I just purchased a set of hand built wheels and after riding them in the Courage Classic (157 mile charity ride here in Colorado with 9000ft of climbing) I've noticed that the non-drive side of the rear tire is rubbing the seat stay. The wheels are Stans 340 rims, CX-Ray spokes and Veolcity hubs. The rear is 28 hole three cross on both sides and I'm running a Continental Force (24mm) rear tire. I've only been riding since May so I doubt I'm that powerful and I weight 180lbs.

On my ride yesterday I noticed that going up hills when I am trying hard (seated) I can actually see the tire hit the seat stay. I'm worried that I'm stuck with wheels that are just too flexy for my weight or something.

Are there any fixes or something as obvious as wheel tension or something that can be done to fix this issue?

Thanks.

Could be a variety of issues...here are a few I can think of. First, your wheel may be out of dish (too far left) resulting in the non-driveside rubbing when under load. Second, your frame and /or rear dropouts may be out of alignment OR you might not be mounting your rear wheel correctly on your dropouts. Third, your hub bearing may not be properly adjusted and have excessive play. Lastly, you might not be clamping your skewer with sufficient torque to hold wheel in dropouts.

Tell us more about what type of frame you are riding as well as you skewers you are using.

EM3

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My 2011 Cervelo R5

Undo your QR, make sure the rim is aligned in the center of the SS's, tighten QR.

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Custom English Cycles CX Bike
BMC SLC01

My bike is a 2011 Cervelo R3. I tried re-seating the wheel in the dropouts and I have the QR as tight as I can get it.

I'm using some Ti skewers but I will swap them a set of stock Fulcrum skewers. Though I did have these skewers on my stock wheels for a couple hundred miles without issue, though I was running different tires.

If the skewers don't work I'll take the wheel to a shop and have them take a look.

Thanks for the help guys.

YIKES!...doesn't your R3 have carbon dropouts? (I don't remember if the carbon dropout trickles down to the R3 model?). If yes, you need to take care not to overclamp your QR.



If you are using an external cam skewer remember that it has about half (or even less) the cam travel of an internal cam skewer like your Campy/Fulcrum skewer (which is why it feels like you really need to clamp down on an external cam skewer to get a bite)....in other words, the internal cam, higher travel Campy/Fulcrum skewer will likely require about half the torque (compared to small travel external cam skewer) to yield the same clamping force. The Campy/Fulcrum skewers are some of the smoothest and most consistent skewers made.
EM3

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My 2011 Cervelo R5

They are carbon dropouts, and I should have said as tight as I am comfortable with. I'm not straining myself to clamp it to a million foot pounds.

I don't think its the QR though. I can flex the wheel to the point the tire touches the stay with two fingers. It certainly looks like the tire sits at least twice as close to the left seat stay than the right.

compare spoke tension DS and NDS, because that is not normal!
I had it once too, in a rear wheel where the NDS bearing cup was severly worn causing the entire wheel to wobble.

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2011 Cannondale Flash F1
2010 Cannondale Caad9
2000 Cannondale Caad 4 aero
1999 Cannondale Caad1
???? Concorde SS

is the wheel centered in the CS or also misaligned there?

Dropped it off at the LBS and he said it was strange that it was centered in the front by the chain stay junction but not at the top. He kinda freaked me out be suggesting the frame might be out of spec somehow.

If it was running a normal 23 tire it probably wouldn't be a problem. He was remarking how wide the Force tire is. He thought it was a 28 when he looked at it!

They're going to check the true, tension and dish. Hopefully that will fix it or going to a narrower rear tire.

I can't imagine the frame is the culprit unless it is a manufacturing defect that wasn't obvious with a narrower tire.

Quick way to check that is to throw another, known to be aligned correctly, wheel in the frame. If it lines up normally, then your problem is with the new wheel.

Best of luck.

I had the same problem once and it turned out that the rear dropouts were out of alignment. I hope that is not the case for you. Good luck.

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My Bikes

My Photoblog

Try tightening skewer more by spinning lever clockwise after clamping skewer

Hhhhmmmm... Please do report back once you figure this out!

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Cervelo R3, Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix... pastatrails.blogspot.com
And you can call me Macktastik Honey Pete Kicks, thank you.

the quickest way to test if it's the wheel or the frame is to mount the SAME wheel backwards. if the wheel is close to the OTHER seatstay, it's the wheel. If it's close to the original stay, it's the frame.
i recently built up an R5ca, and when i first installed the rear wheel, the tire was hitting the seatstay, but was more or less centered at the chainstays. turns out the dropouts had some white powdery chalky stuff stuck in them. probably polishing compound, weird as the frame is matte finish. anyways, check the dropouts...

I had a 94 gt edge. Loved the frame to death.

When id stand and sprint or in a standing climbing effort, my wheel would wgin to rub against te chainstay. Turns out chainstay was 2-3 mm too long on one side and causing the rub.

Hope all works oit for you and its a simple fix