Post crash issue - wheel oscillating

[SteelerSE]

My 16 year old slipped off his wk scrambler 50 recently at a roundabout in the wet. There was minimal damage as it was slow speed. He picked up the bike but when he went to carry on the bike felt wrong.
He realised that the front wheel wasn't rotating properly - it was wobbling slightly from side to side as it rotated.
I've had a look and while I'm not very mechanically minded, can't see any obvious issues. The wheel doesn't appear to be buckled and it was a slow speed off, so I don't see what might be causing the issue. Slightly bent front axle..?
Any suggestions? I won't be able to look at it until Sunday but just wanted some suggestions on what to look for.

[Onelastattempt]

The front forks are probably out of alignment, possibly bent.

[SteelerSE]

Onelastattempt said:

The front forks are probably out of alignment, possibly bent.

Thanks, you think that would happen from a 10mph lowside..?

[Djtemeka]

Try loosening the 2 locking bolts by the front forecast the bottom of the forks. I found my forks had twisted slightly. Loosening listen to realign and tighten the bolts and all was well

[Alex@POD]

SteelerSE said:

Thanks, you think that would happen from a 10mph lowside..?

It's very easy, back in the day I did it on my TS50 when I dropped it on wet grass at walking pace.

[Krikkit]

Djtemeka said:

Try loosening the 2 locking bolts by the front forecast the bottom of the forks. I found my forks had twisted slightly. Loosening listen to realign and tighten the bolts and all was well

I'd go even further, but the same idea - get the front wheel out, have a look at the axle and make sure it's straight, put the whole lot back together and torque as required, then see if there's a load of run-out.

[SteelerSE]

Thanks all - just had the wheel out and it all looks fine. Loosened the forks and retightened them, checked the axel and it looked fine but I have another one arriving soon.

It's absolutely maddening as there's nothing obvious that I can see.

[Super Sonic]

The wheel is warped. Misaligned forks will not cause the wheel to wobble, they will cause it to sit at a goofy angle. Is it a wire wheel?

[Rubin215]

Super Sonic said:

The wheel is warped. Misaligned forks will not cause the wheel to wobble, they will cause it to sit at a goofy angle. Is it a wire wheel?

That's exactly what I was going to post, buckled wheel and not forks.

Put the bike on the side stand with the steering on full lock to the right, get someone else to pull back on the right-hand bar so you are lifting the front up on the stand then squat in front of the bike and rotate the wheel by hand; any major buckle will be pretty obvious.

[SteelerSE]

Thanks all. It is a spoked wheel, yes. Assuming it is damaged is that sort of thing fixable? Sounds pretty specialist if that's the case.

[Rubin215]

SteelerSE said:

Thanks all. It is a spoked wheel, yes. Assuming it is damaged is that sort of thing fixable? Sounds pretty specialist if that's the case.

Just about everything is fixable, the problem is finding someone local who still trues wheels, very few motorcycle places do it any more.

[dudleybloke]

Clamp a bit of metal to the fork so the other end is very nearly touching the rim then rotate the wheel and see if the gap remains constant.

[DirtyHarley]

Depends where in the southeast you are as there are few places that tune spoken wheels anymore - in Kent the two places I know that would work on cheap imports are Vizmoto down in Lydd and PWwheels in Herne Bay, a lot of others wont work on chinese imports for various reasons.

If you wanted to look at it yourself, the best thing you can do is to 'ting' the spokes with a screwdriver to see if one has broken/come loose as it will sound drastically different from the others - they should 'ting' uniformly as they will ideally all be under the same tension, if you have one or more that sound different you've likely identified your problem area. A low speed off is more likely to be spoke damage than a bent rim.

In my experience the clamp and see method dudley recommends (although sensible) only really works if the rim is quite damaged or you are good at seeing the tiniest of changes in distances of 0.5mm which is enough to make a wheel 'feel' off but look fine.

[SteelerSE]

Quick update - the wheel is slightly bent and the spokes need truing up. The excellent guys at RoadWheel Tyres & Exhaust in Fleet had a look and while they don't have the equipment to do anything about it they have given me a couple of leads for people that may be able to help. Fingers crossed.

[SteelerSE]

Have found an old school local bike shop that say that they do this sort of thing. The wheel is with them and hopefully my lad will be back on the road soon. Fingers crossed.

[SteelerSE]

Final update - wheel sorted by Normandy Motorcycles. The boy is back on the bike and all is well with the world. Good news.

[Bob_Defly]

Glad you got it sorted. Couple of quick related questions.

If people who can lace a wheel are getting rarer, where do all the MX/SM guys go when they buy hubs and wheels separately? Someone must be putting all these together?

Also, it's something I've always been interested in. If no one near me does it, where could I learn the dark arts of wheel building?

[carinaman]

Bob_Defly said:

Glad you got it sorted.

It's good news. When I had at least two reasonable offs as a youngester I managed not to buckle a wheel. The last one scuffed an upper edge of a plastic front mudguard where the bike slid along a damp road on its side.

Bob_Defly said:

Couple of quick related questions.

If people who can lace a wheel are getting rarer, where do all the MX/SM guys go when they buy hubs and wheels separately? Someone must be putting all these together?

Also, it's something I've always been interested in. If no one near me does it, where could I learn the dark arts of wheel building?

You'd think a dealer than sells and services KTM offroad bikes could straighten one?

There are some videos:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=youtube+lace+an+MX+motor...

[bimsb6]

I’m pretty sure that hagon’s used to do that sort of work .