How To Check And Center (Dish) Bike Wheels & Rims

[@indoorkangaroo3431]

I had no idea this truing stand already accounts for center….. thanks for the tip! Definitely helped with my wheel build last week

[@JimLangley1]

My pleasure indoor, glad to hear that tip was helpful with your wheel build. Thanks a lot for watching and letting me know 🙏

[@jonedmonds283]

Jim, Great video. Thanks you

[@JimLangley1]

My pleasure Jon, really appreciate you watching and the great comment. 🙏

[@jonedmonds283]

Jim, you are My Wheel man. Keep up the great work. Up

[@leazion8658]

Thank you very much for the explanation Jim. In Argentina it is difficult to find the tool to check the center of the wheel. Is there a way to make it at home? kind regards🎉

[@JimLangley1]

My pleasure Lea. And thanks a lot for watching and the great question. Yes, you can make your own dishing/centering tool. It's basically a simple comparison tool. The most popular DIY version is in an online book about wheel building by Roger Munson. I think the whole book costs about $11 and it includes plans for building your own dishing tool. www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php But it doesn't have to be fancy to work. You could just use a piece of wood for the main beam. Drill it in the center for a bolt that will be the center foot that you screw down to touch the axle/locknuts. Then stack other short wood pieces as feet on the ends until they reach the rim. With a little experimentation you can make something like this that will do the job just as well as the tools you buy. Okay? I hope this helps and let me know if you have other questions.

[@itwasanewdayyesterday2586]

thank you Jim, i just built my first wheelset!

[@JimLangley1]

That's awesome to hear newday, nice job, congrats!! And thanks for watching and the great comment. Enjoy that new wheel.

[@springpan]

Another great video from Sir Jim! Would you have left that last dish adjustment alone and called it "good enough", or would you have tweaked the left spokes another 1/4 turn or so? Sometimes it's difficult to leave it alone and just ride.🚲 Thanks for all you do.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and commenting springpan, glad you enjoyed the video! Yes, it's definitely difficult sometimes to leave it alone. Whether to chase "perfect" centering or to leave it close enough depends on how tight the spokes are getting. If a wheel is at max tension and the centering is only out by say .5mm - 1mm, you might decide to not chase perfection anymore because it's actually only out half what the dishing tool shows, so that's a tiny amount and it won't affect anything. In fact some builders choose to offset the wheel that 1mm to the side with less spoke tension - the left side of rear wheels - in order to "cheat" a little and get those left side spokes a tiny bit closer to the right side spokes in tension. That's an old trick. The wheel still centers in the frame fine and the only way to know the dish is off to the left a smidge is with a dishing tool. If it makes for a stronger wheel, it's all good. So it's really up to you what you think is best for the wheel. But some builders will only settle for perfect according to their dishing tool so there's that point of view too and I get that too. Thanks again and happy wheel building!

[@cosinus_square]

Very informative as always 👍. Could you do a video on radial truing ?

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and commenting cosinus. Yes, I'll add a video on radial wheel truing to the list and if I have a good hub, rim and the right spokes I might get it done sometime relatively soon. One thing to know is that truing bike wheels is truing bike wheels - in other words, regardless of the spoke pattern the same steps are followed to true all bicycle wheels whether they use a cross spoke pattern, a radial pattern (no crosses) or a combination of both. I go into great detail in my How To Build Wheels video and the section on truing starts at this time point: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jobUpp9maM2VkJo Thanks again!

[@popswilson2008]

Thank you for the informative video Jim. Is there any need to de-stress the spokes after centering the rim?

[@JimLangley1]

You're very welcome pops! Thank you for watching and the great question. Yes, it never hurts to stress relieve the spokes anytime you turn a bunch of spokes. To do this you can just grab parallel pairs of spokes and gently squeeze to simulate what happens when you ride the wheel. Then check to see if the wheel came out of true a small amount from the stress relieving. If it did, true it and stress relieve one more time and you should be good to go. Okay? Hope this is helpful and thanks again!

[@_Zane__]

I was doing some minor truing on a new wheel out of the box, the 3.23mm spoke wrench (black park tool) fit on the nipples but was SUPER tight to the point I had to leverage/jam it onto the nipple... is that common ? I actually rounded one spoke nipple off because i used a slightly larger green wrench which worked for most of the spokes but didnt on one of the really factory overtightened spoke nipples 😅

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and the question Zane. I wouldn't say it's common but I have run into it before where I used to work. I don't know if the variation in fit is in the nipples or in the spoke wrench. I don't have any to measure right now. But you could measure both the spoke wrench and the nipples to see which is out of tolerance. If it's the wrench, I would expect Park would replace it for you. You definitely want a tight fit but the wrench shouldn't need to be forced onto the nipple. But, I could see the possibility of a too thick layer of chrome that would make the fit undersize maybe. If it is the tool, you could probably sand it to size but again, it'll probably be easier to reach out to Park. If you find anything out, please let me know and good luck.

