Alignment of rear wheel with disc brakes

Hi guys,

I have recently switched from using a fixed biked with caliper brakes to using a fixed bike with disc brakes.

Despite having chain tugs, I am having trouble getting the alignment of the back wheel setup correctly after repairing a puncture. I can get it perfectly aligned, but when tightening the wheel nuts it changes the alignment in one way or another.

Does anyone have any advice on how to go about doing this? I couldn't find anything online for horizontal dropouts, single gears and disc brakes.

Thanks,

Charles.

The left and right dropout might not be parallel. To be honest with 7 bikes of my own with track ends and the 90 track ended bikes and tandems I deal with at work I’d say I could count on one hand the ones with perfect alignment. Usually they are off a bit and it means that when you tighten the first nut and it puts the axle perpendicular to the trackend, the rim becomes off centre between the chain stays. It’s easy enough to counter this by just pulling the wheel back into alignment before tightening the 2nd nut.

If the wheel becomes so off centre when the first nut is tightened that you cannot pull the wheel over to the correct alignment then you’ll need to get the dropouts aligned by a good bike shop with the proper tools and the knowledge to use them correctly.

The only bikes I’ve bothered to make adjustments to the dropouts on were my Kona Humuhumu where the ends were so poorly aligned in every direction that it was virtually impossible to centre the wheel in the frame and my bmx which, with its short stays and 14mm rear axle was just too burly for me to be able to budge the wheel.

That's really helpful. Thanks. I hadn't considered that at all. I thought it was just me being silly. I have no issue with aligning the wheels on other fixies though so it makes sense.

chain tugs might hold the wheel in place

mks are small and very nicely made

Drove me insane on my pompetamine. Got 2 cheap chain tugs and with one on each side has been much easier to set alignment and also when fixing a puncture can normally get away with leaving the chain tugs 'set' and the wheel then ~goes back right.

Thanks!

That's an incredibly good idea. I hadn't thought not to leave them 'set'! Thanks so much.