Philip Attaway

Hi fellow MTB's

At the weekend I buckled my so called 'tough' rear Mavic Crossmax XL.

It's only got about 70mm of wobble and hasn't affected the rotor but I need to get it more true than that as I am off Coed Y Brenin on Thursday for a long weekend of bike abuse.

I have a spoke key but not sure exactly which ones to turn tighter/looser

ie Turn the spokes on the opposite side of the buckled bit tighter?

Anyone help?

thanks

Phil

the moose

What the heck did you do to get 70mm of distortion?

I've scraped, bent or boken almost everything else on my bike, but I've never managed to harm my XLs, other than breaking some spokes in a BIG stack.

If you don't know what you're doing, get down to a bike shop now - they'll be able to sort you very quickly, and for very little cost.

Philip Attaway

Doh I meant 7mm!!

I am not exactly sure how I did it.

Just noticed it when cleaning the bike.

Probably from hopping over large trees!

the moose

Just to say - be VERY careful if you do anything to the wheel yourself. If you break a spoke you'll have a really hard time getting hold of any quickly.

If you're desperate I can lend you a wheel for the weekend, depending on rotor sizes.

Brendan Hughes

If you don't know which way to turn them, and want to use it this w/e, better go to a bike shop. You can make a horrible mess if you don't know what you're doing. At worst, you may well remove the distortion, but end up with other spokes loose - which won't protect your wheel when riding this weekend.

Philip Attaway

My closest cycle surgery say they'll have a look tomorrow and should be able to fix it hopefully in the day. I was worried about the turnaround time.

Thanks for the offer of lending a wheel. The wheel isn't too bad and is quite ridable. I just like perfection I would also feel vey guilty destroying one of your wheels!

Cheers

Phil

the moose

Trust me, if I can't, very few will........ I weigh a lot and tend to ride through things rather than picking nice smooth lines. It always surprises me that the bike survives, if I'm honest.

Philip Attaway

I ride Epping forest mostly and there are lots of trees covering the singletrack. Only wimps carry their bikes over . I did go over the bars this weekend doing one rather large trunk so maybe the slam bent it.

I guess the rear wheel gets a bit of a bashing with 14 stone behind it but that's half the fun

anc-sti

I've got the sl's and actually there quite easy to true, the plastic spoke key is a problem as its not strong enough really so I bought the alloy one.

If your not sure use a shop.

Essentially you need something to true the wheel/rim off if you haven't got a wheel jig use a piece of card fixed to the frame giving you a true point. Where the wheel is out you need to use the spokes from the oposite side of the distortion to pull the rim back in line. This is very much trial and error, small inputs are best. Tighten the spoke a little then run the rim past your true point, assess if you need to go any further and so on.

Its difficult to explain fully but the best way to learn is to get a old wheel and have a play, once you understand what does what then true your actual wheels.

Big a1

You tend to find after a wheel has been buckled and trued it never seems to have the same degree of strength it originally had.

Like whats has been said if you are unsure how to true the wheel then dont bother as chances are you will make it worse.

r32

Oh dear, itll go again now ............