[Closed] Valves/tyre logos. Do you align?

Maybe if I get lucky...

There was a good reason for lining up the hub makers name with the valve hole too, but it's now redundant.

never. espically after todays escapade with some dual plys and metals levers.

I file all my logos off. Only way to be sure..

andrewh - Member
What was it? Other than a sense of satisfaction from doing it 'properly.'

If you lined the valve hole with the makers name, then you could be sure oil would not drip from the port on to the valve. Woods valves were the common valve type and they depended on a piece of rubber tube which would quickly perish if oil got on it.

The valve hole could have been set anywhere so long as it wasn't under the oil port, but this was a convenient way of being sure.

After delaminating fingernails with my wire beaded Maxxis tyres the alignment of the logos can be damned.

never. espically after todays escapade with some dual plys and metals levers.

After delaminating fingernails with my wire beaded Maxxis tyres the alignment of the logos can be damned.

are you lot trying to fit 26" tyres onto 29" rims or something?

anyway, logos and valves, yes - punctures etc.

Always. Was taught to when working in a bike shop, just looks better, attention to detail and that!

I thought is was something like

1) Pros do it because it gives them some advantage
2) Amateurs do it because Pros do it

Having said that, I do it so I can find the valve quickly

Yes ... for the puncture thing, and I seem to get a lot of punctures.
I almost never think about lining them up for photographs tho' - so it's not all bad.
😛

No, it's not something i usually think about when I'm putting on a tyre. As for finding the valve, that takes me all of a couple of seconds as I spin the wheel and look for the valve shaped object!

I can see why lining the logos up to find the valve quicker may save a couple of valuable seconds in a race but out leisurely riding on a trail?

No. I need all my mental faculties to get the rotation correct.

When I see a bike with logos / valves aligned, I automatically think - STW member 😀 You might as well put a sticker on your car!!

user-removed - Member
When I see a bike with logos / valves aligned, I automatically think - STW member...

Wrong. It means someone who has been taught the right way to work on their bike.

Most people who are not committed into turning their bike into an expensive BSO pay attention to details..

Not an "Aligner" myself these days, but I can see the logical reasons for doing it if you're using tubes and want to trace a flat/thorn, all of my MTBs are Tubeless so I can't really see a reason to bother with tubeless...

I can't help thinking though, that a fair few people are merely obeying the Aesthetic "Rules" and only pick up the logical reason for doing it when asked to justify being a tart, probably the same fools that buy helicopter tape or neo-guards...

cookeaa - Member
...probably the same fools that buy helicopter tape...

Do you ride your bike?

Yes. And like a previous poster, only since I found this site and discovered it was a legal requirement...

Actually the puncture finding thing is common sense - I probably should have thought of it myself.

Have always done it. Was first taught to do it when I took up road riding. Do it for the same reason that others have mentioned, namely puncture finding. Carried over the habit into mountain biking. Still get a lot of flak about it from the guys I ride with though!

I always line them up, but worse than that I just changed my front tyre and now have some nagging anxiety...

Maxxis only print the tyre model on one side of the tyre. I have a bi-directional tyre on the rear, and a uni-directional tyre on the front. By chance, the logos for the tyre models have come out on opposite sides.

If they weren't tubeless, I'd turn that rear one around! 😳

I wouldn't ride a bike unless the logo's lined up!

But, lining up tyre logo's is nothing. I once dismantled a wheel so I could rebuild it and get the Hope logo on the hub to be opposite the valve hole in the rim FFS!!

cookeaa -1
coolhandluke +1

I pity the fools who think otherwise.

I deliberately misalign. Just because.

i generate so much torque the tires slide around the rims every time I pull off, so it's only luck if they line up.

Yep, more because it looks neat and shows pride in maintenance of my bike. If it was any effort, I'd probably be too lazy though.

Wrong. It means someone who has been taught the right way to work on their bike.

Most people who are not committed into turning their bike into an expensive BSO pay attention to details..

Bollocks! It's a flippin' tyre for god's sake. It gets covered in mud and you can't see the logos anyway.

Wrong. It means someone who has been taught the right way to work on their bike.

Most people who are not committed into turning their bike into an expensive BSO pay attention to details..

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

coogan - Member
Bollocks! It's a flippin' tyre for god's sake. It gets covered in mud and you can't see the logos anyway.

So you don't align to help find the puncture, and you don't clean the tyre before trying to fix it. What's the rest of the bike like?

Dancake - Member
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

No, I have far more important things to do like making sure all the handles on the cups in the cupboard face the same way.

