My gearhead colleague has just had a look at the bike here beside me. He thinks the front wheel is slightly warped. When I hold up the bike and spin the wheel, it oscillates slightly on the left side. He says that at 25-30 km an hour, Flyzipper's speed on the downhills, this could expand and become perceptible as a wobble. He says one good bump on a road could warp a wheel like that. He also thinks the cheapest and simplest solution is probably to change the wheel. There is also a subtle and very expensive art of wheel balancing that consists in delicately changing the tightening of the spokes, but that is probably not accessible to me.
What do folks think here about warped wheels and shimmy?
My gearhead colleague has just had a look at the bike here beside me. He thinks the front wheel is slightly warped. When I hold up the bike and spin the wheel, it oscillates slightly on the left side. He says that at 25-30 km an hour, Flyzipper's speed on the downhills, this could expand and become perceptible as a wobble. He says one good bump on a road could warp a wheel like that. He also thinks the cheapest and simplest solution is probably to change the wheel. There is also a subtle and very expensive art of wheel balancing that consists in delicately changing the tightening of the spokes, but that is probably not accessible to me.
Take the wheel into a bike shop. They'll have the skills and tools needed to "unwarp" it. Here in the UK such a service costs about 10 pounds, much cheaper than a new wheel.
My gearhead colleague has just had a look at the bike here beside me. He thinks the front wheel is slightly warped. When I hold up the bike and spin the wheel, it oscillates slightly on the left side. He says that at 25-30 km an hour, Flyzipper's speed on the downhills, this could expand and become perceptible as a wobble. He says one good bump on a road could warp a wheel like that. He also thinks the cheapest and simplest solution is probably to change the wheel. There is also a subtle and very expensive art of wheel balancing that consists in delicately changing the tightening of the spokes, but that is probably not accessible to me.
What do folks think here about warped wheels and shimmy?
Possible but unlikely unless its gross. When you say it oscillates on the left hand side, it should be equal on both sides unless its the tyre that slightly distorted or badly seated.
Truing a wheel is not hard provided you are methodical about it. Sheldon Brown's website will take you through how to do it and you can do it with the bike upside down and using the brake pads as indicators. There's a lot of extra stuff included on the site about building the wheel and dish and tension that you can ignore and just use the truing stuff.
My gearhead colleague has just had a look at the bike here beside me. He thinks the front wheel is slightly warped. When I hold up the bike and spin the wheel, it oscillates slightly on the left side. He says that at 25-30 km an hour, Flyzipper's speed on the downhills, this could expand and become perceptible as a wobble. He says one good bump on a road could warp a wheel like that. He also thinks the cheapest and simplest solution is probably to change the wheel. There is also a subtle and very expensive art of wheel balancing that consists in delicately changing the tightening of the spokes, but that is probably not accessible to me.
Quoted message said:
What do folks think here about warped wheels and shimmy?
Shimmy occurs at a frequency unrelated to single wheel rotations and does not arise from wheel unbalance or alignment. This sort of specious guess is tossed out often here on wreck.bike. Don't be swayed by such claims, ask for proof. For instance have your expert install the wheel in his bicycle and demonstrate that it is caused by that wheel and not by the one he usually rides.
"Elisa Francesca Roselli": (clip) What do folks think here about warped wheels and shimmy? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Almost any "gearhead" cyclist with a spoke wrench should be able to reduce the wobble in about 15 minutes. Even if it's not the source of the problem, it's worth doing. I certainly wouldn't replace the wheel at this point.
Jobst's comment is pertinent: If the wheel is not true, it is going to make a wavy path on the road--it is not going to shake the bike.
"Tim Hall" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Take the wheel into a bike shop. They'll have the skills and tools needed to "unwarp" it. Here in the UK such a service costs about 10 pounds, much cheaper than a new wheel.
My wrench will do it for free. I've dumped so much money at the shop, I guess they don't worry about a quick job like that.
