Caught an alignment trick at a bike co-op in Portland

Went to drop off a beat up fixie at the community shop on 82nd. Watched a volunteer true a wheel by eye, no stand, just a zip tie and a sharpie mark. He spun it twice, checked the spoke tension by feel, and tightened three nipples half a turn each. That saved me 20 minutes of messing with my dial gauge. Anyone else learned quicker fixes from watching old shop guys?

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1 Comment

leo_jackson1525d ago

Whoa, hold on. That zip tie trick is solid, but the real hack is what he didn't do. He didn't touch the tire, right? That's the secret. If you true a wheel with the tire still on, you're chasing the rubber's wobble, not the rim's. I watched a guy in Seattle do the same thing, but he used a piece of chalk on the frame to mark the high spot. Then he only touched spokes that were noticeably loose, never the tight ones. It's all about feeling the tension, not measuring it. That's the part you can't learn from a video.