How can a brand new wheel be so out of true?

I just got a brand new Powertap built on a brand new Mavic Open Pro. The wheel spins very crooked though. It has more moves than an NFL running back.

But nothing looks wrong. No broken spokes or anything that I can see. Is there something I should be looking for to see why it's not true? Should I just take it to the LBS? I don't have much experience with truing wheels/fixing spokes, etc.

Thanks a lot.

Thats pretty craptacular. You need to check the spoke tensions on both sides of the wheel. If you don't have the stuff to do it yourself just take it to a bike shop and see what they can do for you.

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leestevens@


http://www.riverlandcyclingclub.com/

Somebody that knows what they are doing needs to finish the job.
That is a very expensive wheel not to have it finished to perfection.
Tension balance "standard" is 10% and true is 0.5mm. It takes more time to get better than that, but when you just spent that much money it shouldn't add that much.

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David Ornee, Western Springs, IL USA

Is there any chance that the wheel is not seated properly in the frame's dropouts?

WHERE/(from whom?) did you get the wheel from?

Get it trued. Where'd you get it?

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A person without an opinion is fairly safe, but seldom heard

Did you have it shipped to you or did you go pick it up? If you picked it up somewhere, take it back and have them fix it. If it was shipped to you, you don't have a lot of options unless the builder is willing to pay for shipping in and out bound. It costs a lot to ship a wheel properly.

My guess is that the spokes were not stress releived or seated correctly. When you turn a nipple , you put a little bit of a twist in the spoke until the spoke gives enough resistance to overcome the friction in the threads. This twist needs to be relieved. You can get a wheel to run perfectly true in the stand and then let it sit overnight. When you check it in the morning it will be out due to stress releif which occurs by itself over a long enough period or the first time you ride on it. After building and truing a wheel, you need to stress releive it and re-true it. On a new wheel, I stress releive it at least twice. Most straight truing jobs only require one stress releif unless the spoke nipples turn hard.

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One life, one chance. Don't waste it!

Thanks for the replies. I took the wheel off then on a few times to make sure it was seated properly. (It looks secure. See pic) I even removed the cassette and put that on again (and yes got my hands all greasy again) because I noticed that my largest cog (25 tooth) was not flush but I don't think it's supposed to be flush (see pic. Cassette look normal?)

I bought this on eBay. I'll just take it in and either buy some tools or get it serviced. I should learn more about spokes and wheels anyway.

Yup, everything looks kosher with your setup. Anything that comes from eBay needs to be checked anyway, by yourself or your LBS.

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One life, one chance. Don't waste it!

Agreed.

The wheel could have been built be an inexpirienced builder or (less likely) ridden hard over crappy roads. If so, the rim might show signs of abuse.

It's definitely time to let the best local wheelbuilder have a look at it.