Here is a simple and fairly quick, depending on how bad your wheels are, way to true your bike wheels. You will only need a few simple tools and you don’t even need to take your wheels off your bike.

What is wheel truing you ask? Well when your bike wheels develop a side-to-side wobble when they spin. This indicates out of true wheels and they should be trued as soon as possible. They will only get worse. So the process of tightening and loosening of spokes to make the wheel spin straight or true is called wheel truing.

Here is the list of tools or items needed to true your wheels:

• Spoke Wrench, (appropriate size) this is important to keep from rounding of the nipples.
• Zip Ties to attach to the bike fork or frame to act as a gauge.
• Oil, this will make tuning the nipples on the spokes easier and keep the spokes from twisting.

For the first 2 steps you can leave the wheels on the bike or take them off. Whichever you find easier is fine. You also do not need to remove the tires for any of this, so just leave them on.

Step 1. Place a drop of oil where the spoke enters the nipple and also where the nipple comes through and seats against the rim. Start at the valve stem and go around the wheel doing this for every spoke.

Step 2. Go around the wheel squeezing pairs of spokes in your hands with moderate force. This will relieve stress on the spokes before you start. If you come across any broken spokes at this stage they will need to be replaced. If you come across any spokes that are extremely loose, tighten them with the spoke wrench until the tension on the spokes feel similar to adjacent spokes.

If you have removed your wheels from your bike you can put them back on the bike now.

Step 3. Attach a zip tie to a chain stay, for the rear wheel, or a fork stanchion, for the front wheel. Attach it where it will be adjacent to the side of the rim. Trim it so its long enough to touch the rim plus another 1/8” to ¼”. Then rotate the zip tie so the end is just barely touching the rim when you spin the wheel. If your rim is not true then the rim will wobble into and away from the zip tie in spots.

Step 4. Rotate your wheel around and find the biggest wobble. This is where we will start.

Step 5. Where the rim contacts the zip tie, tighten the spoke, or spokes that come to the rim from the opposite side of the hub. Loosen the spoke(s) that come from the same side of the hub as the rim contacts the zip tie. This will pull the rim away from the zip tie.

• Tighten spokes by turning the spoke wrench counter clockwise.
• Loosen spokes by turning the spoke wrench clockwise.

Always tighten spokes in pairs when truing wheels laterally. One spoke coming from one side of the wheel the other from the opposite side.

Also it is best to turn spoke nipples by small amounts as you work, (about a quarter turn at a time). Decreasing this amount as you move further from the wobble.

Step 6. Find the next worst wobble on your wheel and repeat the process you followed in step 5.

Continue this repeating process working your way around the wheel until you have straightened the wheel as best as you can. You probably will not be able to make your wheel perfectly true this way but it will be good enough.

If your rim has a severe bend in it, or cracks or other damage then you won’t be able to true the wheel by spoke tensioning. You will need to replace the damaged rim. You can reuse the hub as long as it is not damaged and is working properly. But never reuse spokes or nipples when rebuilding a wheel.