I broke a few spokes but all my local shops are backed up 2-3 weeks so I am trying to fixing it myself. Got some spokes off of Amazon and replaced the broken ones. This is as good as I think I can get it. I feel like the more I mess with it the worse it gets. I already stripped nearly all of the nipples in every imaginable way. It almost seems like the radius is more uneven than the lateral movement, which I was not expecting. Think I can call this good? My gut says no. I am about ready to go buy a new wheel. Any thoughts to share with a noob? I appreciate it!
by Drew12111
24 Comments
No.
You are laterally true enough, but the radial true (up and down) is horrible.
Take your time, and get this fixed. Lateral true, radial true, dish, tension, all at once. Just keep at it, going back and forth checking all these things as you go.
probably need to radially true it, i do it by sound with some string to know which spokes to tighten. Park tools youtube videos is my go to
Personally, I’d easily take that to the bike park and send it.
Not familiar with that stand but many can be setup for a radial truing. Generally the jaws/pins will be set just below the rim so a high spot on the rim will rub them and a low spot will be far away.
For me, I true dish (only for rear wheel), then radial, and finally lateral.
If I paid someone to true it, it wouldn’t be acceptable. But you’re not going to notice the hops and if it’s a disc brake you could ride it without concern
If you stripped the nipples I wouldn’t mess with it more
this is a lie
If you’ve stripped all the nipples you probably were tensioning the spokes way too much. True aside, I’d be worried that the wheel is over tensioned.
Is it?
🤣….no…..but then again, depends on the situation….old rim/previous damage, yeah, probably is….
….this is true enough😉
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuGbjQZsATU/?igsh=MTN1OGJpcW9id2l2Ng==
How rideable it is depends on two things. Assuming you have disc brakes.
Are the spoke tensions relatively even and it’s the rim shape fighting you?
How fat of a tire is going on there?
I’d try to fix it for as long as I could tolerate it and then just aend it and never think of it again
Pretty sure both my rear wheels are tacod at this point anyway
…good enough for the girls I go out with
I’d ride that, as long as the spokes are up to tension, this is acceptable, Park Tool said something about a 1mm height difference.
You can keep going and see if it gets better.
It’s good enough to commute. If those bumps are due to rim damage (or at the rim joint) it might be close to as good as it gets. If the spokes are wildly different tensions it start giving you trouble eventually.
If you are having stripped nipples I would make sure that you have the right spoke wrench. It’s a real pain when some spokes use a different wrench than the others. Maybe the new ones are slightly different than the old ones.
To work on radial truing move the indicators on the truing stand to just touch the rim on the out edge.
Sometimes I think people ask questions just so they get comments. Here’s my comment. 🙄
Get a tension gauge
If you’ve stripped the nipples, the trueness would be the least of my worries.
I wouldn’t be riding it anyway.
Last thing you want is a catastrophic failure of multiple nipples at once.
It has a hop (I guess that’s what it translates to)
Radial truing needed…
Sorry no expert, seems like a dark art, that could bring the deceased back to life… OR, make a wheel perfectly round again
Looks ok laterally, but that radial hop would not pass for a new build.
I really find wheel truing difficult and a ton of patience is required. Hats off to you!
It is jumping a bit. You can tighten all the spokes equally in the areas where the rim is maximally tall. The wheel will start to wobble a bit. Fix that. Then work on getting it less egg shaped. Back and forth and so on….
No, still some more to go. Best to do it properly. So there’s no hop and no side to side wobble.
Her ei explain the whole process, it’s crusial to do everything:
There just a tiny bit of side to side movement, whoch means you are close. So adjust for the up and down movement now so it’s round, then do fine adjustment to side to side.
And take the wheel off and release the tension, push on it, flip it push. Put it back in the stand repeat, so true, then take out and push and flip, and back in the stand and true it and repeat until the spokes don’t pop anymore.
So when it’s true and you can’t make it pop anymore it’s true.
This method will work for alu rims.
But if you have stiff carbon rims, you might need to step on the spokes, but do this only if you got a robust hub that can handle it.
There’s also videos on YouTube about it.
Good idea to use a rubber mat on the floor or feks so you don’t scratch it up during de-stressing.
Ali Clarkson has a great video on building wheels.
https://youtu.be/_RME-JTs4YQ?si=KxkTGmmJUrPDJBfV
If you stripped the nipples, they are likely weak aluminium, those can round off eaisly, or even lesser grade brass nipples, like Dt Swiss, they might round off, but still much stronger than cheap and soft alu nipples.
I reccomend Sapim Brass nipples, they won’t do that.
They will handle rockstrikes, years of trying, and won’t round off.
Probably why Sapim Brass nipples is so popular.
I’ve not tried their alu nipples but was told they are better than the cheap alu nipples, as they use harder and stronger alu.
But brass is still the best.