I recently bought a new bike and the rear wheel seems to be a bit off center, I tried explaining the same to seller they are saying it's a design feature. While I am not experiencing any wobble or brake pad touching disks problem. When i tried to reinstall the wheel it got into a lil bit center but the disk was touching brake pad. is it supposed to be like this ?
Or is there anything wrong with bike ?
by Responsible-Win2102
2 Comments
It’s not a “design feature.” It should be centered.
Assuming that the hub is sitting in the drop outs properly, and you get brake rub, then the brakes need adjusted after you install the wheel.
First thing to do is more or less ignore the brakes and verify that the wheel does sit properly centered when correctly seated in the dropout. It’s sometimes useful to install it backwards just to compare if it sits the same way or is off by the same amount in the other direction… this can tell you if it’s a wheel that needs dished vs an issue with the frame.
It sounds like in this case it’s just being forced to sit off center because that’s how the brakes were incorrectly adjusted at some point.. hopefully that’s all it is.
[How to Align a Mechanical Disc Brake on a Bike](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmqGeLNcVIg)
No it‘s not a design feature. In 90% of cases when you see this on a bike with (QR) dropouts (like yours), the wheel sits crooked in the dropout. Loosen the skewer and wiggle the wheel around, pushing on the frame from top to give some weight.
If your brake pad rubs when the wheel is more centered, the brake may have been mounted crooked too (adjusted to the crooked wheel). Loosen the mounting bolts at the caliper a bit (don‘t fully remove them), center the wheel as above and then tighten them again. The mounting holes at the caliper are designed with some float to allow centering.
In the minority of of cases where it‘s not an issue with how the wheel sits in the dropout, it‘s sometimes an issue of the wheel itself e.g. the dishing is offset. This is not something you can fix easily yourself. but you can find out by putting the wheel into another bike and seeing if the issue persits.