Trueing a wheel

[gl20]

Hi all. Looking for some advice. On a small tapering ride today, ahead of the London Ride 100 on Sunday, I had some brake squeal and discovered a minor buckle in my rear wheel. Looking at it from behind it had a well defined right buckle, deflecting a maximum of perhaps 3 mm.

I have no experience of fixing this sort of thing before but following a GCN video was able to discover a single loose spoke quite quickly (Left-sided and right where the buckle was) and added a small amount of tension to said spoke as the video suggested. This seems to have sorted it other than I now have a more minor and more loosely defined buckle of about 1 mm to the left broadly in line with the spoke that I tightened. That makes it sound as though I overtightened the spoke but if anything it still feels a little bit loose.

As per the video I am not trying to go for perfection here, and I think it is probably best for now that I leave it well alone!

I guess my only question is does leaving it with a small 1 mm buckle sound okay if I am about to do a century ride or is there a risk that it will get worse during the ride? Any guidance appreciated.

Thanks

[z4RRSchris]

will be fine i wouldnt worry about it.

see you on the road, going to be a FAST one

[Wheatsheaf]

I'm going to assume that by the left side you mean the non-block side (avoid ambiguity as to left/right).

The spokes on the non-block side are usually looser than the spokes on the block side as the wheel needs to be "dished" over to the block side to centralise it in the frame. Therefore although you state that "if anything it still feels a little bit loose" then how does the spoke you tightened compare to the others on that side of the wheel? (You can pluck them like a guitar string to get a rough idea).

Logic states that you either back off the spoke you tightened a bit (which probably won't remove the buckle in itself) and then tighten one or two opposite spokes slightly (which will pull the rim back to the other side). However this whole thing is a balancing act - if you end up with the net effect of either tightening/loosening spokes over both sides of the wheel, you will take it out of round (i.e. make it egg-shaped), even though it may not be buckled, as in buckled left/right.

In short, if you're talking about a 1mm deviation, and you don't have any hugely loose spokes in relation to the others on the same side of the wheel, I'd leave it alone.

[Tom _M]

I wouldn't meddle any further really. I'm happy enough to tackle anything else really given the right tools, but whenever I go anywhere near a spoke key it ends up worse than when I started!

[OutInTheShed]

I would also ask if the tension in all the spokes generally is 'about right'.
I'm no expert, I'd look at the Sheldon Brown website as my goto starting point for bike help.

[gl20]

Thanks. So I think I’ve been riding my luck enough here and will stop any further tinkering!

z4RR - yes, looking forward to RL. Organisation noticeably lighter this year but looking forward to a fast run.

Wheatsheaf - thanks for all the detail here. The loose non-block spoke was still a bit looser than all the others after I had tightened. But curiously the one immediately next to it (also non-block side) was tight which may explain why the buckle moved from being distinctly from block side to a little on non-block side. So I could have loosened but just seems odd to be loosening a spoke on a wheel that’s never been adjusted since I bought it. Like shifter cables I’d only expect to need to tighten? Am just going to leave like is for now and perhaps take to LBS after the event (meantime I have some old wheels lying about that I could always practice my fledgling skills on)

[upsidedownmark]

Truing isn't hard, but you'll always be chasing the last little bit - it's kinda diminishing returns, at some point you just say it's good enough.

One thing to be careful of however is that if it's been around the block a bit, you can find seized nipples and if not paying attention break spokes, which really spoils your day.. not that I've ever done that of course

[vxsmithers]

check the tensions of all the spokes by twanging them in pairs going round the wheel. Each side of the wheel will sound different, but each spoke on one side should sound roughly the same.

Mark the buckle with a bit of tape so you don't lose it, then work either side of the buckle from both sides of the wheel (one side at a time) only make small adjustments to true, if you start turning more than a quarter turn it will go wrong very fast! Patience and small adjustments are the key.

I'm no expert, but I've built a few wheels and trued quite a few. A jig really helps, but you can do it on the frame, You won't ruin anything with a few small adjustments to try and fix, just don't overdo it!

You'll also be fine if you leave it, but nice to get everything running sweet