I have struggled to come up with a witty way to pose this question so that all you mechanical jeen-yusses won't sneer (too much) at my utter lack of expertise in this area, but all the possible ways I could have posed this question only came up half-witty. So, I'll just put the question out straight and trust the inherent good nature of the folks on this forum. How do you "true" a wheel? The front wheel on my SunRay has started bumping up against one of the brake pads as I ride, and it makes an annoying "wump, wump, wump..." as I go down the road. Is this a job one can do while the wheel is still on the bike? Do I need to suspend the front wheel somehow? Other than a spoke wrench and the assortment of other tools I have is there anything special I need to purchase? I'm not a complete Joe Fumblefingers, but when tackling a task for the first time I always need to "rely on the kindness of strangers" for instruction and guidance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

T'Bill, your advice is sound, the only thing is that a trip to my LBS (the only one I'll trust) is an all-day affair. I may end up doing that very thing, but I am still holding out hope that I can do the job in my backyard shed and ride Taiwan Red while BlueBell is on the Injured Reserve list.

First, check the tension on your wheel. Twang each spoke like a guitar string. Each of the spokes should produce approximately the same tone when the wheel is properly tensioned. You will note that on a back wheel, the drive side will have a different tone than the non-drive side, but a front wheel should be the same tone on each side. It might be such a thing you have a "dead spoke"; one that has worked loose. When you get them tensioned properly, you can rotate the wheel, even on the bike and observe for wobbles using your brake pad as a guide. For fine tuning, note whch way you need to pull the rim, loosen the spokes on the away side and tighten the spokes in the direction you want to pull the wheel by approx the same increments and it won't be much.

It's mostly trial and error, but a good thing to get in there and play with.

Mark

Thanks, Mark. Since I'm a music lover, I should be able to tell if a spoke is "out of tune" - so truing a wheel is not too terribly different from tuning a guitar, in certain respects?

And after what Mark said visit http://bicycletutor.com/wheel-truing/

Walt

That looks like a real good tutorial! Lots of good stuff on that site.

Mark

So they use scordatura on rear wheels? Whoa, I didn't know that.