[@JoseLFerca]

Hi. Quick question. I am thinking about getting a truing stand. I think about ts - 2.3. I know there is one that is better but I am not sure if I can afford the other one. What do you think??

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and the question Jose. Park Tool’s TS-2.3 is a great stand. The main difference with it and the 4.2 is that the 4.2 handles even fat bike wheels (super wide). So you don’t need it if you’re not working on oversize wheels like that. Hope this helps.

[@JoseLFerca]

@@JimLangley1 OK. Is there any other differences between both?? I mean my uncle has a fat boy from specialized but I do not if I will work on it sometime. I only have mountain and road bikes. Can I work fine with the cheapest??

[@JimLangley1]

@@JoseLFerca I go in depth on truing stands and how to use them and show different types here Jose: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHeboWShpKygpa8 And in this video, I explain what features that Park's TS-4.2 has that make it different from their other stand: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqLWfIiZmq-tppo There's a lot to talk about with both things so watch these videos and they'll help you in your decision.

[@deltafour1212]

I have a cheap 90's MTB bicycle with a steel wheel The non drive spokes are 161mm, Drive side 163mm. Can I buy all new 36 spokes the same length or does the 2mm really make that big of difference when truing?

[@JimLangley1]

Hi deltafour! So, since you have the wheel, hopefully you took a very close look at the spokes before taking the wheel apart. That's when you can see if the spokes in the wheel are the perfect length or if the wheel was built with too short spokes - a common issue with stock steel wheels. If they are the perfect length the spokes will go fully into the nipples and you won't see any threads at the bottom of the nipples. Assuming the spokes that were in the wheel were the right length, then you probably need to purchase the same length as before since someone calculated that length to ensure they fit correctly in that wheel. Usually on rear wheels though, the longer length is on the left side/non drive side. But maybe the hub is sized such that it's the other way around on your wheel. What you could do is calculate your own spoke lengths using an online tool such as this great one: www.kstoerz.com/freespoke/ Be sure to take your own hub and rim ERD measurements so you know what you put into the calculator are accurate numbers. I have a video showing how: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqe5ZXl7Z7urkM0si=tkNipBI9rjnfMibB Now, if your goal is to be able to buy 36 same length spokes, then you could experiment to find what lacing pattern on the left and right of the wheel might give you the same length spokes on both sides. As long as the difference is only 1mm, you can round down or up to get the same length. So for example, maybe running cross-3 on one side and cross-2 on the other might give you even lengths? You never know what's possible until you run the calculation, which is fun. Just be sure to get the numbers right that you plug in. Okay? I hope this helps, have fun building that wheel!

[@deltafour1212]

@@JimLangley1 The steel wheel was never taken apart due to one spoke nipple is seized on, due to rust. Maybe that's why I am having trouble truing it and all have equal spoke tension The ones I did take out, the non-drive are all 261mm and drive side are all 263mm.

[@JimLangley1]

@@deltafour1212 you can usually break a frozen spoke free by heating it with a propane torch or even a lighter or heat gun so you might try that to get it to move. You can also cut out the spoke and replace it with a new nipple and spoke to be able to true the wheel. As long as those spokes in the wheel are the right length, that's probably the correct spoke length. If the spokes are on the long side, which would mean the ends of the spokes are sticking out of the top of the nipples, then you could go with the same size spokes on both sides and just go with 262s all around. The one thing with steel wheels is the rim is so strong that it's what does most of the work so that wheel should be very strong even if the spokes aren't perfectly tensioned. If you're having trouble truing it, it might be a bad seam or even a bent rim - both pretty common on steel rims. So you should check the rim carefully for issues with it that could prevent it being trued very straight.

[@deltafour1212]

@@JimLangley1 "The one thing with steel wheels is the rim is so strong that it's what does most of the work so that wheel should be very strong even if the spokes aren't perfectly tensioned." You just cured me of my headache! THANK YOU!

[@JimLangley1]

@@deltafour1212 you're welcome deltafour - happy to hear it!

[@peterwillson1355]

Best way is to finish truing the wheel is when its in the frame.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and appreciate your feedback Peter.