Is my wheel abnormally deflecting?

[Squid-In-Traini]

Okay. So my front wheel is a Deore hub with a Mavic x221, black no-name spokes. From the day I
bought the bike that the wheel came with, the front rim has deflected a lot in turns. For example,
in slow-speed maneuvers, the rim rubs against my pads a bit. My pads are spaced well and centered
fine. They're adjusted so as to be able to get out of the quick release, so there is probably 3 or 4
mm of space on each side of the rim to the pads (regular Avid V-brakes).

I know they rub against the pads because I can see it, and I can hear it when the rims get wet and
squeal (they squeal when I turn but not when I go straight).

The wheel is very true, and spoke tension is good all around. I haven't had the chance to swap
wheels to see if that was the problem, but I'm wondering if it's a fork issue (Manitou Skareb Comp).
I bought it new from a reputable shop, and I should have asked for a different build-up of the bike,
but I didn't think much of it.

Question: Is it likely that a fork would flex that much just turning? Or do I need to find another
wheel and isolate my problem that way?

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

 

[Gregr]

On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 03:24:54 GMT, "Phil, Squid-in-Training" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Okay. So my front wheel is a Deore hub with a Mavic x221, black no-name spokes. From the day I
>bought the bike that the wheel came with, the front rim has deflected a lot in turns.

Deore hub/Mavic 22/noname spokes tells me that these are probably machine built wheels. Generally in
my experience, machine built wheels are not tensioned enough. For example, on many wheels I have
found that I had to tighten each nipple a full 2 revolutions before spoke tension was satisfactory.

Compare the spoke tension by squeezing spokes on a known well built wheel that is comparable. That
would be the easist way to tell if they are not tensioned enough.

Equal tension around the wheel does means nothing if there is not enough tension.

G

 

[Jobst Brandt]

Greg R? writes:

>> Okay. So my front wheel is a Deore hub with a Mavic x221, black no-name spokes. From the day I
>> bought the bike that the wheel came with, the front rim has deflected a lot in turns.

> Deore hub/Mavic 22/noname spokes tells me that these are probably machine built wheels. Generally
> in my experience, machine built wheels are not tensioned enough. For example, on many wheels I
> have found that I had to tighten each nipple a full 2 revolutions before spoke tension was
> satisfactory.

Spoke tightness does not affect wheel rigidity to the point of rattling spokes, but that doesn't
last long, so this must not be the case. Elastic modulus of steel does not change with preload so
that cannot be the problem.

Jobst Brandt [email protected] Palo Alto CA