Darth Lefty 

I have this kid bike (24" and QR135 disc) that seems pretty out of whack but I'd like to have it checked out before I give up and ask for warranty. Is there anyone in the Rancho-OV-Folsom-EDH area who has tools more and better than just a derailleur hanger tool?

photos here https://www.mtbr.com/threads/cleary-...ligned.1213311

Andrew R Stewart 

The photos on MTBR do look like the drop outs are not parallel, are there issues when riding? I hope this was bought through a LBS that cares for their customers.

I would want to check with common (for better bike shops) drop out alignment tools (Park FFGs or Campy Hs as example) and a string test at the minimum. But what is found and what is "wrong" can be debatable. The last few years the QC of most factories has been challenged from both the people handling the torches and the people selling the brand. If a shop does this and isn't a dealer of the brand, be willing to pay for their assessment. Good luck. Andy

unterhausen

That's awful. Even expensive kids bikes nowadays are built like crap. Seems like the forks are the worst though. No way my lbs would have sold that, they would have warrantied it before it got that far.

Darth Lefty 

Yes it does. But don't want to trust mere "it looks like"

Kid is a pretty anxious little guy and had a little panic attack about riding it vs his 20" Hotrock. So all I know is what's in the stand, which is what brought me to take a closer look and then post photos. It shifts. Indexing really is amazing. But can't get the brake rotor not to rub

Direct sale from Cleary. I put in a ticket on their website but they are closed til the 3rd and then surely they will be working through a backlog. But Cleary does have dealers. The nearest to me is Sam's Town in Shingle Springs and I can maybe take the bike there on Wednesday. By then Cleary may have responded. I'm headed to the hardware store today later and might hunt up something spool shaped and some 3/8 or 10mm bolts to stand in for alignment cups.

I don't know about repair. Maybe someone can educate me. This is a kid's aluminum mountain bike, not a super duper Klein road frame. It should be tolerant to bending but then again take a lot of force to bend. And then would the paint survive the strain

Andrew R Stewart 

Generally it is not recommended to bend Al, or as this case could be called align the drop outs. But Al der hangers are rebent straight routinely. If no warranty help is offered (and I don't expect it will be) I would just align the hanger to keep the der away from the spokes and ride it till either your kid out grows it of trashes it beyond cost effective repair.

One question I have is whether the drop outs will spring apart to a parallel relationship when the wheel is removed. If so than their width is way off and that can be measured and stated as "the dropouts are Xmms too wide to fit the wheel". If they stay the same width as the axle is one could mount a long bolt (some All Thread rod) secured into one dropout slot and let the free end point off center WRT the other slot. This could be photographed if needed.

It is possible that the rear caliper mounts are also off WRT the hub/disk. This would narrow down the effective gap between the pads that the rotor passes through. Very few calipers have the ability to aligh for this. However Avid does make a few that do. They have "ball and socket" washers on either side of the caliper's tabs that allow for a little caliper crookedness correction. Andy

Darth Lefty 

I fussed with it a little more. Got the brake to run right which is a good sign. String test seemed ok, which is a really good sign. Spacing seems ok.

The dropout is a forging with reliefs, not a solid plate, and there's a standoff inside the dropout. So the interior face you see in the earlier photo is not the "true" interior face that the axle clamps up on. You can see how the teeth in the hub are digging in more at the back, so the DO might not be flat, but at least it seems to be located in the right place.

RD still looks tilted, though. Tried the wheel in backward and it appeared to sit in line which is weird when it's off to the right, and kind of implies the dish is off. So there are things to check out still but I'm not panicking as hard as I was when I took the photos

unterhausen

From what I can see from here (may be parallax) it looks like you would have to bend the stays closer together and then straighten the dropouts. I think the calculus is a bit different with a kids bike. They are either going to grow out of it before it wears out due to these issues ore they are going to use it so much they would trash it no matter what the state of the alignment is. I think the problems are going to show up for the 2nd or 3rd kid