Some added tips: Always hold the spoke closest to the nipple to avoid twisting the spoke. Some tyres are not always molded true so you cant always use them to tell if a wheel is buckled. Deflate the tyre before truing, some tyres while inflated can influence unwanted tension form side to side, this is more promenent for tyres with wire beading. Ensure your wheel axle's are sitting in the frame/forks properly when checking for true. Lastly: buy a cheap wheel online and intentionally buckle it or dismantle it and rebuild it so you have the practice to work on your higher end wheels.
I absolutely love wheel building. I never had any formal training, so watching this video confirmed I was doing things right. I'd like to add a couple of things. I tighten and loosen spokes as necessary, and then I squeeze all of the spokes on the wheel in pairs to allow the spokes to let the spoke twist back into place. Also, be careful not to tighten the spokes too much, otherwise you'll create a flat spot on the rim. You may have to loosen the spokes on the opposite side of the wheel. Truing wheels is all about maintaining balance of the spoke tension. It's an art that is learned with lots of practice, but very enjoyable and rewarding.
Put the tire (and tube) back on to the wheel, pump it up and unless you have de-tuned/de-stressed the wheel(s) after truing, the wheel will more than likely go out of true.
Great tips! Thanks!! I always try to hold a piece of chalk right next to it (mount it if you can) so that it’s easier to see where the untrue section starts and ends
I have tried truing wheels and nowhere in my experience would I ever use the term "therapeutic" unless referring therapy required after the truing episode.
Thank you very much ! Excellent video !!! Clear, useful and brief. We don´t forget: the islas Malvinas are argentines, same Maradonna and Messi. Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I trued a pair of wheels, then I rebuilt them and after that I built two pair of wheels. Really fun when you get in to it. I used park tools app and build all my wheels to maximum 5% difference on the spoke tension and they have stayed perfectly true for 2 years och gravel and cx ridning.
@@linglingjr Don't remember how longit took to true the first wheel but it all depends on how out of true it is. If it's only slightly of it can be done in 1 or 2 mins. How much you save depends on what wheels you will make and how you value your time. I build a pair of cx wheels on DT 240 hubs and china carbon rims that weigh 1200g for a total cost of 930 euro.
Good video. I've been truing wheels and building them for decades. I do find it therapeutic. I was fortunate enough to buy a vintage cast iron truing jig for £5 at an auction. Nobody knew what it was. I put a piece of bright tape around 1 spoke so I can see 1 revolution.
Nice Video. I use a Park Stand and have built 12-20 wheels. I use Linseed Oil to wet each nipple. I bought a cheap magnetic mount, dial indicator rig and orient so when I nudge the rim toward the indicator, the indicator needle points down (moves away from the rim), so I'm seeing the direct effect of snugging a nipple. Like you said . . . .so many good tips. I like the round Spokey Disc that grabs almost 4 sides of the nipple as my wrench. When you think you are done, tap each spoke with a spoon and listen for the same note (ping) throughout that side of the rear wheel or both sides of a front wheel. With the tire off, you can also check and correct the "hop" not just the side to side wobble, the eccentricity of the outside of the rim to the axle. You can snug spokes on both sides in the area where the rim is farthest from the axle to take out a hop little by little. After you mount the tire you can see its hop. You might need to reinflate the tire to cure off-center mounting. I deep clean my wheels in my trueing stand also (rub spokes, hub and rim between spokes with rag damp with WD-40).
All great information for truing minor bends. No mention of how to keep the wheel round though. For starters, any time that you tighten a spoke on one side, you should loosen the two adjacent spokes that go to the opposite side of the hub by half the amount of tension that you’ve just added to the one. All of this is assuming a traditional spoking pattern such as radial, 1x, 2x, 3x, or 4x. Special patterns such as Campagnolo G3, some Shimano wheels, or some Rolf designs should only be serviced by very experienced wheel builders who have the correct tools and have been formally trained to service those wheels.
Thanks for that. I have campagnolo vento g3 that wouldnt completely true no matter how thorough I was with attention to the spokes. I was thinking it might be an issue with the axle or bearings but are you saying with these instructions I would still have issues trueing a campagnolo g3?
Did one wheel 30 years ago never done one since, until this weekend where i have to learn to do this or leave it in the bike shop for 2 weeks, lol. So lets hope i don't mess it up too much!. Drew
My city bike's rear wheel reminds Pringles chip. Brings just that little extra to riding when bike wobbles left to right to left and jumps up and down.
I’ve successfully trued a couple of wheels, one that was taco’ed and another with a lose spoke. I find that without any fancy tools, plucking the spokes and listening to pitch will get me in the ballpark.
