Guys,
This weekend I was finishing up some long overdue maintenance on a 2020 Yamaha YZ450F and just as I was finishing up, I gave the front wheel a spin and whoa - there's a sizable wobble! Guesstimating, I would say there's a 1/2" wobble side-to-side.
I checked the spokes and all were nicely snug, no concerns there. I also checked for cracks or anything else out of the ordinary - nothing from my perspective. This is the original wheel with 21 hours on it.
So ... here's my question: How much wobble can you true out / how do you know when the rim is shot and needs replacement?
Any real-world experience comments are appreciated and links to tools & videos you highly recommend on truing that worked for you are great, too!
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Yeah ... this is a lame question, but I've neve damaged front wheels true-ness-wise (many dents, replace after too many flat spots). Same for rears, I end up cracking the rims or severely flattening them and have them rebuilt. I've also noticed my Yamaha wheels seems more damage-prone that Honda wheels.
This is tough to say without seeing your real situation, but I bet you could easily get it a lot better maybe not perfect but better than 1/2”. Hopefully you have a truing stand, if it were me personally I would pull the tire off and basically loosen all the spokes and make sure they aren’t giving you a false sense of being tight, from dirt buildup or corrosion. And then just baisically start from scratch it will be much easier to see your adjustments when all the spokes have just a slight amount of tension on them vs being fully tight. A used rim is bound to have some imperfections so don’t kill yourself trying to get it perfect. Also if don’t have a truing stand I have thrown it back in the forks (without the tire) and then tape a small rod of some sorts, something straight of course, to the forks just above the rim and then make a mark on the rod with a sharpie it makes a pretty good reference point. The closer to the rim the easier it will be to notice your change
Yeah, little hard to say without it actually seeing it but my guess is that with a stand and time (emphasis on time hahaha), you could get it pretty darn close. You'll have to pull the tire and probably loosen everything up and sort of start from the get-go. I am always shocked when I do new wheels how out of round a brand new rim is.
You can make spokes tight on a warped wheel, tightness alone isn’t enough to say your wheel is alright.
Agree with above posts - loosen them all, retighten while truing up.
Great advice guys - just what I need - thanks.
I checked into uploading video last night, but got discouraged on the level of effort, so I'll try to take some best-case/worst-case pics for reference.
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I get carried away bad on these! I agree loosen all the spokes. But if I do that I might as well completely unlace so I can clean and lube them. At that point, I might as well use a new spoke set. That far in? Heck no sense lacing up a used rim on new spokes! 😆
D.I.D. or Excel rim?
If loosening the spokes to recenter the rim, use a reference on the spoke to create a centered baseline. (End of spoke threads visible at the end of the nipple). Tighten all spokes equally around the rim until mediumly tight. This will control the “hop” ( up and down ) . Then work on the side to side.
Lip dings can throw off your readings on old rims. Either replace or use heat to work them out.
Sometimes its the edge of the rim bent out from hitting a curb/log. The rim can be straight but just the edge needs to be straightened out.
Within 1-2mm for a new rim, for sure <2mm but preferably <1mm.
Great input ^^^ guys, really appreciate! Hoping to tackle this in the next 2 weeks.
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