wallythewhale

So my front wheel is off-centered (leans to the left standing over top tube looking down), but when I flip the wheel, it's centered. Is there a way to fix this so that it's centered regardless?

Reason I ask is because my tires are glued on the way I want it and currently, it's off-centered.

Also, it's a track wheel/hub if that matters.


Wheel true, but looks off in this photo. Off-centered, but doesn't scrape the fork.



Flip the wheels and now it's centered.

Amt0571

Based on the pictures, it seems to me you probably have a bent fork or misaligned dropouts.

If both legs of the fork were aligned, and the wheel was dished to one side, it should be off-centered to the other side when you flip it.

I had something similar happen on a new Dahon bike, and it was caused by some aluminium debris on one dropout which prevented the axle from sitting correctly in it. I corrected it using a round file to remove the debris.

In you case though, I thing it's more probable that one of the legs is slightly bent,

freeranger

Looking at the pic, it looks like the left fork leg is bent in slightly. Maybe the wheel was dished to compensate for the bent fork blade?

dabac

If you want the wheel to go in centered both ways, then both wheel and fork has to be ”perfectly” symmetrical.

Since your wheel sits right one way but not the other, I’d guess someone has taking the time to match the error in the fork to a deliberate error in the wheel.

It is PROBABLY possible to re-dish the wheel to sit right in the fork in the flipped position instead. Although it would still be off when mounted in the other position.

Ideally, you should investigate the fork further first. Find out what’s off. Can be a leg length issue. Can be that both legs are off a bit compared to the centerline of the fork.
Steel forks are generally considered good candidates for being bent back into shape.
A shortcut for making a bent fork less visibly off is to shim the wheel axle a little at one side. A shallow U cut from sheet metal to go between dropout and axle on the wide side will move the rim over.

2old

As stated above, both are off. The wheel should be easy to "true"/ Then find the problem with the fork and determine whether it's feasible to repair

Andrew R Stewart 

At face value it seems that there may be two issues at play. Wheel dish and fork alignment.

The wheel is pretty straight forward to check with a table, 3 blocks of equal height and a piece of cardboard. Position the 3 blocks so the rim (NOT the tire) and wheel sits of them parallel to the table. Cut the cardboard strip into a wedge so the skinny end slides under the axle end (lock nut) and rests on the table. Note how far the cardboard wedge fits. Flip the wheel and slide the wedge in again and if the wheel is dished properly the axle end/lock nut will touch it in the same place.

For the fork, in this past thread. Front wheel turns hard right. - Bike Forums I show an easy way to check fork alignment. Note that it depends on a straight and dished wheel, which I question if the OP has right now. Andy

70sSanO

I agree with others that the left fork leg appears to flare out. The right doesn’t look like it is flared in; although both could be a little tweaked.

To compensate, the wheel might have been dished to center and/or and an additional spacer was added to one side to fill for the wider dropout.

I’d probably take some measurements. Use a straightedge and a square. Check that the fork dropouts are parallel. Measure fork dropout width.

John

Steelman54 

Not all shops will have a fork alignment tool, but some older ones might. If possible take fork to shop that has and have it checked. It takes like 5 minutes. Guessing you will find the problem there as others have suggested.

cyccommute 

Hardware store alignment tool. This is not my idea, although I made some minor improvements. I used two 3/8x12” carriage bolts (available from Home Depot), two 3/8” wing nuts, four washers, two 3/8” flanged nuts, 3/8x1/2” reducing coupling nuts, two 1/2 x 1” bolts, and two 1/2 nuts to use as jam nuts to keep the 1/2” bolts from moving.




In action. Just make sure the bolts are squarely seated in the dropouts. This is the rear after spreading to 135mm (that’s what the other bolts in the above picture are for)



The 1/2” bolts can be rolled out to adjust for width.



If you have to align the dropouts after spreading, you can just grab the end to the carriage bolt. I’d suggest gloves as they do bite into the hand a bit.

cyccommute 

I wonder if this simpler and is just user error. The wheel is a nutted axle and I suspect that there is something going on with tightening those nuts. Wallythewhale may be using one wrench on the wheel which can allow the nut to slip downward on the left side. I usually use two wrenches on a nutted wheel to avoid that problem

Mr. 66

I don't have the right tools for checking fork, so what I do is measure length fork tip to top of fork leg at the lug center. If they match, you are side to side out, or one tine is offset to the other in plane with the fork crown.

To check if the tips are in plane with the fork crown I will remove fork place on a flat surface and then level the steer tube and fork crown to the surface. There I measure the from the surface to the top of the tips.

If those numbers are a match, your fork is off side to side.