Fixing a Warped Wheel

[lothian]

I took a spill on my bike that resulted in a shimmy in my back wheel. The wobble isn't excessive and I can still ride my bike. But it bothers me.

I watched a couple videos on how to straighten a warped rim, and I've searched this forum and others. The consensus for the repair seems to be: Remove excess warp then true the rim. Soooo... I removed the wheel and physically weighed into the rim to remove the worst; I then remounted it and tightened/loosened spoke nipples to pull the rim to center. This repair I've never had to do before, and to my surprise I got some good results. But just can't seem to dial it in. There's still some wiggle in the wheel.

I read in another forum to "ride out the wobble"--presumably the wheel will true itself due to the forces at play when under load? A bike shop I contacted says "true'ing a wheel is completely different than repairing a warped rim", and the latter should simply be replaced while the former should be performed on its replacement. I don't want to buy a new rim. I just want to fix my boo-boo.

Advice? Recommendations? ...for someone with the most basic non-specialty tools (e.g.: funnel, hammer, circular saw, stand mixer, roomba, pliers, etc...)

[Joe_W]

Cool! Congratulations on that. Trueing a wheel is not that difficult.

My tip for you:
Patience.
That's the most important ingredient there.

To make the wheel more reliable (ish..), make sure the spoke tension is sort of even. Pluck the spoke, listen for the ring, try to even it out (within reason.... never going to be perfect).

Bring the wobble as low as you can without going crazy. Continue a day later.

[CharleyFarley]

I bought a truing stand and spoke tension gauge, but before that I set up two saw horses, end to end, so the axle sat on each sawhorse. Then I rigged up a piece of stiff wire fixed to one of the sawhorses so the end of the wire almost touched the rim. Then turning the wheel, slowly, I could tell where it needed tightening or loosening. If the rim moves away from the wire, the spokes on that side of the wheel need to be tightened, but only a quarter turn on each spoke. Turn the wheel again and see how it is. Keep tightening until the rim is pulled true. You may need to loosen the opposite spokes. It's still best, though to use a tension gauge on the spokes.

To find the correct tension, measure the tension on each spoke and add the numbers up. Divide that number by the number of spokes. This should give you the average tension. Of course, you'd need a tension gauge to do this. It may be best, without the proper tools, to let a bike shop true it for you. And if you are really into learning to true wheels, get an old wheel and practice on it.