Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

Thanks, I'll check the seal when I take it apart.

If a wheel gets significantly buckled (i.e., bent by sideways force so that it's out of true by a couple of centimetres) is it safe to use if it can be brought back to (acceptably) true? Or is it new bike time?

a new rim would be better than using the buckled old rim. "a few cm" sounds a little too damaged for re-truing.

if it has a kink or a crack then it is too far gone but if not it can be trued. I've trued up wheels that were like Pringles back in the day when doing trails riding and they were fine.

if you have ever built a wheel you will find it will start out massively out of true, just a matter of getting it all inline. you may only have a couple of loose spokes causing it to be 2cm out.

you may only have a couple of loose spokes causing it to be 2cm out.

I wish that were true. In fact what happened was that a substantial load was applied sideways to it while the back wheel was in a stand, which substantially pringled it, before it pinged back to within a few cm. Some judicious bending later and it's back to no more than a cm out, so I'm wondering whether I can get it back properly true with spoke retensioning.

You can usually get things usably true but if the rim is damaged then to get it true the tensions will be all over the place and it won't last long.

You can dismantle it, bend the rim back to a manageable shape and then build it back, but there's the chance the rim may crack with all bending and unbending. Not worth the hassle, if it cannot be saved by tensioning spokes its better to replace

Is there any good reason for a steel frame to have been (badly) cold set out to 145mm at the rear?

Context: 1990-ish Dawes Street Wise hybrid frame (basically a Raleigh Pioneer) with 135mm spacing as standard. Found in basically unridden condition and original spec as pictured. Intended to make into a sort of flat bar gravel thing but discovered that the drive side seat stay has a big kink in it and the spacing is 10mm wider than it should be. No signs of crash damage or other mods.

So, is there some secret reason someone might have done this, or has the frame just been buggered for no real purpose?

Side note: have tried cold setting inwards using the threaded rod method and not got very far (maybe 2-3mm of change), so is the frame toast or should I persist?

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Bodge a tandem rear wheel into it?

Huh, didn't think of that or to check Shedlon... you're right, 145mm would line up with a tandem hub. How odd...

Rad bike.

I feel that cold setting it back to 135 mm should be fine. Are you familiar with the string method of checking for symmetry? Sheldon Brown has an article.

You can just go further with the threaded rod method - which is handy because you can count turns and work methodically. I like the plank method myself, a little more brutish but you can bend each side separately and achieve symmetry.

Thanks - not giving up on it just yet!

Will read up on the string method, and I suspect the plank approach might be best here given the unevenness of the original cold set

If you like you can bring it to Stamford Hill and I'll do it with you. If you get stuck like.

Well that was easier than expected - a plank of wood and some gentle brute force later and it’s sorted.

Will need to check the alignment but I’m very happy right now… thanks all for the help!

I think this is likely to be the case. The rim seems to now have a sharp S-bend in it at one spot, which is too short to really be removed by adjusting the tension. It feels like the rim needs to be bent straight in that area and then relaced, but I have no idea what to use as a reference surface to get it flat before rebuilding. Probably too much arseache anyway.

2 / 2.5mm clearance from chainring to chainstay ok or a bit risky?

On a bike that is being ridden on or off road?

On road

That wouldn't overly concern me if it was mine.

Thanks. Normally Id think it’s ok and not look twice, but as this is on a ‘nice’ bike I’m feeling a bit cautious :D

Can bent QRs be trusted? Not massively so, I can still pull it through the axle.

I think a slight bend would perturb me chiefly because of potential for reduced grip on the frame dropouts. i.e. Because of the angle created between QR plate and dropout face.

But this might be totally fine. Just test it. If you can't wriggle, wrench or mallet the (inflated!) wheel out of the frame then I would trust it.

You can always put a loose rim against the glass in some sliding patio doors to check if it is properly true before a build... learned that the hard way ;-)

By breaking patio doors?

Condor Cycles will do this for you, but it will not be cheap (and their workshop is always booked up several weeks ahead). Why not do it yourself? It is not that hard. It takes time, and can be messy, but there is nothing supernatural about it.