Tried to true a wheel on my own, wound up making the wobble worse

Been working on bikes for about 2 years now, mostly basic stuff. Last Saturday I thought I'd try truing my rear wheel on my commuter bike. Watched a few videos, felt confident. Got the spoke wrench out and started turning. After about 30 minutes I had the wobble at least 3x worse than when I started. Took it to the shop down the street and the mechanic fixed it in 10 minutes. Felt pretty dumb. How do you guys know when to walk away from a job vs keep trying?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_cooper3d ago

I did the exact same thing with a spoke wrench on my old mountain bike two years ago. Ended up making the wheel look like a potato chip after about 45 minutes of twisting. The shop guy told me it takes most people a few tries before they stop making it worse lol. I think the real trick is knowing when your frustration is gonna make you do stupid stuff, like turning spokes too hard. Now I just let the pros handle anything past a simple spoke tightening for a minor wobble. They have the stand and the patience, and I have better things to do than swear at my bike in the driveway.

alicesingh3d ago

Yeah I think this is one of those things where the more you try to force a fix the worse it gets, kind of like editing a sentence until it doesn't say anything anymore. It's weird how sometimes stepping away is actually the most productive thing you can do, but our brains want to keep wrestling with it until we break something. Maybe it's just me but I've learned the hard way that knowing when to call it is a skill in itself, not a failure.

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