hi there, i purchased a new rim, and spoked it, now im trying to tune it straight, but it is a bit more complicated than what i saw on your video..., it not only has wiggles left and right, it also hops....:), i use a spare frontfork for the alignment, and yes fiddling with it is very therapeutic:), but after a couple hours it can get you very cranky too;), so to prevent that, i roll a fat blunt to trigger my angelic patience, which has proven its value countless times...:), so even if i didnt get it straight the first time, i allready know i will be victorious ultimately;) good video, i know for a fact that even bicyclerepairshops try to avoid these repairs...., but we shalleth not give up...:) happy trails budd, grtz from Holland;)
@@gcntech its a cheap eagle rim, so im not in a hurry;), i can wait till we get rid of Trump first^^(lol), and its for my Gary Fisher Y-frame, 26 inch, im riding a Ghost Kato 5, 29 inch at the moment;), but i got the Gary from my bro and it needed a revision;), i really like the original colors, but it has had a hard life with my bro;), it all in parts now, and purchased 2nd hand bike for some swappables...., which turned out nicer than i expected allready:) AND im seriously considering to give it a whole new paintjob too;), so you see, the rim isjust minor thingy anyways;) tnx4response, i'll subscribe to ur channel;)
Probably trued over a 1000 wheels in my life. Great tutorial, but I would not tell people how to think about the nipple turning around spoke. Instead I would just say turn the nipple counter clockwise to tighten unless of course you're truing a wheel with nipples that are inside the rim fairing (deep section part of wheel). In that case you would be truing from the other direction and turning the nipple clockwise to tighten. Whenever someone asks for a great resource online to learn bike mechanics, I always mention GCN first! Keep up the great video ideas!
Yes i used zipp ties to the rear frame and fork. Best solution ever and i trued my back wheel perfectly where zip ties were not even a milimeter from the rim 😎😎😎
I built my first set of wheels this year using my grandfather's old equipment. I have to say that the prep work was a lot more stressful than actually putting the wheels together. I found out new spokes are expensive and I was really hoping the measurements I took of the hubs were correct. The rims were new so I had the proper ERD and things worked out well as far as I can tell. I keep thinking I must have done something wrong but they keep working so I guess they are ok.
Chain slipped off into spokes on a wheel a while back bending most of the spokes in the process (don’t worry it was a cheap wheel 👍) seeing this vid reminds me its still sitting in the shed and I might have a go at rebuilding it 👍
I have trued two wheels on a retro bike after replacing all 72 spokes (36 per wheel). I can confirm what Chris has said; truing a wheel to perfection can be therapeutic.
Guys, did anyone really tried to follow their advice? At 2:40 they say clockwise adds tension, counter releases, but it's the freaking opposite. The only thing they had to have right and they screwed it.
at 2:42 you mention the direction to turn the spoke nipples to add to release tension. The theory of clockwise vs. anticlockwise, though correct if looking at the spoke from the tire side of the rim, is not accurate in most cases. In fact, most of the time when trueing a wheel you are in fact looking at the nipples from the hub side of the wheel. This means that to tighten the spoke you actually turn the spoke key anticlockwise. This is the one thing most people have an issue with when learning how to true a wheel. Now, off to the shop to build a bunch of replacement wheels for next season.
I just find it makes sense to me to think about it how it actually is. The nipple is a nut, the spoke is like a bolt. When viewed from above the nipple (tyre side of the rim) you turn the nipple clockwise to tighten, anticlockwise to loosen - just like 99% of all nuts, screws, and bolts ever.
@@khaki.shorts Thank you! After thinking about your comment for awhile, I realized that you're absolutely correct. I used to get confused that I had to turn in the same direction when loosening or tightening the nipples, regardless of their position relative to the center of the wheel.
Tried truing one of my wheels recently, had a small crash slipping on black ice in the dark and shortly after experienced a bar-roll due that had me smacking the back whell a bit.Was mortified to see my rear winter wheel wobbling about 3mm to one side. But it turned out to be a good learning experience, and after a bit of fiddling, it's now back to less than 1mm of lateral offset, using just zippties, a spoke/nipple key, eyes and ears.Really wish i had the space and money for a good truing stand though.....
Nice publicity to Park Tools. You could also use the Tension Meter TM-1 from Park Tools to check your wheel overal health. If tension between spokes is not ok, perhaps its time to get a new rim...
I also like to stress relieve the spokes after adjusting their tension by giving them a quick squeeze with their pair. When you let go the spokes should relax to length and tension they will maintain once they are back on your bike on the road. If you do not stress relieve the spokes, the truing may change on your first ride that includes some rough pavement.
2:39 Strange that I've seen other truing videos and articles on the net saying it's important to remember that to tighten you need to (counter-intuitively) turn anti/counter-clockwise. But this says the opposite and no one comments on it. Is it different in different countries? If not, who's right? [Edit: but then at 3:50, I see - when he talks about adding tension - he actually does turn anti-clockwise in the close-up shot like the other videos suggest. Mmm...]
I mean trueing a wheel is pretty much mastery of the dark arts, if you can do that you can almost certainly summon a god or two to do your bidding however I almost understood that demonstration! Really top notch, but still one of those jobs I would sooner pay a professional to do.
@@gcntech Chris's presentation style is so good, it reminds me of when Si and Dan used to make the confidence inspiring tech videos that first assured me I could adjust my own headset bearing or rear mech.
