Is the wheel buckled?

[Inertia]

I have a strange problem with the bike and am wondering if its a buckled wheel. When I ride, it feels as though I am going over bumps on the road, its a continuous thudding from the front of the bike that I can feel through the handlebars.

Its not that rough but i can feel it and its disconcerting, before I start checking out and messing with the wheel, I wanted to check I wasnt jumping to conclusions. Can anyone help?

 

[Rob3rt]

Check that you have the wheel axle seated in the dropouts properly first.

Then spin the wheel and see if you can see any un-eveness or egg shape, if its buckled then you should be able to see the gap between rim and brake pad getting larger and smaller as it spins, if its egg shaped you would feel the front go up and down as you ride. It could be something to do with your headset being worn or loose.

 

[tyred]

Also check the tyre for damage.

 

[John the Monkey]

Or - pop the tyre off, and put the wheel in the forks. Hold a steel rule, pencil, or other straight thing across them under the rim.

Spin the wheel - is the gap between rim & straight edge constant? Or does it seem to grow and shrink?

 

[Inertia]

Thanks for the replies, I checked the wheel seating and it seems fine, am in work at the mo so will pop the tyre off tonight and check the rim.

 

[PpPete]

Hold front brake on. Rock bike back & forwards. Can you feel a "knocking" sensation?
If so, are the forks moving in the frame? - in which case it's headset adjustment.... if not it could be a loose wheel hub.
If no obvious movement felt - then time to get the wheels off and check as above.

 

[Inertia]

Ok, after checking I found a definite kink in the rim and after some faffing and tweaking I THINK I have it running true now, Im pretty chuffed with myself.

Will have wait and see tomorrow if its helped though, thanks for the advice

 

[tyred]

Best stress relieve it after your tweaking or when you ride it, you will have lots of pinging noises and probably an out of true wheel again.

 

[Inertia]

Best stress relieve it after your tweaking or when you ride it, you will have lots of pinging noises and probably an out of true wheel again.

oops. Well it ran great this morning, but I guess Id better check it again tonight and stress relieve it too. Good job you mentioned it!

 

[HaloJ]

oops. Well it ran great this morning, but I guess Id better check it again tonight and stress relieve it too. Good job you mentioned it!

Noob question but what does that mean, please?

 

[Inertia]

Noob question but what does that mean, please?

I didnt know either but I found a clip on youtube that explains

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zeyr-brECm4

 

[Globalti]

Remove the QR and press the wheel firmly down on its axle on the floor, moving your hands all round on opposite sides of the rim to temporarily remove the stress from the spokes on that side. Repeat for the other side. You should hear a couple of pings as spokes untwist and the nipples rotate.

 

[John the Monkey]

Noob question but what does that mean, please?

When you turn the spoke nipple to true the wheel, there's a degree of "spoke wind up" at higher tensions where the spoke twists. You can get around this to a degree by turning a half turn more than you want, then turning the half turn back.

Once a wheel has been trued, you can use the pressing method Globalti describes to get the spokes to release any remaining tension, or the squeezing method (grab parallell pairs of spokes & squeeze together - best done wearing gardening gloves, your hands get sore quickly). I'm a squeezer, personally.

 

[HaloJ]

Thank you! I may have a got at straightening my front wheel now. It's had this ever so tiny wobble to it for a month now which causes a slight shudder when riding lightly on the bars.