Wheels often out of line...

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alpinestar
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by alpinestar

Hi all,

I have a pair of China 50 mm carbon clincher, on novatech hubs. Generelly I am really happy with them, but over about 3000 km´s the rear had to be corected 3 times, and the front once. As I am not able to tru the wheels myself, this is starting to add up, as today i noticed the rear is very slightly out of true. :(

Is it because of bad work from the LBS, or the quality of the nipples, or what´s the problem. i use them for comuting, weekend rides and a few races (90% of my comute is on smooth bike lanes, and I very rearly use it in the rain I have a "rain bike" for that :)

Apart from this problem I really like the wheels, so would like to keep them, but if I have to keep spending money on keeping them straight I am not so sure.

Thanks for any input on this!

by Weenie


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rijndael
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by rijndael

I was in your position at one time. I got the Bill Mould wheel building DVD, a park truing stand, and tensiometer. It's not magic, and the way he explains the steps and walks you through it, make it doable for the average guy that has some mechanical ability. For my first wheels, I watched the DVD first, then rewatched it as I was doing the steps - pausing where necessary to perform the whole step.

http://www.billmouldwheels.com/dvds.html#MWB

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ms6073
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by ms6073

alpinestar wrote:Apart from this problem I really like the wheels, so would like to keep them, but if I have to keep spending money on keeping them straight I am not so sure.

If the original builder did not take time to correctly tension and true the wheel, spot truing is not going to correct that issue. Based on your experiences thus far, either follow the previous posters advise or find a competent wheel builder and have them completely loosen all the spokes, verify spoke lengths are correct, that way spoke tension and wheel true are done as if the wheels were being built from scratch.
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

dzmlyk
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:52 am

by dzmlyk

Agree with ms6073 .... but any reputable shop should have this sorted out in less than 3 visits. The shop's first action should be to check the tensions all around to determine how much work will be required to properly true/tension the wheel. I would be surprised if they had to take it down to all slack spokes but it can still be a lot of work to get everything balanced.

Some other culprits could be inadequate stress relieving during the build (that would not explain visits #2 and #3) or no thread locking compound used during the assembly/repairs. I'd say it is a combination of a less than stellar build and a LBS that is marginal with wheel repair.

Alex_ucsb
Shop Owner
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by Alex_ucsb

A lot of the time, inconsistencies in the manufacturing of cheap carbon rims can yield a really uneven nipple bed, which can severely confound efforts to build a decent wheel off of them; there's not much that can be done about that.

bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

thread locking should be needed in a properly tensioned wheel. Uneven spoke tesnion and or inadaquate spoke tension will be the cause.

Most chinese carbon rims are actually quite decent and of consitant ERD. Some may be not but alot of the time is untrue. so let assume for a moment unless proven otherwise that the rim is fine.

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rmerka
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by rmerka

I'm 100% sure you meant NOT be needed on the thread locking compound.

Valbrona
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by Valbrona

The quality of these China wheels can sometimes be dubious. I recently came across a 50mm front wheel that had been built with spokes that were too long, so much so that at the correct tension they ran out of adjustment. I suggest you remove the rim tapes and see just how much spoke is visible at the head of the nipple. See if they have done a good job of using spokes of the correct length.
Last edited by Valbrona on Sat Oct 04, 2014 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.


bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

Yes I meant not needed. Many wheels have the wrong spoke lengths in them, wheels that have come from some more well known wheel builder in the U.K sometime have spokes poking a long way out of the top. All that means it limits the tension that can acheived before wind up becomes severe.

by Weenie


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