Wheel truing - How much wobble is acceptable?

[OrmRich]

On my road bike with 700 25C wheels if I spin the wheels I cannot detect any wobble in the front but the rear rim wobbles by about 1-2 mm. Is this acceptable or should I get it trued? It rides fine and there are no slack spokes.
Cheers.

[Ayesha]

The brake lever should move about 1/4" until the blocks are locked onto the rim. The brake stirup should operate symetrically.

If this is true, the rim shouldn't rub the blocks with the brake released.

Although, if you feel unhappy there is a wavering of the rim, get it trued.

[tatanab]

The brake lever should move about 1/4" until the blocks are locked onto the rim.

Lever movement is a matter of personal taste, and 1/4" is measured where? Other than that I'd agree will everything else.

[531colin]

The brake lever should move about 1/4" until the blocks are locked onto the rim. ........................

Set the brakes so they "bite" with the levers at the position you like them......in my case, thats about halfway through their travel....I always brake from the hoods, and its more comfortable and easier for me to modulate with the levers there than further out.

................ It rides fine and there are no slack spokes..........

Doesn't sound like a problem, really. Traditionally built wheels with 32 or 36 spokes are dead easy to true yourself, I have less experience with wheels with few spokes.

[Brucey]

I would true my own wheels if they were this far out and the brakes were in danger of rubbing.

But if the brakes were not rubbing and I had to pay someone else to do it, I probably wouldn't bother just yet.

cheers

[Ayesha]

The brake lever should move about 1/4" until the blocks are locked onto the rim. ........................

Set the brakes so they "bite" with the levers at the position you like them......in my case, thats about halfway through their travel....I always brake from the hoods, and its more comfortable and easier for me to modulate with the levers there than further out.

................ It rides fine and there are no slack spokes..........

Doesn't sound like a problem, really. Traditionally built wheels with 32 or 36 spokes are dead easy to true yourself, I have less experience with wheels with few spokes.

Yeh, its personal taste.

I prefer the blocks to start gripping the rim sooner rather than later.

[BigG]

1 mm wobble is certainly acceptable (to me, anyway) but 2 mm is marginal. This requires at least a 3 mm brake block clearance to allow for the inevitable flexibility in the bike structure and could make setting the brakes up to full efficiency more difficult. Try it. If it causes problems, true the wheel. if not, carry on using it as it is.

[destry]

I would pluck the spokes in the vicinity of the wobble and see if one is looser than the others (bearing in mind that drive-side spokes will all be tighter than non-drive side). If there's a plunk in amongst the plinks, then it's an easy fix for the price of a spoke key.

I agree with others that on balance, 1mm is fine, 2mm should be corrected at some point, and 3mm or over wants doing soon.

[OrmRich]

Thanks for all you help folks; I'm reassured.

[spanner]

Check whether the cones need tightened slightly as this can give a false impression that the wheel is out of true also have you clipped a pothole recently? this could have put a slight twist in the wheel spindle and again this can give the wheel the appearance of being out of true a quick way to check this is attach the chuck of a cordless drill and spin the spindle with the drill this will show if its twisted or not another false out of true impression is a cracked bearing in the hub this causes the spindle to ride up over the broken bearing
check these things out before retruing the wheel an easy way if you have a repair stand is put the bike on the stand and spin the wheel slowly where the wheel catches on the brake block tighten the spoke or spokes on the opposite side and continue doing this until its running between the blocks without catching
if you want to learn wheel building can i suggest the wheel building dvd sold by Bike Inn it shows how to build a mtb rear wheel but the principle is the same for all other wheels here is a link to the page on their website
http://www.bike-inn.co.uk/training_videos.asp
they also do wheel building courses as well as bike mechanic courses for which you get a C&G certificate

[deliquium]

City & Guilds acceptable tolerance is 1mm - which looks huge with a rim in a wheel jig!

[Gearoidmuar]

I've built my own wheels when necessary for more than 20 years and what I've found (and others have found) is that if the spokes all have exactly the same note when tapped (on the same side in the rear wheel), the wheel is rarely perfectly true, but you should aim for them all to be within a tone (Doh Ray). If you allow this leeway, then it's easy.
Other tip, don't make big adjustment to any spoke unless it's obviously loose. Slight adjustment to several spokes is better.