I just got a spoke tool, cause i am not gonna pay 15 bucks everytime i throw my rim out of true…
it is accually really easy for all you kiddies who dont wanna true your own wheel.
i was really nervous too but its soo easy.
How bout you other guys?
have any tricks to make it easier youd like to share with the community??
The only hard part is hammering a rim back into shape to remove any flat spots.
Not really flat spots, but any deformities vertically.
This is what I do and it seems to work pretty well.
Get a ziptie and tie it to one of you fork legs. Then angle the extra slack toward the tire and cut just enough off so it almost touches the rim. Then once you’ve done this, just spin the tire and see if it rubs anywhere. If it does hit the ziptie then simply do this.
Find the spot Where it rubs the tie. Then go directly on the opposite side and tighten the spokes in the effected area a quarter turn until fixed.
Shazam its done
great! keep it up.
One common mistake people tend to make (I did when I was younger) is to only tighten the spokes and not loosen. It is really easy to make a wheel true but out of round by just tightening the spokes on the side the rim is bent away from.
I recently got a tensometer and it helps let you know how much tension is in a spoke which can help you decide if you can tighten it more without risking over-tightening.
I think after a while you learn how not to overtighten spokes, well I did, so I presume others will as well. You almost need to try a few different wheels to see what you are doing wrong. You can always undo the bits you did wrong (within reason).
One thing that might help with truing a wheel, if there’s quite a lot to be done, is to take the crank arms off before hand. This is so that they don’t knock you out as you spin the wheel too fast whilst trying to find the untrue spots! It also helps to stop the wheel from wobbling as you spin it. The one thing that you need most is to keep the unicycle frame and wheel still whilst trying to find untrue sections of the wheel. Wobbling of the wheel as it is turning could impare your judgement and cause you to make it worse than it originally was.
The hard parts to truing a wheel is when you have a large flat spot, or if you dent the rim. I’ve had people bring their wheels to me and one sidewall has almost completely caved! These are possible to save, just not to the original standard! (If this does happen then get an adjustable spanner and tighten it around the the bent part of the rim and pull it back into place (careful not to put massive cut marks into the rim with the spanner. Put something in between the spanner and rim if you are trying to keep it as best as you can). You might also want a nylon mallet to smooth it out a little after going over it with an adjustable spanner.
Hope that helps.
p.s. All of the above is just from personal experience. Don’t blame me if you knacker your wheel whilst following my instructions!
That’s from landing those rolling hops sideways…
im getting better at rolling out…but yea pretty much.