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I have the an entry level trek. 2009 3700 .. . I rode maybe 40 miles so far, half on trails and half on pavement.. My front tire is out of true (found that out thanks to these boards )
does that sound right ? is this because I have cheap components on my bike ? what if I had more expensive, and lighter wheels ? would it come out of true more often as they get lighter, if do you get what you pay for ? If I buy $900 wheelset that’s super light, is it fair to say they will hold true much better ?
this is an example, I do not plan on putting $900 wheels on a $350 bike. …
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Most LBS will do a "new" bike tune-up after some many days. Things will need to be adjusted after they were "stretched" out a bit. This might be covered with it. Just call the shop and asked. Most shops realize that they need to be very nice to their customer base.
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"Trek2009" wrote
I have the an entry level trek. 2009 3700 .. . I rode maybe 40 miles so far, half on trails and half on pavement.. My front tire is out of true (found that out thanks to these boards )
does that sound right ? is this because I have cheap components on my bike ? what if I had more expensive, and lighter wheels ? would it come out of true more often as they get lighter, if do you get what you pay for ? If I buy $900 wheelset that’s super light, is it fair to say they will hold true much better ?
this is an example, I do not plan on putting $900 wheels on a $350 bike. …
1) Just about anything is possible when it comes to the MTB damage. We have no way of knowing how hard you hit those 20 or so miles of trails, so it is very possible that your wheels could be out of true.
2) Wheels will become untrue, that’s a fact, just all depending on what type you have, how you ride them, weight of the riding, if you crash I suppose. Things like that, of course…. you get what you pay for.
3) As stated above, you will get what you pay for, nothing is really "indestructible", however a top brand like Mavic, or Bontrager are not going to scam you, if you buy their Bontrager XXX TLR Wheelset for $2,000. I’m sure you’ll be happy.
4)I’m sure they will hold out much better, longer, but really, truing your wheels is not the end of the world, so what you should really be afraid of is snapping/breaking/cracking/denting them. Something that is actually damage.
Kinda the basic idea for you. There tends to be more than that of which I stated.
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As a bit of an aside, I was talking to the guys at my LBS yesterday about wheels and they mentioned that most entry to mid-level wheels are assembled by machines these days. A hand assembled wheel, I’m told, will hold up a little better on the trail and *should* stay true longer (if it’s built by a professional).
I also noticed that out of the box the front wheel on my new bike wobbled just a smidge and I mentioned it to the guys at the shop. They said it could be barely out of true but that larger wheels and tires (like those on a 29er) will naturally have some wobble to them so it is probably nothing. I gotta stop being such a bike-o-chondriac 😀
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Hand built wheels [i:2cj00lof]almost[/i:2cj00lof] ALWAYS hold up better than machine built wheels. Hand builders normally spend the time to better stress the spokes and get the spoke tensions much more uniform around the wheel, resulting in a longer lasting wheel.
Wheel building seems to be part science and part art and it’s just hard to teach a machine to paint good art. Knowing where to give a little in order to get the "big" picture right is the art of wheel building and machines don’t have that ability. Not only that, but when machines are being used, it’s almost always because the maker is mass producing wheels. Less attention is paid to each wheel in this case and wider tolerance ranges become the rule for the sake of profit.
The good news is, sometimes the machine gets it right. Even when it doesn’t, a human can always go back and fix the mistakes as long as nothing is broken or bent.
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