*2:40** it is the opposite,, the anticlockwise to add tension and clockwise is to release tension....u need to make it the opposite of normal tightenning things,, so that when u tighten the nipple that mean u make the spoke loose and rim goes to the opposite side of where the spoke is attache to the hub and when u loosen the nipple the spoke will be tightened*
I got this horribly wrong before my weekend ride. Shimano 6800 wheels are the only wheel I've ever had, that have the opposite way you turn the nipple( screws into the rim and out, rather than screwing into the actual spoke). So I tightened while trying to loosen so ended up overtightening and damaging a couple of spokes as well as making a small mm odd buckle into a 1cm! I still went on my ride after finally truing it, even though I probably shouldn't. But those spokes will have been weakened and fatigued, so need replacing :(
I'm kinda plagued with spokes breaking at the J bend. For the first year or around 800 kms, she was perfect. However, after the first spoke broke, I lost the second one in three months or around 500 kms, and third pretty much back-to-back. The fourth time I lost a spoke was in two and half months time around 300 kms later. My LBS says I should go for double wall rims. Can you help. I ride a Btwin folding bicycle with 20" wheels and I love to take her on tours. I ride anywhere between 80 to 100 kms in a day on tarmac in hilly areas with the roads sometimes perfect and sometimes not so. I weigh 75 kms and my rear carrier takes about 7-8kgs of load and 3kgs in front. She has a 6 speed freewheel setup. Be glad if you shed some light.
Yeah, years ago I took a "basic" bike maintenance class at my LBS that included truing a wheel. To make a long sad story short, my provisional spoke key license was summarily revoked.
Great tutorial for start, with markers and pliers to improvise, but what happened with releasing the tension on the "opposing" spoke, to prevent the roundness of the wheel (assuming it didn't lost the roundness due to an impact or something)...? Also, I think it would be wort mentioned that even out the tension of all the spokes on the same wheel side... I guess many of the viewers know - it can be done "on hearing", or to get the same tone on every spoke, if you don't have a hefty priced tension meter... Cheers! :)
What was that about not chasing a buckle and weakening a wheel? I recently did mine for the first time on my own and feel I might have done this. I was having fun tinkering with it.
Hi Mark, if your wheel is straight and true once you've finished then hopefully it is ok. Chasing the buckle is when you don't focus on the spokes around the buckle you've found to fix it. Without checking the spoke tension with a gauge it's not worth tightening or loosening spokes that aren't right next to the buckle. I hope that makes sense!
my Ebike wheel has some kind of a cranky clunk sound when it turns on a certain point, i think the spokes might be too loose or tight making it do that sound ? its a big motor so the spokes are rather short ,any advice on that ?
Is it better to take rim tape, tubes, and tires off before you true the wheel or should you put the rim tape, tube, and tire on before truing the wheel? Also does having bearings packed have any effect on wheel truing? Should that be done before truing the wheel or after?
It's best to take the tyre off, no need to take rim tape off unless your wheel has internal nipples - ideally your wheel bearings should as they would when riding, if the wheel is loose in anyway this will definitely make truing the rim harder!
Didn’t know breaking a spoke was even a thing. Broke 2 recently on my Trek. I don’t do hard core mountain biking just dirt roads and maintained trails. Is this something I’m gonna have to deal with a lot?? Could get expensive.
I’ve always heard the best way of truing a wheel is to get a true wrench and then throw it away and take your wheel to a pro because it is much easier to mess it up than it is to get good at it.
Do it all the time with my retro wheels, always with the tyre off. Keeping them round is the biggest challenge. Perhaps you should show that as a seperate Video. Building is a whole new ball game of course.
It's quite confusing, if you watch the GCN video with Dan Lloyd from 25/11/13 at 2 minutes he say's and the screen graphics state; "Anti clockwise-Tighten" & " Clockwise - Loosen". In this video at 2 mins 39 seconds, you state, again with a screen graphic, "Clockwise to add tension" & "Anticlockwise to re;lease tension"?????.... Isn't adding tension the same as tightening? Which video is correct? Does it depend how you stand before the wheel? Cheers!
If the out of true is caused by a dent in a metal rim you are unlikely to ever get it true, because the dented metal is stretched out of shape. You cannot compress a piece of distorted metal back into it's original form. After some hours of frustration you should give up and replace the rim. Speaking from experience of course.......
All of my retro wheelsets are 30plus years old, that need tweaking or rebuilding at times. Spokes fail thru fatigue. And true with old wheels if I get to half a mm good enough. As as you say the wheel has seen lots of life is likely never to be perfect again.
Well you actually can take out some of the stretch in metal with heat and some patience. Although I honestly don't know if that can work on a bike wheel. I do automotive body work though and I do this all the time.
When I was a kid I use to "true" my wheels all the time. I am not sure if the mechanic at my LBS would have called it that. Because when I would get my precious stingray back after it's biannual tune-up it would ride like a dream.
My question is isn't it going to make a difference in the tention between the two sides in the area you are truing.. Since you're putting more tention on the opposite side spokes which pulls the rim to that side thus truing it.. So the tention difference would make that particular spot weaker.. Or how does this work??
My rear Mavic Cosmic SL wheel isn't buckled but has a loose spoke, if I tighten the loose spoke, that duly introduces a buckle.. Is it the adjacent spokes I should loosen in order to add load to the currently loose spoke? #AskGCNTech
You seemed to have failed to mention the most important part that you need to check and that is "spoke tension" as its quite easy to end up with too much tension on the spokes that can cause tiny cracks to appear in the rim by the nipple.....
