Is there any way a person can straighten a bicycle wheel without specialized equipment?
Posted by Jeff on Nov 2, 2008 in Bike Equipment |
Tony S asked:
It is the rear wheel on a 15 speed mountain bike and it appears to be about 3/8 of an inch out of true in about 20° of arc around the wheel. I am using the amount of shift in the brake caliper to judge the amount of bend in the wheel. Yes I am trying to not spend an arm and a leg as I am limited on funds
Eduardo M. Mccluskey
It is the rear wheel on a 15 speed mountain bike and it appears to be about 3/8 of an inch out of true in about 20° of arc around the wheel. I am using the amount of shift in the brake caliper to judge the amount of bend in the wheel. Yes I am trying to not spend an arm and a leg as I am limited on funds
Eduardo M. Mccluskey
The rim into true its not that hard.
you can do it your self put your feet around the back wheel side to side and ujust the wheel by grabbing the seat
Well – ya got a couple of options that I know of. Call a local bike shop to see what they’ll charge you to “true” the wheel – it may not be as costly as you think. The next more expensive thing is to purchase a new one. You could also see if the bike shop might want to trade you a used but good wheel at a discount since they could fix yours and resell that.
Unless you have knowledge of how to true a wheel, I’d be careful to do it yourself since you may throw the wheel farther out of round.
I did find this website which illustrates the method of a homespun fixit – check it out! Good luck and keep the rubber side down!
An 18 of each spoke should cost you less than 15 bucks at that hard and watch where the hub you need spoke wrench and watch where the most out of the right loosen look.
My dad used his hand haha.