tensioning (like you say, after a few hundred miles) but, otherwise, I have never needed to touch a single nipple on any of my wheelsets. For the record, I am a clyde and also ride several lightweight wheelsets. Its all about having enough tension.

Psimet2001 

This is a common misconception. If the wheels are built correctly you will not have to do this.

Kimmo

If a wheel is well-specced for its intended use and built right, then you don't need to true it until you've hurt it.

Most wheels aren't properly built though, so a buckle often doesn't mean damage; it's likely a spoke or two worked loose from being not tight enough in the first place, pretty common.

adrien

Interesting. This comes from multiple wheel builders who build custom wheels, though admittedly you are not one of them. What I have been told is that any wheel set needs to be broken in and re-tensioned, and I personally have had this done on two sets which were hand-built by folks who do only that. Closest I've heard to not needing it is a group that built one set for me saying they tension, release, and retension as part of the build process and that the re-tension was probably not needed. In my case, with those wheels, I brought them in.

Kimmo

It comes down to how rigorous the stress-relieving process is, IME.

When I get perfectionist about building a wheelset and take my time, I don't have to touch them again.

cafzali

[QUOTE=Bumer;14749892]Couple things happened to this wheel:
- One day I did hit nasty pothole, got flat because of that,
- And another day I was going over some rough section of the road, when my water bottle ejected, flew into the wheel, and jammed it.
[QUOTE]

Well, those are what you might call "wheel disasters" that are bound to happen because of bad luck, inattentiveness, or any number of other factors. If they happen and all you end up having to do is true the wheel, you're lucky. I've had sticks that another rider rode over with no incident richochet up, get caught in my wheel and break spokes. I couldn't have done it if I'd tried, in all likelihood, but the luck gremlins got me and my ride was over prematurely that day.

If you haven't already had that wheel into your shop, I'd take it in and see what they can do for you. If the actual rim's not bent, it shouldn't be a big problem. If the rim is bent, then you're out of luck in terms of getting it to ever ride completely straight again.

Kimmo

Sometimes there are ways and means, but you have to be pretty keen.

mihlbach

I agree that properly build wheels will need no additional adjustment, but I don't think its a common misconception considering that stock machine-built wheelsets are commonly not built correctly. Not all hand built wheels are perfect either (for example, refer to Adrien's last post). Many wheels often need adjustment after some amount of riding, unless the wheel was tensioned correctly right out of the box. Sadly most LBSs don't do this (in my experience), so inevitably some truing is eventually needed.

fietsbob

wrong place to ask , you need to call the shop that will do the work.



Consider learning DIY, buy a truing stand and some spoke wrenches
.. and a dish stick as a double check..

Drew Eckhardt 

Properly built wheels don't go out of true unless you bend the rim.

Improperly built wheels without enough tension on the spokes to keep the nipples from turning as the spokes unload passing the bottom do. If your LBS (like most) merely brings it back into line in that case you'll be going back again and again and again.

Improperly built wheels (the vast majority of machine-built wheels) also have areas of the spoke elbows which were never taken past their elastic limit, with the high residual stress leading to failure in relatively few stress cycles.

The same rider who's heavy enough to cause nipples to unscrew on somewhat slack wheels is also heavy enough to exacerbate the shortened fatigue life in that situation.

Where the LBS (like most) merely trues the wheel without stress relieving you'll be going back to them for broken spokes - at first a few at a time (they all see about the same stress conditions in one half of the rear wheel, but there's a statistical distribution) and then like popcorn.

If your LBS (like most) is more into selling, you'll get a new wheel from the QBP catalog at that point and the cycle may repeat.

Learn to deal with your own wheels (Read _The Bicycle Wheel) and you won't have these problems. You'll also be able to replace rims when they wear out or bend thus keeping the rest of the wheel; and the $45-$80 it takes to replace a rim on a top quality wheel (good hub, good spokes) wouldn't cover a fraction of the wheel replacement or spokes + labor charges for a shop's replacement job or a nice new wheel.

canam73

Reading. Yaaaaayyyyy!

Bumer

Thank you guys for the information!

Just came back from lbs, and surely enough I'm $20 lighter for wheel truing now... Better learn how to true wheels myself from now on...
Not going to get truing stand for now, but might get something in the future.