Wheel trued but now sat skew in forks…

Apologies if this is a stupid question…

I buckled the front wheel and took it to my LBS who straightened it but said they couldn’t do it 100% because the buckle was quite severe and over the seam/join in the rim.
When you spin the wheel you can see the small kink at the seam but it’s not too bad at all so I was fine with that.

I’ve now noticed though that the whole wheel sits skew in the forks. I’ve got about 2cm clearance between the widest part of the tyre and the fork leg on one side – but only about 1cm on the other. When you spin it it seems to spin “evenly” so it’s as if the axle / hub is skew (15mm thru-axle btw)
At first I thought I had stuffed my forks when I had buckled the wheel but I checked the wheel in another bike and it’s definitely the wheel that’s skew (relief).

I’ll go back to the LBS to question this but I’d first like to know if this sounds like a common scenario if the wheel was badly buckled and now it’s beyond repair? (just in case they try sell me a knew wheel 😉

Thanks!

needs dished – sounds like the shops dishing tool or jig is on the wonk.

Either forks are pissed or wheel it out of dish. I’d guess the latter as they’ve pulled the whole rim across whilst truing it.

Take it out of the fork and put it in the other way round – if the gap is now the other side it’s your wheel, if it’s the same it’s the fork.

Put the wheel in with the rotor on the ‘wrong’ side.If the gaps are still uneven (but other way round) then they hav’nt dished the wheel when they’ve true’d it.Take it back and get it re dished.If the gaps are the same side as before then your fork is borked (Quicky-check the qr springs are on the right way round,they can sit in the dropout and skew the front wheel otherwise).
Edit-DAMN YOU NJEE YOU BLAGGARD!!

Boom!

That’s dangerously close to a consensus though 😉

Trued, but not dished.

I’ve had experiences with ‘wheel experts’ who can true a wheel, but not tension it properly.

There are four fundamentals to a good, true wheel.

Lateral true (left to right waggle at the rim)
Vertical true (is it shaped like a 50p or is it round?)
Dish (does it sit in the middle of the fork/frame when laterally true?)
Tension (are the spokes relatively evenly tensioned and not too taught or loose?)

The correct combination of the four is wheel nirvana, and actually more difficult to achieve than a lot of people give credit for. But it is not impossible – you just need a good amount of time, patience and a bit of memory to get it right).

BTW – if the rim is goosed (i.e. the join is damaged) you might want to get it checked out by someone who knows what they are doing – it might save you some unnecessary expenditure, or time, or possibly time in hospital!

You can’t ruin a wheel by trying to sort it yourself, so I would have a go. You just need to be careful that you don’t ride it if you are not happy with what you have done – that’s what kills out of whack wheels.

A consensus indeed!
Thanks all for the good info… much appreciated 🙂

“The correct combination of the four is wheel nirvana, and actually more difficult to achieve than a lot of people give credit for. But it is not impossible”

on certain rim and hub combos it can actually be impossible.

Just re-thought about this.

Seriously fella, get a second opinion on the rim if it has a noticeable kink at the seam. I think most responsible wheel builders would tell you to write the rim off. A collapsing front wheel is not a fun prospect because when it does go, it will cease to fit through the fork, abruptly! You yourself will continue for a distance, until stopped by tree, rock, friction etc!

Hope it isn’t knackered, but there’s a fair chance it is.

dannyh – Member

Just re-thought about this.

Seriously fella, get a second opinion on the rim if it has a noticeable kink at the seam. I think most responsible wheel builders would tell you to write the rim off. A collapsing front wheel is not a fun prospect because when it does go, it will cease to fit through the fork, abruptly! You yourself will continue for a distance, until stopped by tree, rock, friction etc!

Hope it isn’t knackered, but there’s a fair chance it is.

Thanks!
They said that it isn’t too bad that I need to write it off… just that they can’t get it back to perfect. I can see the kink but I don’t have anything to compare it with so don’t know what is considered too bad.

I’ll definitely take your advice though and get a 2nd opinion… I don’t want to become one with any other object on the trail!

I took it back to the LBS and they’ve fixed the dishing.

I noticed there was a lot of spoke twanging when I rode it for the first 30 seconds or so (twisted spokes) but it went away.
Is that ok?

Twanging spokes happens on a rebuilt wheel it can be avoided by taking he wheel out of the jig and leaning quite heavily on each side and then tensioning again

Run for the Hills in Dorking?

Twanging spokes happens on a rebuilt wheel it can be avoided by taking he wheel out of the jig and leaning quite heavily on each side and then tensioning again

It doesn’t surprise me they didn’t bother to do that.

Run for the Hills in Dorking?

Nope… a place in Hertfordshire. What make you think it was Head for the Hills?