After getting hit by a car on my mountain bike, I once trued the the banana'd front wheel back to within 1/8" of true with nothing but a spoke key, a screwdriver, and two zip ties on my frame to use as a truing stand (took the wheel apart, straightened it to within 1", then re-laced the wheel with the same spokes and nipples). Took an afternoon, and I carried a spoke key with me for a few weeks of commuting. Yes, the front wheel was probably weaker afterwards, but that front wheel survived a downhill session that snapped my rear axle. No, I definitely didn't have money for a new front wheel (was a broke-ass student at the time), and I had disk brakes, so I didn't need it to be 100% true. TLDR: Give it a shot, when something *looks* FUBAR, you can't really make it much worse...
Wish I had read that comment before totally screwing up my wheel. Now it has to go to the shop because it's severely bent from turning nipples the wrong way (but the way the video says)...
In his defense, he does clarify stating as you're looking past the tire, and again when mentioning to think of screwing the nipple onto the spoke. However, this is counter intuitive for a novice like myself and I only picked up on it because of the two previous videos I watched on this - of which, this was the only one to mention holding the spokes while tightening or over tighten and slightly release.
could someone, ANYONE, please explain how to true mavic wheels w/ the star nipples and bladed spokes!! seems I recall hearing they are designed w/ reverse threads so tightening and loosening are opposite from standard nipples.
Depends, if you've got a truing stand then theres no need, but if you're doing it by eye then yes, as tyres can often be moulded very badly and can cause the wheel its fitted to to appear out of true, when in fact, the tyre is wobbly..
Does anyone have any ideas if 'out of true' is not so bad as, or in fact worse than 'out of circular'? I noticed my front wheel was not truly circular a while back and couldn't feel it on the road but yesterday my front wheel (a 2 month old Mavic Aksium) measured around 8-10mm out of true.
if you have rim brakes , if brake pad touches rim because out of true, after you fix the wheel it might vibrate when you brake because the rim is worn where the pad scraped
Another method to find spokes with lower tension I use is a small allen key. Let the wheel rotate and let the key hit the spokes (just very lightly). You can hear which ones are out of tension - or too high - by the sound you get. Just like with a guitar string. Also works when flicking a fingernail against a spoke.
That sounded like Chris had been given a similar task to me in high school. How many times could he say nipple? It was taking the piss when he renamed it a nipple key!
wheel truing seems hard and terrifying but it's actually very easy and rewarding, I'll suggest every cyclist to try it on their on own for atleast one time, if you have dobut try it on unused wheel but you can do it to your useable wheel as well, It's very easy.
Some added tips:
Always hold the spoke closest to the nipple to avoid twisting the spoke.
Some tyres are not always molded true so you cant always use them to tell if a wheel is buckled.
Deflate the tyre before truing, some tyres while inflated can influence unwanted tension form side to side, this is more promenent for tyres with wire beading.
Ensure your wheel axle's are sitting in the frame/forks properly when checking for true.
Lastly: buy a cheap wheel online and intentionally buckle it or dismantle it and rebuild it so you have the practice to work on your higher end wheels.
that last tip was exactly what i did!! bought some cheap wheels to learn on. its actually oddly therapeutic building it back up haha
This is legitimately the first video on the subject that has made me feel like I could actually do it
I was just about to give up on truing my wheel (I made it worse...). Then I watched this video and was able to do it. Thanks man!
1:05 No wiser words have been spoken. Great video!
TRUE WISDOM
I tried truing a wheel once. Only once. Now all my wheels go to proper bike mechanics lol!!!
I tried it too... It was really fun having spokeless wheels.
Let's prank our customers and not apply any rust protection to these tiny steel threads that regurarly get exposed to grit, dirt and water.
I absolutely love wheel building. I never had any formal training, so watching this video confirmed I was doing things right. I'd like to add a couple of things. I tighten and loosen spokes as necessary, and then I squeeze all of the spokes on the wheel in pairs to allow the spokes to let the spoke twist back into place. Also, be careful not to tighten the spokes too much, otherwise you'll create a flat spot on the rim. You may have to loosen the spokes on the opposite side of the wheel. Truing wheels is all about maintaining balance of the spoke tension. It's an art that is learned with lots of practice, but very enjoyable and rewarding.
"be careful not to tighten the spokes too much, otherwise " you'll crack the rim.
That was my first truing attempt. Oops...
Taking the tyre off will make the job easier and enable you to get the wheel "perfectly" round (vertically true).
Put the tire (and tube) back on to the wheel, pump it up and unless you have de-tuned/de-stressed the wheel(s) after truing, the wheel will more than likely go out of true.
Iii ty ii
Great tips! Thanks!!
I always try to hold a piece of chalk right next to it (mount it if you can) so that it’s easier to see where the untrue section starts and ends
I have tried truing wheels and nowhere in my experience would I ever use the term "therapeutic" unless referring therapy required after the truing episode.
Lol
Got jokes hahaha
that would be anger management therapy in my wheelhouse, so to speak.
IKR. I haven’t done that, but I sense it’s more stressful than therapeutic. What if I make it worst?
Thank you very much ! Excellent video !!! Clear, useful and brief. We don´t forget: the islas Malvinas are argentines, same Maradonna and Messi. Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I trued a pair of wheels, then I rebuilt them and after that I built two pair of wheels. Really fun when you get in to it. I used park tools app and build all my wheels to maximum 5% difference on the spoke tension and they have stayed perfectly true for 2 years och gravel and cx ridning.
