How to True a Wheel

Kevin Corkum wants to know how to balance his wheels or true them, this is a job for someone who knows what they are doing with a spoke wrench, and we explain how to true wheels, but be very careful if you are considering doing it yourself

Question: I have a Marin Road racing bike 28 speed. If I wanted to balance my wheels how would you do your spoke tightening in order to get the wheel balanced. Can anyone balance a rim or should you bring it to a tech. Thanks Kevin.

Hi Kevin,
If you want your wheels trued then I suggest you take them to a bike shop as this is a job for a specialist wheel builder. If you want to try it yourself then be prepared to mess up a good pair of wheels, if you can get an old pair to practice on that would be a good idea.

This job is easier if you have a proper wheel truing stand, if not you can use your bike as a guide by adjusting the brakes blocks as close to the rim as you can, then if the rim goes to the right then tighten a spoke that pulls to the left and if it’s the other way then you tighten a right one.

That’s the simple explanation, in reality there is much more to it. You also have to consider if the rim is also round, i.e. if it moves up and down. To attend to this problem you need to tighten and loosen spokes to get the rim round and not oval.

Then your next problem is the tensions on the spokes, this can only be felt by the hands of someone with experience, too loose and the wheel will fall apart, too tight and the wheel will be very hard and will go out of true very easily, and when they are very tight they will break, when this happens the wheel will be un-ride able, so you wouldn’t want the spokes to brake when you are miles away from home on a ride.

Your other problem is to make sure the rim is in the center of the hub, this is very important so that the bike runs in a straight line and corners perfectly. There is a lot to know about wheel truing and it cant be learnt overnight, it takes years and years of experience, building wheels from scratch is easier as the rims are new and should be straight, with old rims it gets more difficult as the rims are bedded in to a shape and you need to pull them straight.

It’s not an easy job, but good luck if you’re going to try it.

Measure gap