(Sorry for the poor picture quality. It was super hard to showcase this in a picture)
As you can see, guys, the disk comes at an angle for some reason even though it does not seem to be bent or something.
Do you know what caused this + any solution?
by datguy500
7 Comments
the wheel is possibly not seated correctly in the drop out.
There are 2 common possibilities.
The wheel could not be set up straight.
Or the calipers are not properly aligned.
There also is a possibility that the rotors themselves are warped but that’s not what it looks like from that shot
1. Loosen clipper mounting bolts. 2. Engage brake. It will align with rotor. Get a friend to hold or tie lever with a strap. 3. Re-tighten bolts, careful not to move it when torquing. 4. Check again.
Are those Shimano calipers? Shimano usually have a two piece washer that one half is convex and the other concave. These washers allow you to slightly rotate the caliper so you can get an even spacing on the rotor.
https://images.performancebike.com/cdn-cgi/image/f=auto,width=950/images/large/bikes/shimano/y8g498030.jpg
One thing you can do to check your setup is to mount a different rotor of the same size and see if the alignment issue persists. If you rotate the wheel and observe the caliper gap and notice this is a consistent alignment issue, there is an alignment issue with the wheel axle and caliper. If it is intermittent, then the rotor is warped.
Other indicators of likely suspects.
If this system was fine previously: wheel not fully seated in the dropout (or axle not torqued correctly for TA) or rotor is likely warped
If system is new: as above with addition of caliper mounting surface requires facing and/or alignment hardware is missing (system dependent)
Either the wheel is not all the way in the frame, the brake has conical washers and needs to be aligned, or unfortunately your frame needs to be faced.
The wheel is the easy part, you can put the bike on the ground, loosen the axle QR or nuts and let Gravity drop the wheel in, then tighten it up.
For the conical washers you just need to align the brake by moving it with your hand after loosing the bolts. Make sure to hold it in place when tightening them.
If it needs to be faced, its not a easy thing. This is something billed hourly, usually done on brand new bikes and billed to the manufacturer. If your bike is new, go to the shop you got it at and let them know.
[Park Tool to the rescue](https://youtu.be/NmqGeLNcVIg?feature=shared)