Truing bicycle tires

[Kriegsspiel]

Alright, so I recently got a used road bike off CL, and I'm doing a bit of work on it.  One of my projects is truing the tires.  I have a spoke wrench (after trying to do it with needlenose pliers... some of the spokes are rounded off now), that's all I should need, right?

Anyways, I just spin the tires and see if they wobble.  I'm judging wobbling by looking straight down at the tire, and using a bolt on the handlebar post against the grain of the tire as a reference.  Anyways, when it wobbles, I loosen the spokes on one side, and tighten the ones on the opposite side.

Anyways, first question, I loosened/tightening them a bit (maybe 180 degrees or so), and when I rode around, the wheel was making the creaking noises it makes when you adjust the spokes.  Is that just them settling in, or did I do something that is going to make the wheel collapse when I'm flying down an incline?

[Russ]

Sounds like you're doing pretty well. You're exactly right, the spokes might creak and ping for a while as they settle in. A couple pointers:

Use the rim as your reference, not the tire. Sometimes tires aren't molded quite perfectly, so the tread is skewed a bit to one side, which will throw you off. One decent cheap way to do this is to adjust your brakes to run really tight, so they rub if the rim is too far to one side or the other. A cable tie zipped around your fork leg or seatstay is more adjustable and does the same thing, touching the rim if it wobbles too close.

Make sure the spoke nipple is turning independently of the spoke. A lot of times the spoke threads seize up so that when you turn the nipple it doesn't actually tighten or loosen anything, it just twists the spoke and adds a lot of stress to the system. You can get a feel for this by using one hand to tighten/loosen the spoke, and another hand to feel how the spoke twists when you turn the nipple. Every spoke will twist a little before the threads break free. Once you're past this point, make your adjustment, then back it off the amount that the spoke twisted, to return everything to its lowest-stress state. To do this visually, wrap a piece of tape around the spoke and make sure the tape points the same direction before and after you've made your adjustment. Also to help with this, drop a bit of oil on the threads of each spoke and let it soak in for a little bit before you start adjusting. This will help everything turn more freely.

Using oil and making sure you turn the spokes back to "neutral" will help a lot with the creaking, as the spokes will have less settling to do once you've made your adjustments. half a turn probably isn't enough to mess up the wheel, but if you need to make more than a full turn anywhere you might want to take it to a professional. That's the kind of adjustment that really affects the whole wheel and takes some experience to get right. If you brought cookies, I'm sure whoever works on your wheel would be happy to show you what they're doing.

[capital]

Do you have a local bicycle cooperative? They usually have truing stands (a stand you can put your wheel with more precise calipers than brakes) and people with experience who can show you how to true wheels.

[KGZotU]

Supposedly, you can take some of the stress out of the spokes after truing by squeezing pairs of spokes together between your hand. That should address your creaking.

If I'm doing a rough job, I'll use my finger tip as a caliper. I alternate which side I'm feeling for high spots on: first I'll take adjust down a high spot on the left side of the wheel, then I'll adjust a high spot on the right side of the wheel. I feel like that symmetry should help keep me from pulling the whole wheel to one side.

[Sparky]

By the way, you can't true a bicycle tire, but you can true a bicycle wheel :)

[Tom Reingold]

sheldonbrown.com is my most highly recommended place to look for information on bicycle maintenance. This page can start you off truing wheels.

The creaking sound is the spokes untwisting themselves. It happens when you ride because the spokes at the bottom of the wheel experience decrease in tension. You should work to avoid this situation, because during this untwisting, the tension is decreased permanently. When I tighten a spoke, I overtighten it by about a quarter turn. Then I turn the nipple back by the same amount. If you want, you can put a post-it or a piece of tape on each spoke to use as a reference for when the spoke is in a resting position.

Stress relief is something else. This article explains it. It's a good practice.

A quick and dirty way to "creak" your wheel is to put it on the ground horizontally and let the end of the axle hit the floor first. Then with your hands at diametrically opposite positions, press down on the rim. Then put the wheel back on the truing stand (or whatever you're using) and retrue the wheel. It will need retruing since you just reduced tension in spokes you creaked. This method works, but I think it's better to use the overtightening-and-untwisting method.

[Kriegsspiel]

Sweet guys thanks for the info.  I'll definitely check out the website right now.

[Tom Reingold]

Also, you should get yourself an account on bikeforums.net. You'll find me mostly in the Classic & Vintage section, where you get lots of gracious mechanical advice, whether your bike is new or old. There's also a Mechanics section. Either one will be good. We will walk you through any bike maintenance procedure or problem.