Adjusting spokes

[asl]

Hi. My father in law wants to know how to adjust spokes to balance the wheel. He had a spoke come loose and tightened it but thinks he may have overtighened one of the other spokes. Is there an idiots guide (either on this site or else where on t'internet) to adjusting the spokes or should he take it to the LBS? Thanks

 

[Dayvo]

This should help you:

http://bicycletutor.com/wheel-truing/

 

[swee'pea99]

Basic idea is, all spokes go to one side of the wheel (hub) or t'other. Think of them as long bolts. If you stand on this side of the bike and the rim is at any point too far away from you (ie, it's rubbing the brake block on the other side of the bike), you need to tighten the spokes on this side and loosen the adjacent ones on t'other. That shortens the 'bolts' on this side, pulling the rim closer.

 

[nuovo_record]

handy read that, just "serviced" a friends galaxy (list too long), has wheel wobble - broken spoke on the drive side - doh! lost my freewheel tool as well.

 

[dellzeqq]

buy a tensionometer. This should come with a list of spoke tensions. It's really worthwhile.

 

[PpPete]

Tensionmeter isnt really necessary. What's important is that (apart from the wheel being true) is that all the spokes have even tension. You can gage this by the tone they make when plucked like a guitar string. If a few spokes are very different tension than others then the wheel will rapidly go out of true. On a rear wheel you may find that all the drive side spokes are tighter (higher note) than the non-drive side - but that's OK.