My front wheel appears.... dished???!!?

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  • For weeks I’ve been struggaling getting the front brake balanced, at first I’ve thought I was just being a noob, but I was extra skeptical today and adamant I shouldn’t have to set the arm tension asymmetrical.

    In the pictures you can see the tread is reversed and directional, I’ve flipped the wheel, not the skewer, so tension is applied the same side in both

    And, please, take my word for it that wheel is firmly and straight in the drop out,

    Yet when it’s flipped round you can see it shifts from one side to the other?

    Top down it doesn’t seem to have a wobble, it’s the whole way round!

    When reconnecting the brake the wheel went from rubbing heavily one side to the other, quite dramatically

    It’s bizarre? Anyone want to guess at what’s causing it?


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  • Looks very much like bent forks tbh. Take the wheel out and check to see if the wheel is dished like you suggest, as it might be although unlikely... but it looks like the forks have caused it to be at an angle

  • i suspected the fork, if it was bent than it would skew in a single direction, regardless of which way i put the wheel in.

    but having flipped the wheel, in the photos above it moves from ones side to the other when looking at the center tread in relation to the mudguard hole, accounting for my shaky camera work (top one the wheel is forward facing in the dropouts, bottom one the wheel is rearward facing in the dropouts)

    i've not got a truing stand to check the wheel unfortunately, but i thought this was a relatively controlled experiment to debunk the fork.

    i guess my main question is has anyone seen something like this before? one would assume it came from the builder like this to be so uniformly out of line, unsual for wear to cause this inside 200 miles

    would it be a case of re truing it vs rebuilding?

    either way something is going to the shop.

  • Think your instincts are correct. Reversing the wheel with that effect suggests wheel dishing to me. You can check by popping another wheel in there if needs. Wheel wont need a rebuild, unless incorrect spoke lengths used, just redishing and spoke tensions rechecked. A 30 minute job for the original wheel builder. Always welcome pop by if passing for 2nd opinion.

    The wheel does look a bit slanty but that is phone camera angle and bike leaning slightly.

  • Is the hub spacing correct? I’ve come across more than one wheel where the hub has incorrect spacers, moving the centreline to one side.

  • this is a good shout! i just dashed down to the shed to check and comparing it to a t610 online it seems to have all its spacers in the right places!

    @velosaurus thank you for confirming my rudimentary science experiment, i've had another pal draw the same conclusion so it's re-assuring im not losing it

    i've dropped the original builder and email with my debunking list to see if he has any ideas/ will have a look at it, it has been 4-5 months since the build but he seems like a nice guy

  • If it is dishing the wheel builder should be happy to sort, whatever timescales as thats a build error. Also ask builder for updated spoke tension sheet. I only build for mates, and always provide tension sheet when I do. Obvs most on here better builders than me, and dont need to do that, so it just my tuppence.

  • just found out what a spoke tension sheet was, we learn every day

  • Only reason I suggest it is if the wheel builder redishes it then they should also check all the spoke tensions again and it gives you confidence to know its been done.

  • Most likely the wheel needs dishing. If it's true enough you can do it yourself, a bike shop will do it in minutes.
    It could also be a wonky tire, make sure it's the rim what's off center.

  • Relatively easy to check whether your wheel is dished correctly without any tool just using a flat surface and two identical mugs or glasses and stacking coins underneath the hub. Check both sides to spot any gap between hub flange nut and the stack of coins.

    From my limited experience when building a front, non-disc wheel with symmetrical hub dimensions and same spoke length at both sides, you only need to do minor adjustements in terms of dishing as long as spoke tension at both sides is fairly equal.

  • just to update this, I made contact with the original builder and they're coming to look at it next week (they sounded on the run when we spoke so can only assume they're a bit swamped)

    in the mean time i will be double checking all the advice posted above this weekend, thank you for all the advice, and i will update again once we solve the mystery

    am i just a dumbass??

    was the wheel mis built due to overworked mechanic??

    is there a more chaotic reason???

    we will find out eventually

  • 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️


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  • Yeah that's out of whack. Let the wheel builder handle it, he/she will probably be blushing out of shame when they put it in their jig and see how much it's out.

  • Forgivable error on a disc hub maybe - but pretty shocking to see on a non-disc

  • wheel is with the builder, explained the above and got a cold response of "well mine is calibrated"

    honestly half expecting there is nothing wrong and will just ask for my wheel back, maybe he's on here and reads this

  • Not sure what they mean “mine is calibrated” but it’s not calibrated correctly!

  • have you tried putting another wheel in the fork? I'm not convinced the wheel is the issue tbh (I'm not the wheel builder...)

  • Ahah, thank you for clarifying, for it would not be a problem if you were!! I’m all for admitting I’ve been a muppet who’s read too many internet opinions

    I slipped another wheel in, and while it’s fair to say the drill hole is somewhat off centre, the wheel maintains a pretty central/ consistent point in the fork,

    I guess this could be a possibility of why not both?!


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  • "well mine is calibrated"

    Their wheel jig? So is mine, but I'd still use a dishing tool to double check

  • whats making me think that its not the dish, is the the first couple of photos. I can see the wheel is shifting a bit to each side on each photo but the wheel is also on a tilt to the right in both photos. so irrespective of which way round the wheel is, the wheel is sloping over. thats what makes me think the wheel is not the problem. bent forks can cause the wheel to tilt over like that, thats my rational anyways.

  • You're saying this after seeing the pics of the wheel with the stack of blocks, clearly showing its dished to one side? And the second wheel placed in the same fork sits nicely in the centre of the fork in post #19?

  • yeah, because in the first two photos it clearly is tilting to one side which would have nothing to do with the dish of the wheel, his photo doesn't show the stack of blocks - I'm assuming the blocks are sitting on the tyre and the tyre could be sitting off the rim unequally, to measure the dish of the wheel it really needs to be sat on the rim. and post 19 doesn't show the wheel from the front it shows from the top which wouldn't show the left to right tilt so clearly.

    unless I'm missing something, there isn't an explanation for the wheel to be tilting over to the right and dishing of the wheel wouldn't explain it away.

    im not disputing the dish of the wheel might be off but I reckon there is more than just that.

    plus I've have worked on lots of bikes with bent forks, and they look like this, they don't all bend in towards the frame.

  • i have received my wheel back, it has been "retuned" and now fits straight in the dropout.

    i'm happy to have a bike for the weekend, and am grateful it was revisited a few months after construction in the middle of bikepocolypse. what exactly was wrong may we never know, i feel similar to the ending of an xfiles episode where you think it's wrapped up but then the music starts up and the camera pans to show the exact opposite. maybe i should put on some big glasses while i type this up.

    although there was criticism of the fork, mainly in its lack of clearance and they didn't think the way the drop out was attached was "very good". almost DEFINATELY on here

  • 'Retuned' ooooo kaaaayyyyy

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My front wheel appears.... dished???!!?

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