How long did it take you your first time?
@@linglingjr building or truing?
@@martinh2783 just truing. Although that does make me wonder how much cheaper carbon wheels and hubs are if you do it yourself...
@@linglingjr Don't remember how longit took to true the first wheel but it all depends on how out of true it is. If it's only slightly of it can be done in 1 or 2 mins. How much you save depends on what wheels you will make and how you value your time. I build a pair of cx wheels on DT 240 hubs and china carbon rims that weigh 1200g for a total cost of 930 euro.
Good video. I've been truing wheels and building them for decades. I do find it therapeutic. I was fortunate enough to buy a vintage cast iron truing jig for £5 at an auction. Nobody knew what it was.
I put a piece of bright tape around 1 spoke so I can see 1 revolution.
thanks for the review. haven't trued a wheel in twenty years, so this refresher really helped.
A lot of help, and not too much blabla. Thx, it was useful.
Niples comes in all different shapes, sizes and colours 😂😂
HAHAHAHAHAH
I literally read this comment and then heard the guy say. It
True that!!!!!
Nice Video. I use a Park Stand and have built 12-20 wheels. I use Linseed Oil to wet each nipple. I bought a cheap magnetic mount, dial indicator rig and orient so when I nudge the rim toward the indicator, the indicator needle points down (moves away from the rim), so I'm seeing the direct effect of snugging a nipple. Like you said . . . .so many good tips. I like the round Spokey Disc that grabs almost 4 sides of the nipple as my wrench. When you think you are done, tap each spoke with a spoon and listen for the same note (ping) throughout that side of the rear wheel or both sides of a front wheel. With the tire off, you can also check and correct the "hop" not just the side to side wobble, the eccentricity of the outside of the rim to the axle. You can snug spokes on both sides in the area where the rim is farthest from the axle to take out a hop little by little. After you mount the tire you can see its hop. You might need to reinflate the tire to cure off-center mounting. I deep clean my wheels in my trueing stand also (rub spokes, hub and rim between spokes with rag damp with WD-40).
All great information for truing minor bends. No mention of how to keep the wheel round though. For starters, any time that you tighten a spoke on one side, you should loosen the two adjacent spokes that go to the opposite side of the hub by half the amount of tension that you’ve just added to the one. All of this is assuming a traditional spoking pattern such as radial, 1x, 2x, 3x, or 4x. Special patterns such as Campagnolo G3, some Shimano wheels, or some Rolf designs should only be serviced by very experienced wheel builders who have the correct tools and have been formally trained to service those wheels.
Thanks for that. I have campagnolo vento g3 that wouldnt completely true no matter how thorough I was with attention to the spokes. I was thinking it might be an issue with the axle or bearings but are you saying with these instructions I would still have issues trueing a campagnolo g3?
Did one wheel 30 years ago never done one since, until this weekend where i have to learn to do this or leave it in the bike shop for 2 weeks, lol. So lets hope i don't mess it up too much!. Drew
Blu-tack on the inside of the stays works a treat - easy to nudge it inboard as the wheel gets more true
My city bike's rear wheel reminds Pringles chip. Brings just that little extra to riding when bike wobbles left to right to left and jumps up and down.
That sounds terrifying!
my favorite part about truing a wheel is getting it perfectly straight and then finding out you made it totally out of round
My favourite part is the snapping sound
Wasn't even spoke tension more important?
Great advice and Im sure will save many cyclist a lot of money. Nice clean well put together video. Thanks Andy
Cheers Andy!
I’ve successfully trued a couple of wheels, one that was taco’ed and another with a lose spoke. I find that without any fancy tools, plucking the spokes and listening to pitch will get me in the ballpark.
Worked a treat!! Cheers guys!!
hi there, i purchased a new rim, and spoked it, now im trying to tune it straight, but it is a bit more complicated than what i saw on your video..., it not only has wiggles left and right, it also hops....:), i use a spare frontfork for the alignment, and yes fiddling with it is very therapeutic:), but after a couple hours it can get you very cranky too;), so to prevent that, i roll a fat blunt to trigger my angelic patience, which has proven its value countless times...:), so even if i didnt get it straight the first time, i allready know i will be victorious ultimately;)
good video, i know for a fact that even bicyclerepairshops try to avoid these repairs...., but we shalleth not give up...:) happy trails budd, grtz from Holland;)
Keep it up Mario, you have the right attitude so I'm sure you'll get the wheel perfect in time 😀
@@gcntech its a cheap eagle rim, so im not in a hurry;), i can wait till we get rid of Trump first^^(lol), and its for my Gary Fisher Y-frame, 26 inch, im riding a Ghost Kato 5, 29 inch at the moment;), but i got the Gary from my bro and it needed a revision;), i really like the original colors, but it has had a hard life with my bro;), it all in parts now, and purchased 2nd hand bike for some swappables...., which turned out nicer than i expected allready:) AND im seriously considering to give it a whole new paintjob too;), so you see, the rim isjust minor thingy anyways;) tnx4response, i'll subscribe to ur channel;)
Probably trued over a 1000 wheels in my life. Great tutorial, but I would not tell people how to think about the nipple turning around spoke. Instead I would just say turn the nipple counter clockwise to tighten unless of course you're truing a wheel with nipples that are inside the rim fairing (deep section part of wheel). In that case you would be truing from the other direction and turning the nipple clockwise to tighten.
