I have an Easy Racer (5+ yrs old; one minor crash which my LBS said did not bend anything). The rear wheel appears to be centered between the rear stays; however it does not point towards the front wheel's contact patch. A string line held against the front and rear outside edges of the rear tire (string held parallel to the ground and approximately only 6" off the ground so as to not encounter spokes) and extended forward indicates that the rear tire points to a location approximately 1" to the right of the front wheel's ground contact patch. Would it be better to (a) rotate the rear wheel leftward around its vertical axis so that the rear wheel would point towards the front wheel's contact patch, but then no longer be centered between its stays, thereby possibly introducing inefficiencies from "fighting the frame", or (b)leave the rear wheel centered between its stays, wherein both wheels would travel in the same direction but their tracks would be parallel to but offset from each other? A third option might be to adjust the dish of one or both wheels so as to align them with each other, but that seems pretty major, and seems like it could weaken the wheel(s).
In a perfect world, the frame and wheels would be aligned and there would be no inefficiencies from either twisting tire treads or unbalanced loads on the frame. However, since my system does not appear to be perfectly aligned, which setup do you think would be the best compromise?
I'd go directly to Gardner Martin at Easyracers for help.
Regards,
Bill "[censored] P." <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
I have a technical question.
I have an Easy Racer (5+ yrs old; one minor crash which my LBS said did not bend anything). The rear wheel appears to be centered between the rear stays; however it does not point towards the front wheel's contact patch. A string line held against the front and rear outside edges of the rear tire (string held parallel to the ground and approximately only 6" off the ground so as to not encounter spokes) and extended forward indicates that the rear tire points to a location approximately 1" to the right of the front wheel's ground contact patch. Would it be better to (a) rotate the rear wheel leftward around its vertical axis so that the rear wheel would point towards the front wheel's contact patch, but then no longer be centered between its stays, thereby possibly introducing inefficiencies from "fighting the frame", or (b)leave the rear wheel centered between its stays, wherein both wheels would travel in the same direction but their tracks would be parallel to but offset from each other? A third option might be to adjust the dish of one or both wheels so as to align them with each other, but that seems pretty major, and seems like it could weaken the wheel(s).
In a perfect world, the frame and wheels would be aligned and there would be no inefficiencies from either twisting tire treads or unbalanced loads on the frame. However, since my system does not appear to be perfectly aligned, which setup do you think would be the best compromise?
