I got my front wheel back from my lbs and the guy said it still had a minor kink in it. Correct me if I’m wrong but a carbon rim doesn’t deform or bend like aluminum. So the kink should be 100% in the spoke tension, right? Would you guys ride a front wheel with this kind of kink in it?
I’m supposed to take this bike on a trip this week and I’m reconsidering taking it. Is riding my wheel like this a recipe for disaster?
Edit: back story, a spoke/nipple broke. This is the second break on this wheel in ~2 months. First shop fixed it up fine, they were 9 days out for a fix so I went to a different shop and now I’m unsure of the quality of work.
Check with first shop to see if they have a minute to “check true” or find a tensiometer to borrow
if you “pluck” the spokes like a harp do they all sound alike ?
First, I recommend ditching the word “kink”. It has a very different use in most contexts (short & sharp change in direction) and is nothing like what you show in the video.
The video shows a typical “wobble” or “untrue” wheel that is totally fine to ride. It is obviously not perfect, but as long as the rim is not rubbing the brake, you can ride it. This assumes there are no drastically detensioned or broken spokes at the root of the wobble. If those were the case, then there is a potential safety issue. But otherwise, some mild wobble is not an immediate problem.
Fine to ride and correct are not the same thing, I paid for a service and expected the wheel to be correct. In your opinion, do you think a wobble in a carbon wheel that’s just been repaired is correct? If my options are
A. Ride a wobbly wheel because it’s fine
B. Take my wheel back in to get corrected
I’ll do B every time. I just don’t want to go into the bike shop asking for something that can’t be done for some technical reason.
Based on the Professional Guide to Wheel Building by Roger Musson, he recommends adjusting the radial and lateral trueness until they are within 0.5mm and 0.2 mm, respectively. I rebuilt my own front wheel and it is a little worse than these numbers and I didn’t notice any abnormal performance on the road, even braking (rim brake).
I was responding directly to these two parts of your post that were the clear focus based on what you included in it.
And I think it is fine to ride based on the conditions I also included (spoke tension and such).
Based on this new question (not in your OP) and your two options:
I’d start by contacting the shop and asking them. We have no idea what they did or why they had issues with the wheel. Sounds like the tech did mention an issue and the lack of a “perfect” repair. Without more info on specifics, we can only guess as to the source or reason a full true was not possible.
Assuming you check with them again, and there are no additional reasons they can give for what looks like an incomplete truing job, it’s fair to ask them to finish the job and give you a properly trued wheel.
Why were they working on the wheel? What happened to it?
Sometimes you can’t get a mangled up wheel perfectly true without resorting to some strange tensioning. The best long term strategy may be a little side to side with more even tension.
Seems like you asked a question, got good responses. Asked a new question in a way that seemed to be frustrated with the responses you got. Again got good responses, but it was pointed out that they were trying to help with what you asked. Now you’re saying they gave you the response you needed, but again being rude and taking your toys and going home. Seems like each escalation came from you in reading the thread.
@Bgrim has the correct assessment of my comments in this topic.
I answered the initial question directly and was a bit surprised at a response that seemed critical because I hadn’t answered a question that wasn’t asked. Maybe I shouldn’t have pointed that out in my second comment and just answered Q#2, which is a fair thing to consider.
In each reply, I was addressing the core concerns shed a bit of light on why I responded with the info I did in the first instance. Just giving context and not meant to be critical or a “jab”.
The mechanic that I trust 100% with my bikes has always said to me that if I brake two (or more) spokes/nipples on the same wheel then he will no longer advice to just replace them and true the wheel. It is most likely that the entire setup is compromised and will be really hard to get it 100% right again unless you re-lace the entire wheel.
Can they fix it to an acceptable level? Maybe. However, in this case I will follow his advice and rebuild the entire wheel.
I brought it back into the shop today and he mentioned the same thing after I reiterated it was the second time a spoke had broken. They are going to loosen them all and true the wheel from scratch.
I haven’t tried the pluck test yet