Whenever someone asks for a great resource online to learn bike mechanics, I always mention GCN first! Keep up the great video ideas!
I figured it out by trial and error. Found out it does not take that much adjusting before the rim is getting out of whack. Thanks for the vid bro.
Yes i used zipp ties to the rear frame and fork. Best solution ever and i trued my back wheel perfectly where zip ties were not even a milimeter from the rim 😎😎😎
Thanks a lot for the DIY tips. It helped me a lot.
Very informative. Thank you.
I built my first set of wheels this year using my grandfather's old equipment. I have to say that the prep work was a lot more stressful than actually putting the wheels together. I found out new spokes are expensive and I was really hoping the measurements I took of the hubs were correct. The rims were new so I had the proper ERD and things worked out well as far as I can tell. I keep thinking I must have done something wrong but they keep working so I guess they are ok.
Chain slipped off into spokes on a wheel a while back bending most of the spokes in the process (don’t worry it was a cheap wheel 👍) seeing this vid reminds me its still sitting in the shed and I might have a go at rebuilding it 👍
Very sympathetic and useful presentation: Thank you very much! :-)
Thanks for that! Gonna have a bash at it later
I have trued two wheels on a retro bike after replacing all 72 spokes (36 per wheel). I can confirm what Chris has said; truing a wheel to perfection can be therapeutic.
That sounds like a big job! Well done.
I try my bike wheel is work perfect thanks
Guys, did anyone really tried to follow their advice? At 2:40 they say clockwise adds tension, counter releases, but it's the freaking opposite. The only thing they had to have right and they screwed it.
at 2:42 you mention the direction to turn the spoke nipples to add to release tension. The theory of clockwise vs. anticlockwise, though correct if looking at the spoke from the tire side of the rim, is not accurate in most cases. In fact, most of the time when trueing a wheel you are in fact looking at the nipples from the hub side of the wheel. This means that to tighten the spoke you actually turn the spoke key anticlockwise. This is the one thing most people have an issue with when learning how to true a wheel. Now, off to the shop to build a bunch of replacement wheels for next season.
I actually had a spare spoke with nipple on my hand reach to check what way I need to turn it, when getting confused. :D
I just find it makes sense to me to think about it how it actually is. The nipple is a nut, the spoke is like a bolt. When viewed from above the nipple (tyre side of the rim) you turn the nipple clockwise to tighten, anticlockwise to loosen - just like 99% of all nuts, screws, and bolts ever.
@@khaki.shorts Thank you! After thinking about your comment for awhile, I realized that you're absolutely correct. I used to get confused that I had to turn in the same direction when loosening or tightening the nipples, regardless of their position relative to the center of the wheel.
Bigfoot that needs 100 subs yes righty tighty upside down is anti clockwise
Tried truing one of my wheels recently, had a small crash slipping on black ice in the dark and shortly after experienced a bar-roll due that had me smacking the back whell a bit.Was mortified to see my rear winter wheel wobbling about 3mm to one side. But it turned out to be a good learning experience, and after a bit of fiddling, it's now back to less than 1mm of lateral offset, using just zippties, a spoke/nipple key, eyes and ears.Really wish i had the space and money for a good truing stand though.....
Sorry to hear about your crash, Martin - but great to hear you picked up a new skill!
Nice publicity to Park Tools. You could also use the Tension Meter TM-1 from Park Tools to check your wheel overal health. If tension between spokes is not ok, perhaps its time to get a new rim...
I also like to stress relieve the spokes after adjusting their tension by giving them a quick squeeze with their pair. When you let go the spokes should relax to length and tension they will maintain once they are back on your bike on the road. If you do not stress relieve the spokes, the truing may change on your first ride that includes some rough pavement.
Step 1: Remove tire
Step 2: Oil threads on spokes
2:39 Strange that I've seen other truing videos and articles on the net saying it's important to remember that to tighten you need to (counter-intuitively) turn anti/counter-clockwise. But this says the opposite and no one comments on it. Is it different in different countries? If not, who's right?
[Edit: but then at 3:50, I see - when he talks about adding tension - he actually does turn anti-clockwise in the close-up shot like the other videos suggest. Mmm...]
They are wrong, crazy nobody saw it
spokes and nipples has right hand thread,
Chris, as and advanced course, talk about keeping the wheel round, and checking spoke tension.
I mean trueing a wheel is pretty much mastery of the dark arts, if you can do that you can almost certainly summon a god or two to do your bidding however I almost understood that demonstration! Really top notch, but still one of those jobs I would sooner pay a professional to do.
Glad you found it so helpful - wheel truing is indeed a very tough skill to perfect!
@@gcntech Chris's presentation style is so good, it reminds me of when Si and Dan used to make the confidence inspiring tech videos that first assured me I could adjust my own headset bearing or rear mech.
Nice information! Learned something new today :)
Great! Thanks for the support 😀
I tried before I watched this video just started randomly tightening all nipples, then loosening them.
