How to True a Bike Wheel
Truing a bike wheel is a process that you do to keep your bike wheel round. What keeps a bike frame round are the spokes in its wheels, and over time, these spokes are either damaged, bent or misaligned by frequent use. Here’s how to true a bike wheel.
Tools
Truing stand
Feeler gauges
Spoke wrench
Light oil
Procedure
Set up the wheel on the truing stand. If you don’t have a truing stand, simply prop up your bicycle upside down, making sure that
Check if your bike wheel is perfectly rounded by lightly clamping the feeler gauges on either side of the bike wheel.
Spin the wheel on a medium speed. If the wheels are properly aligned, the wheels should turn without any scraping or any scraping sound. If you do hear any scraping sounds, pause and take note where on the rim and which side of the bike wheel rim caused the scraping sound. Do not attempt to true any part of your rims until you’ve turned the bike in a full rotation and isolated the misaligned parts of the rim.
Locate the spokes that are connected to the affected area of the bike rims.
If the scraping sound comes from the right side of the rim, you want to move the rim slightly to the left side. Do this by tightening the spokes off at the left side of the rim.
Place a drop of light oil in the nipple where the spokes thread into the bicycle rim. This will make tightening or loosening much easier.
To tighten a spoke, use the spoke wrench to turn it counterclockwise. To loosen a spoke, turn it clockwise. Do not make turns too hard, making only quarter turn increments at a time.
To true a bicycle wheel laterally on one side, tighten the spokes that pull the rim in the opposite direction and loosening the spoke between those two spokes.
Test out if you’ve aligned the rim properly by rotating it between the spoke gauges completely. Take note if there are scraping sounds and fix accordingly, using the same steps.
If you’re satisfied with the results, flip your bicycle up in the proper position and test out the brakes if it still grasps the rims properly.