No I don't, I've never lined the logos up. It's easy enough to find and fix a puncture. The rest of the bike has mud on it too. It's crazy, but I find carrying a bucket of soapy water and brushes in my pack a bit of a clutter to clean each bit of mud off as it lands on the frame off road...

So you don't align to help find the puncture, and you don't clean the tyre before trying to fix it. What's the rest of the bike like?

muddy

OK - I'm almost certainly being thick here, but this I can kind of understand;

nuke - Member
A rather crap excuse but I find if I line the logos up I can quickly spot where the valve is when changing a flat

Although I suspect the aesthetic sense is strong with nuke 🙂

What I don't really get at all is this (and it seems to be the reason for most aligners aligning...);

andrewh - Member
Always.
Reason for doing this proved the other day. Out riding with some mates, one punctured. He removed tube and gave it to the other one, who found the hole and said it's about a quarter of the way round from the valve. Of by this time the tyre had been removed from the rim and we had no idea where a quarter turn was. If had lined them up properly...

Surely running your fingers round the inside of the tyre takes all of five seconds, combined with a quick visual inspection? Especially given that the vaaaast majority of punctures I've had, and that my mates have had, don't leave anything stuck in the tyre - they're pinch punctures, broken glass not picked up by the tyre etc. I've only ever had a thorn in my tyre once - maybe I'm lucky.

Like I said - I honestly don't get it - am I missing the point?

epicyclo - Member

So you don't align to help find the puncture, and you don't clean the tyre before trying to fix it. What's the rest of the bike like?

All mine are in perfect working order - almost obsessive so. I do not line tyres up tho - simply see no point. I remove the stickers off rims as well as they are ugly. Eyes and fingers allow me to find punctures and the valve hole

My name is Gary & I align my rim/tyre logos.

There, i've said it at last.

Phew!!

😆

When you've got OCD as bad as me, its the only way you can look at your own bike.

OOOOooooooh yes. I align, everytime. I have no choice.

Think Melvin Udall and you're some way there.

😐

epicyclo - Member
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cookeaa - Member
...probably the same fools that buy helicopter tape...
Do you ride your bike?

yep explain why I "need" either of the products I mentioned in order to ride?

neo guards - you paid £15 for an old mouse mat? an old bit of inner tube does the same job...

Helicopter tape? why bother? its an MTB every scratch and chip is a battle scar to be proud of. your bike still gets scuffed on the one spot you.didn't think to put your sticky back plastic. it does look shit....

products for mugs.

seems to me there's far too many people worrying about logo alignments, rebuilding wheels because OCD and 'the voices' told them to and sticking 1/2 a pound of clear plastic all over their dandy horses and not actually riding the buggers.

Surely running your fingers round the inside of the tyre takes all of five seconds, combined with a quick visual inspection? Especially given that the vaaaast majority of punctures I've had, and that my mates have had, don't leave anything stuck in the tyre - they're pinch punctures, broken glass not picked up by the tyre etc. I've only ever had a thorn in my tyre once - maybe I'm lucky.

Like I said - I honestly don't get it - am I missing the point?

The "alignment for speedy puncture repairs" thing is genuine enough.

Oh - have you noticed that lots of wheels now come with one or two odd-coloured spokes to highlight where the valve is? [i]That[/i] I don't get - especially on a road bike.

Nowt wrong with heli tape/ frame protection - I've seen gear and brake cables rub through an aluminium frame.

I nearly asked the tyre place to align my car tyres last time I put some new ones on the car!

I decided I'd better not or they'd think I was insane

Of course I align.

Fix hole in tube, pop valve through rim, realign tyre logo, check tyre carcass above patch for spiky thing. The whole aesthetic / anal / STW peer group pressure aspect just adds to the overall pleasure of it.

PS Kudos for re-lacing a wheel to line up the hub logo with the rim. Class!

DT Swiss hubs have the logo the "wrong" way round.....
[img] [/img]

I pull the stickers off my rims, and frankly I wish tyres didn't have logos at all...

Hello everyone. My name is Rick, and I align.

I'm one of the first people to give in to the urge to line everything up on my desk at right angles, but this has always struck me as a giant wind-up somebody started which has grown legs and run away.

1. If you can't see the valve sticking out of the tire, should you really be out on any kind of vehicle in public ?

2. How do you ever leave the house for worrying about the bike getting dirty anyway ?

3. Life really is too short - and how many punctures do you get ?

All IMHO of course.

[url= http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/ ]Rule 40[/url]

You are allowed to break Rule 40 when there is so much mud on the tyres you can't see the logo

Of course I align the logo/valve. It's just aesthetics and attention to detail.
The one exception is when fixing punctures in a race situation - ideally the whole tyre doesn't need to come off but whatever, I just fix it, get the tyre back on and inflate