My wheel is now going to a shop!😂
*2:40** it is the opposite,, the anticlockwise to add tension and clockwise is to release tension....u need to make it the opposite of normal tightenning things,, so that when u tighten the nipple that mean u make the spoke loose and rim goes to the opposite side of where the spoke is attache to the hub and when u loosen the nipple the spoke will be tightened*
I always tap on the side of the wheel after every adjustment. At least at alloy rims.
I got this horribly wrong before my weekend ride. Shimano 6800 wheels are the only wheel I've ever had, that have the opposite way you turn the nipple( screws into the rim and out, rather than screwing into the actual spoke). So I tightened while trying to loosen so ended up overtightening and damaging a couple of spokes as well as making a small mm odd buckle into a 1cm! I still went on my ride after finally truing it, even though I probably shouldn't. But those spokes will have been weakened and fatigued, so need replacing :(
I'm kinda plagued with spokes breaking at the J bend. For the first year or around 800 kms, she was perfect. However, after the first spoke broke, I lost the second one in three months or around 500 kms, and third pretty much back-to-back. The fourth time I lost a spoke was in two and half months time around 300 kms later. My LBS says I should go for double wall rims. Can you help. I ride a Btwin folding bicycle with 20" wheels and I love to take her on tours. I ride anywhere between 80 to 100 kms in a day on tarmac in hilly areas with the roads sometimes perfect and sometimes not so. I weigh 75 kms and my rear carrier takes about 7-8kgs of load and 3kgs in front. She has a 6 speed freewheel setup.
Be glad if you shed some light.
yes i have true cycle wheels but always find gos out of roundness or oval like egg which i always have problems making it back round graham
Great video but would be nice if you could mention about egg adjustment when the rim goes up and down :)
Great video!! I have a question about the process, you can true a wheel with out taking the tire ? Thanks and cheers from Argentina.
Thanks for your question, you can true a wheel with the tyre on, but you may get a better result if you take it off - it's up to you
@@gcntech thanks very much!!
Hi there are different colours in the adjusting tools how do you know which one to buy ?
Yeah, years ago I took a "basic" bike maintenance class at my LBS that included truing a wheel. To make a long sad story short, my provisional spoke key license was summarily revoked.
Great tutorial for start, with markers and pliers to improvise, but what happened with releasing the tension on the "opposing" spoke, to prevent the roundness of the wheel (assuming it didn't lost the roundness due to an impact or something)...?
Also, I think it would be wort mentioned that even out the tension of all the spokes on the same wheel side... I guess many of the viewers know - it can be done "on hearing", or to get the same tone on every spoke, if you don't have a hefty priced tension meter...
Cheers! :)
The nipple will tighten clockwise, however when viewed in the stand, this is reversed and it will need to be tightened in an anti-clockwise direction.
What was that about not chasing a buckle and weakening a wheel? I recently did mine for the first time on my own and feel I might have done this. I was having fun tinkering with it.
Hi Mark, if your wheel is straight and true once you've finished then hopefully it is ok. Chasing the buckle is when you don't focus on the spokes around the buckle you've found to fix it. Without checking the spoke tension with a gauge it's not worth tightening or loosening spokes that aren't right next to the buckle. I hope that makes sense!
my Ebike wheel has some kind of a cranky clunk sound when it turns on a certain point, i think the spokes might be too loose or tight making it do that sound ? its a big motor so the spokes are rather short ,any advice on that ?
it actually worked once i figured out witch way to tighten
Is it better to take rim tape, tubes, and tires off before you true the wheel or should you put the rim tape, tube, and tire on before truing the wheel? Also does having bearings packed have any effect on wheel truing? Should that be done before truing the wheel or after?
It's best to take the tyre off, no need to take rim tape off unless your wheel has internal nipples - ideally your wheel bearings should as they would when riding, if the wheel is loose in anyway this will definitely make truing the rim harder!
It's also handy to know when a spoke snaps on a ride and you need to adjust the wheel to stop brake rub to get home
He spoke the true way
I have tried this, and I think I messed something up by overtighten some spokes...Is my wheel too far gone?
Didn’t know breaking a spoke was even a thing. Broke 2 recently on my Trek. I don’t do hard core mountain biking just dirt roads and maintained trails. Is this something I’m gonna have to deal with a lot?? Could get expensive.
Thanks for demystifying this topic! :)
Thanks for watching!
Love GCN!! :)
Poor Chris. You never had a chance. You need to punish your colleagues for make you do this video. You still a solid dude in my book. Cheers bud!
I’ve always heard the best way of truing a wheel is to get a true wrench and then throw it away and take your wheel to a pro because it is much easier to mess it up than it is to get good at it.
Do it all the time with my retro wheels, always with the tyre off. Keeping them round is the biggest challenge. Perhaps you should show that as a seperate Video. Building is a whole new ball game of course.
Wheel building is much more of a challenge for sure!
It's quite confusing, if you watch the GCN video with Dan Lloyd from 25/11/13 at 2 minutes he say's and the screen graphics state; "Anti clockwise-Tighten" & " Clockwise - Loosen". In this video at 2 mins 39 seconds, you state, again with a screen graphic, "Clockwise to add tension" & "Anticlockwise to re;lease tension"?????.... Isn't adding tension the same as tightening? Which video is correct? Does it depend how you stand before the wheel? Cheers!
I have the same thoughts, confusing.
