I just finished fixing a friend's bike problem. He plays bass in our
little music group. He explained he'd bought new wheels for his bike and
had a bike shop install them, but they were scraping somewhere. He
thought they might be crooked; could I help?

Sure, I've trued wheels. I'd never seen his bike, but I said "Bring it
over."

Turns out his bike is a 40+ pound old style cruiser. And his new wheels
(Chinese origin, of course) have 144 spokes each lacing the hubs to
chrome steel rims.

The front wheel was OK. The rear wheel had significant radial error or
"hop." But much worse than that, everything was WAY off laterally. My
dish gauge showed almost an inch of error side to side. Not only that,
the axle was so off-center in the hub that the right axle nut could
engage only about 1/4" of threads. Cones, lock nuts etc. all needed
disassembly to center the axle.

With only 8mm clearance between adjacent spoke nipples, there was no way
any of my spoke wrenches would fit. All the truing had to be done using
a screwdriver, after removing the huge whitewall tire, tube and rim
strip. And given the amount things had to move, this took hours.

So all this was at the opposite end of the technical sophistication
scale, the furthest thing from ultralight carbon fiber.

I kind of like truing wheels; it's a sort of meditative job. But before
I volunteer another favor, I'm going to get all the details.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 8/16/2023 12:13 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
> I just finished fixing a friend's bike problem. He plays
> bass in our little music group. He explained he'd bought new
> wheels for his bike and had a bike shop install them, but
> they were scraping somewhere. He thought they might be
> crooked; could I help?
>
> Sure, I've trued wheels. I'd never seen his bike, but I said
> "Bring it over."
>
> Turns out his bike is a 40+ pound old style cruiser. And his
> new wheels (Chinese origin, of course) have 144 spokes each
> lacing the hubs to chrome steel rims.
>
> The front wheel was OK. The rear wheel had significant
> radial error or "hop." But much worse than that, everything
> was WAY off laterally. My dish gauge showed almost an inch
> of error side to side. Not only that, the axle was so
> off-center in the hub that the right axle nut could engage
> only about 1/4" of threads. Cones, lock nuts etc. all needed
> disassembly to center the axle.
>
> With only 8mm clearance between adjacent spoke nipples,
> there was no way any of my spoke wrenches would fit. All the
> truing had to be done using a screwdriver, after removing
> the huge whitewall tire, tube and rim strip. And given the
> amount things had to move, this took hours.
>
> So all this was at the opposite end of the technical
> sophistication scale, the furthest thing from ultralight
> carbon fiber.
>
> I kind of like truing wheels; it's a sort of meditative job.
> But before I volunteer another favor, I'm going to get all
> the details.
>
[sigh] I'm not a fan (or 72-spoke 20" which is the same
problem).

A Park loop-type wrench may be pressed to a taller oval
shape in a vise, which we have, but now there are also
'sideways' spoke wrenches of various design.

This one doesn't look like much but it shows the general idea:
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/cee07d1d-b62f-4e25-b256-b98627bfe19b.8f817d4cd1ee1a99ac31b233afe35b7f.jpeg?odnWidth=1000&odnHeight=1000&odnBg=ffffff

The Minoura set are nicer and a ratcheting model stamped
'BRT" is especially handy but images eluded me.

On Wed, 16 Aug 2023 13:22:52 -0500, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:
>[sigh] I'm not a fan (or 72-spoke 20" which is the same
>problem).
>
>A Park loop-type wrench may be pressed to a taller oval
>shape in a vise, which we have, but now there are also
>'sideways' spoke wrenches of various design.
>
>This one doesn't look like much but it shows the general idea:
>https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/cee07d1d-b62f-4e25-b256-b98627bfe19b.8f817d4cd1ee1a99ac31b233afe35b7f.jpeg?odnWidth=1000&odnHeight=1000&odnBg=ffffff
>
>The Minoura set are nicer and a ratcheting model stamped
>'BRT" is especially handy but images eluded me.

I couldn't find a "BRT" but did find a variety of similar tools from
Mavic, IceToolz and Park:
<https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=557612269&q=IceToolz+Spoke+Wrench%2C+Mavic%2C+%2312H4&tbm=isch>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558