Wobbly Wheels!

Hi All,

Having ploughed straight through what looked like a puddle outside Embankment tube (Be aware, BIG hole masked by little puddle on the Ebankment as you go under the Jubilee Bridge eastbound!), I have knocked the alignment of my front wheel by a small amount. It probably only wavers around a couple of mil either way, but it is bugging me.

1. Should I worry about it for now.
   
2. If it is trashed, it will still be good to re-use my current hubs.
   
3. Anyone here able to help relace a wheel if I invest in a new rim. (Currently running ambrosio hubs and Velocity rims), payment can be liquid or Paper.
   
   

All help, thoughts assistance much appreciated!

brake or no brake? i'd invest £5 on a spoke wrench and go slowly till perfect.

A couple of mil?

Get a spoke key. You won't regret it if you live.

Few mms is nothing. Get the right sized spoke key and follow the wheel truing guide here:
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=81

theres lot of really useful info here:
http://www.bbinstitute.com/DX%20Demo%20Chap%2017.pdf

Use your brake blocks as the reference point

Thanks.
I'll get on with tuning my nipples.

Also before ... spin the wheel and look to see if the rim is round. If you have a 'flat' in the rim i.e. the rim itself has been bent then it will be difficult to true well. Other wise you should be fine with a spoke key. Make small adjustments rather than large.

So, after being hit by a van today in front of half of the population of London (my fault entirely - tired and hurrying to get home) I got up and rode away feeling incredibly stupid and incredibly lucky.

I'm just grazed and - to my untrained eye - the bike is fine (thanks Van Man for having your brakes serviced regularly). However, my wheels were a bit out of true, so I got out the spoke key when I got home. It's not the first time that I've had to have a go with the spoke key, as the wheels on my OTP bike seem to be made out of metal that's marginally stiffer than a quality Emmental cheese. Now when I spin them round, they sort of oscillate regularly between my brake blocks, left-right-left-right-left-right, by a small but consistent amount (no big obvious displacements, they're now sorted). Is regular wibbling normal/unavoidable? Or should they run utterly straight to the naked eye? Am I lacking the patience to do a proper job, as well as any basic road sense? Or am I trying to get my wheels impossibly perfect, when I should be investing my time in a cycling proficiency test?

they should be straight and even. Some would say true in fact.

anything else wll affect your braking. And your concentration whilst riding, as it'll annoy you.

well they should be true to within half a mm, really.

not always possible with old wheels that have been twatted

they should be straight and even. Some would say true in fact.

ha ha. repped.

Ace. Thanks everyone, I'll get back to it.

Ah, perfect, just finished with all of that fiddly truing... Wheels nice and straight now...

Why - what's this? Well, if it isn't a fuck-off dent at the bottom of the seat stay.

Evidently the bike wasn't quite as unscathed as I thought.