Truing: lateral and radial

[Monsieur Remings]

Okay, have just bought a truing stand and will shortly be having a go at the wheels on my winter bike. Some have intimated that by creating more lateral true, or in plain English, sorting out a side-to-side wobble can create an egg shape or radial problem so...

...is such a problem sorted by tightening up the spoke at the top end, inside the rim? My winter bike has 3.3mm nipples and have bought a universal Park Tool wrench to use on the spokes to, hopefully, eradicate lateral wobble but want to know how I can sort out any radial problems that come about as a result of this fiddling?

(What confuses me even more is that my Ksyrium Elites need to be approached period from the top end with a different device the SW15 wrench, so in each case how are radial problems sorted?)

Many thanks in advance...

 

[HLaB]

I'm no expert but I believe that when a wheel is oval (a section is to low/flat) its all the spokes that are too tight on that section, it just sorted by loosening the spokes on that section and tightening up the spokes 180 deg opposite. Or the opposite if a section of rim is too high. Get better advice though before messing up good wheels.

 

[fossyant]

Tighten one side and undo the other - stops the egg shape. If gone egg shaped then reduce tension in the area on both spoke sides.

Key is a bit at a time, quarter turn.

 

[Red Light]

The two simple rules of truing. Pick a spoke on one side and an adjacent one on the other side. For lateral true tighten one and loosen the other by the same amount. For radial true either tighten them both or loosen them both. If you work in pairs in that way adjusting lateral true will not affect radial and vice versa.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

(What confuses me even more is that my Ksyrium Elites need to be approached period from the top end with a different device the SW15 wrench, so in each case how are radial problems sorted?)

Just a suggestion Ksyriums like other factory wheels with low spoke count have significantly higher spoke tension than normal wheels, and are more sensitive, so go easy with the number fraction of turns..

 

[PpPete]

If you procede on the lateral truing by quarter turns, you are very unlikely to upset the radial truing by any noticeable amount... the tyres take up quite lot. Much more important - ( IMO and some disagree with me on this ) before you decide whether to tighten one spoke or loosen the one next to it.... pluck the spokes two either side and see if one has gone loose (flat sound - or lower note). The aim is to get all the spokes on the front wheel to close to close to the same note - and on the back wheel, all the drive side the same as each other, all the non-drive side the same as each other.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Many thanks one and all, that's made everything a lot clearer.

The Ksyriums will wait a while for my inexperienced hand, no fear of that.

 

[bicyclos]

Before I put a wheel in the jig I usually have a light squeeze of the spokes and make a chalk mark if I find something loose and a general look at the flange and rim areas for any damage or cracks.