Clockwise is anti clockwise upside down
If the out of true is caused by a dent in a metal rim you are unlikely to ever get it true, because the dented metal is stretched out of shape. You cannot compress a piece of distorted metal back into it's original form. After some hours of frustration you should give up and replace the rim. Speaking from experience of course.......
All of my retro wheelsets are 30plus years old, that need tweaking or rebuilding at times. Spokes fail thru fatigue. And true with old wheels if I get to half a mm good enough. As as you say the wheel has seen lots of life is likely never to be perfect again.
Well you actually can take out some of the stretch in metal with heat and some patience. Although I honestly don't know if that can work on a bike wheel. I do automotive body work though and I do this all the time.
When I was a kid I use to "true" my wheels all the time. I am not sure if the mechanic at my LBS would have called it that. Because when I would get my precious stingray back after it's biannual tune-up it would ride like a dream.
Is it better to keep innertube and tire on or off?
My question is isn't it going to make a difference in the tention between the two sides in the area you are truing.. Since you're putting more tention on the opposite side spokes which pulls the rim to that side thus truing it.. So the tention difference would make that particular spot weaker.. Or how does this work??
I started truing my wheel for the first time and now ive went off the deep end
My rear Mavic Cosmic SL wheel isn't buckled but has a loose spoke, if I tighten the loose spoke, that duly introduces a buckle.. Is it the adjacent spokes I should loosen in order to add load to the currently loose spoke? #AskGCNTech
You seemed to have failed to mention the most important part that you need to check and that is "spoke tension" as its quite easy to end up with too much tension on the spokes that can cause tiny cracks to appear in the rim by the nipple.....
what about radial centering
Every other wheel truing video I've seen says turn the nipple clockwise to loosen and anti-clockwise to tighten, but you're saying the opposite?
I was washing my bike when i noticed one of my spokes was almost free. Almost no tension. I have one of those multi nipple size tightener.
Good spot, hope you managed to fix the problem!
What about radially truing?
I use a spare fork or rear triangle as truing stand
Both great hacks!
@2.42 is that right? I'm sure its anticlockwise to tighten?!
After getting hit by a car on my mountain bike, I once trued the the banana'd front wheel back to within 1/8" of true with nothing but a spoke key, a screwdriver, and two zip ties on my frame to use as a truing stand (took the wheel apart, straightened it to within 1", then re-laced the wheel with the same spokes and nipples). Took an afternoon, and I carried a spoke key with me for a few weeks of commuting.
Yes, the front wheel was probably weaker afterwards, but that front wheel survived a downhill session that snapped my rear axle.
No, I definitely didn't have money for a new front wheel (was a broke-ass student at the time), and I had disk brakes, so I didn't need it to be 100% true.
TLDR: Give it a shot, when something *looks* FUBAR, you can't really make it much worse...
Do I need to remove the rotor?
I want see the bloopers of this video.
ohh yeah
is 29x2.0 tires can fit in 700c rims?
"turn clockwise to tighten" tightens by turning counter clockwise
*Yeah there is a mistake in **2:42** about directions of tightenning*
Wish I had read that comment before totally screwing up my wheel. Now it has to go to the shop because it's severely bent from turning nipples the wrong way (but the way the video says)...
In his defense, he does clarify stating as you're looking past the tire, and again when mentioning to think of screwing the nipple onto the spoke.
However, this is counter intuitive for a novice like myself and I only picked up on it because of the two previous videos I watched on this - of which, this was the only one to mention holding the spokes while tightening or over tighten and slightly release.
"..nipples come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.." Truer words haven never been spoken and a better double entendre has never beem written!
could someone, ANYONE, please explain how to true mavic wheels w/ the star nipples and bladed spokes!! seems I recall hearing they are designed w/ reverse threads so tightening and loosening are opposite from standard nipples.
How can you add tension to one side without removing it from the other side?
And practice, practice, practice.
shouldn't you remove the tyre first before truing the wheel?
Depends, if you've got a truing stand then theres no need, but if you're doing it by eye then yes, as tyres can often be moulded very badly and can cause the wheel its fitted to to appear out of true, when in fact, the tyre is wobbly..
Does anyone have any ideas if 'out of true' is not so bad as, or in fact worse than 'out of circular'? I noticed my front wheel was not truly circular a while back and couldn't feel it on the road but yesterday my front wheel (a 2 month old Mavic Aksium) measured around 8-10mm out of true.
if you have rim brakes , if brake pad touches rim because out of true, after you fix the wheel it might vibrate when you brake because the rim is worn where the pad scraped
Another method to find spokes with lower tension I use is a small allen key. Let the wheel rotate and let the key hit the spokes (just very lightly). You can hear which ones are out of tension - or too high - by the sound you get. Just like with a guitar string.
Also works when flicking a fingernail against a spoke.
is it possible to use this video in a sermon? not for sale and credit to be given properly.]
That sounded like Chris had been given a similar task to me in high school. How many times could he say nipple? It was taking the piss when he renamed it a nipple key!
wheel truing seems hard and terrifying but it's actually very easy and rewarding, I'll suggest every cyclist to try it on their on own for atleast one time, if you have dobut try it on unused wheel but you can do it to your useable wheel as well, It's very easy.
What about when the spokes have lost a bit of tension???