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So
you hit that big rock/landed badly/haven't tensioned your spokes in
months - DOH! Here's how to fix it so it'll get you home and maybe,
just maybe, save your wheel.
The
most important thing about a spoked MTB wheel is that none of the
spokes are loose.
To
find out if any are loose, turn the bike upside down, grab a spoke
between finger and thumb (a little to the rim side of where the
spokes cross), and violently (ok very firmly) shake it. If the spoke
wobbles it's way loose! If it's noisy (pinging and grating sound)
it's fairly loose and definitely needs more tension.
To
add tension to the spoke use a 'spokey' to turn the nipple
anti-clockwise (spokey is a round plastic spoke key which is perfect
for wheel truing and weighs next to nothing, make sure you get the
yellow one, the orange one is for road wheels). Yeah, look I know that seems like the wrong way, but
that's because you're looking at the nipple from the wrong side of
the rim to see it screwing the conventional way. With a spokey you
really can feel when you're putting on too much tension. You should
be able to turn it just with your finger and thumb. Stop adding
tension when the spoke no longer pings and grates, as you perform
the test above. If you start needing a lot of 'whole hand' leverage
then the spoke is probably getting too tight. Yes I know I said a
loose spoke's your worst enemy (that's because if you leave it loose
the rim will get bent) but an over-tightened spoke may break. This
can lead to a busted rim as well.
OK
so you check your spokes are not loose regularly, but still manage
to bend your wheel in to a lovely potato crisp shape, what now? The
problem with a bent rim is, it adds tension to the spokes, on the
side you need to tighten, to correct the bend. |
This means that
you'll over-tension these as soon as you try and use them to pull
the rim back towards straightness. The solution is to physically
bend the rim a bit straighter before you start truing. You don't
usually need to do this unless your rim is so bent that it won't
spin between your brake blocks at all. (if you have disks you won't
need to use this method unless the tyre is catching the frame, or
there is a really pronounced wobble as the wheel spins)
If
the rim will spin but catches hard on the brake blocks, you may be
able to push the bulge out by applying very firm pressure to the
tyre and rim when the bulge is near the frame. Then use the check
above for spoke tension and don't leave any very loose spokes.
However
it's usually better to take the wheel off the bike and remove the
tyre and skewer. Then find a solid support, a tree stump or rock,
and rest the axle against it with your knee on the bottom of the
wheel at the ground. Turn the wheel till the parts of the rim which
bend towards you are at the 3 and 9 0clock positions. Now put your
hands one on each side in these positions and lean hard on them with
straight arms. A sudden hard push should do it. If the wheel is too
badly bent you can try the same trick, but standing on the high
spots and bouncing up and down. You may get it straight enough to
get home, but get a new rim as soon as you do. Remember to add some
tension to any very loose spokes when you have done this. Then true
the wheel as normal. See Trail
Fix - Wheel Truing
If
there are any dents in your rim these can be removed by carefully
bending back in the jaws of an adjustable spanner. Be careful not to
bend beyond and back again as the rim may crack. This is a trail fix
if someone is carrying a cool-tool.
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