How To True A Motorcycle Wheel | Rocky Mountain ATV/MC

in this video we'll show you the proper way to tighten spokes and chew a motorcycle we're going to be trying this wheel that we just barely laced with the new tusk impact rim and a new test replacement spoke kit keep in mind that an older rim with older spokes is most likely going to require a little more work to get it to properly but by using the same techniques and processes shown in this video you should be able to get the wheel where you want it we're going to need a few tools to help us tighten these spokes and chew this well properly we'll be using a test ring stand along with the Tusk spoke wrench set to tighten the spokes and chew the wheel we'll also be using a tough spoke torque wrench to make sure all of our spokes get torque to spec there is also an option to use a dial gauge to help you when chewing the wheel this can help you be more precise when cheering and it's something that you would use more when you're turning a street bike wheel dirt bike and off-road wheels are going to have bigger tolerances and using a dial gauge isn't always going to be necessary so now we're going to set the wheel up onto our truing stand slide the axle through the wheel after that comes the cone and cylinder spacers you want to tighten the cone spacer set screw when the spacer is sitting firmly against the wheel bearing once that's in place tighten the cylinder spacer against the edge to keep the wheel from shifting horizontally at this point you can see that all the spokes are still pretty loose we're going to grab our spoke wrench and begin tightening each of the spokes so we're going to start the valve stem hole and work our way all the way around the circumference of the wheel tightening each nipple a quarter turn will continue this pattern until the nipples begin to see and you can fill when they see down into the rim make sure you're tightening all them evenly doing this is going to make chewing the wheel easier now you can see we're getting back to the point where we started it may take a few times going around the rim until all the nipples start to see but once they do we're going to give the wheel a quick spin to check the run-out we're starting with so you can see this will has a little bit of lateral run-out which is basically your side-to-side movement but it doesn't have much radial run-out which is your up-and-down movement or around the rim is sat this point we've snugged all the spokes up making sure each of em is seated now we can begin chewing the wheel we're going to set our pointer you want to set the pointer as close to the whale as you can get it so now we're going to give the wheel a good spin and you want to find a happy medium in the wheel as far as distance from the pointer tip goes if it gets too close to the pointer the way to fix that is by tightening the spokes on the opposite side tightening them is going to pull the rim away from the pointer so we'll give three of those folks a quarter turn each to straighten up the wheel a little bit it's the same thing for the other side if you find a spot that gets a little too far away from the pointer you want to pull it closer to do that you tighten the spokes on the side of the pointer the severity length and amount of run-out in the rim is going to determine the number of spokes you tighten or loosen and by how much usually it's just three spokes but sometimes more is required most dirt bikes and off-road bikes will have a lateral and radial run-out service limit of about two millimeters so we'll continue this step until we get pretty close to back once you've got most all the lateral run-out out of the wheel we can continue to true the wheel and tighten the spokes we're going to switch spoke wrenches and start using our test spoke torque wrench and because most all the lateral run-out has been removed we want to continue to tighten the spokes evenly to avoid bringing any of that back to do that you want to pick a reference point on the rim we'll just use the valves nipple again to start there and the first spoke will tighten a quarter turn from there we'll skip two spokes and tighten every force spoke now we're going to continue that pattern all the way around the wheel tightening every four spoke a quarter turn it's important that whenever you're tightening spokes you're only tightening each spoke a quarter turn at a time after you get the wheel Trude tightening one spoke more than the others could start to pull the wheel out of true messing up any work that you've already done that's why we tighten every four spoke because that alternates the side that it's pulling from and keeps the tension even on the rim so you just want to keep that in mind once you get back to where we started from the first spoke to the second spunk and continue with the same pattern skipping two spokes and tightening every four spoke a quarter turn we're going to do this all the way around the rim and once we get back again we're going to skip to the third spoke continue that pattern all the way around the wheel and then after we're done with that group of spokes we will have tightened all the spokes on the wheel go ahead and spin the rim again to make sure we're still sitting pretty good with our lateral run-out and it still looks good so the next step is to check the radial run-out so position the pointer underneath the rim and we're looking for low or high spots in the rim this is also referred to as a hop because that's what it looks like when you do find a low spot in the rim the way to fix this is tying all the spokes above it so every spoke instead of every other one like we did when we were fixing lateral run-out doing this is going to pull the rim inward or towards the hub and therefore raise the bottom of it and it's the opposite for high spots you may need to slightly loosen all the spokes above it to allow the rim to come down a little bit so continue this process until you've got the radial run-out less than two millimeters after that we're going to go back to our spoke tightening sequence to finish torquing the spokes start back at the valve stem hole and then start on the first spoke and tighten every four spoke a quarter turn continue this pattern until you've tightened all the spokes evenly and every spoke is torque to spec it may take a couple rounds to get the spokes torque to spec so keep that in mind but it's important to make sure the spokes are being tightened evenly to avoid messing up the run-out of the wheel so once a torque wrench starts clicking just keep going around until it clicks on all those folks and that's when you'll know all the spokes are tightened evenly now that all the spokes have been tighten to spec go back through and check your run out again you may want to make a few minor adjustments and it's okay if you have to tighten a few spokes a little more it's better to have them tighter than looser just don't go too tight because spokes that are too tight are more likely to break if you wanted to go even further this is when you'd use the dial gauge it isn't a necessary tool but it will show you exactly where and how much run-out you have in your rim it's important to keep in mind that dirt bike or programs do not have the same manufacturing tolerances as street bike rims do so in other words you can spend a lot of time during a dirt bike wheel and still not be able to get it perfect especially if you're trimming a used rim just take your time and get it as close as you can if you find the wheel is too far bent or out of true it may be easier and a lot faster just go ahead and lace up a new rim and for that you can refer to our wheel lasing video so that's all there is to cheering a motorcycle wheel if you have any questions about this process feel free to give us a call at

Channel: Rocky Mountain ATV MC

Views: 552,617

Rating: 4.8770518 out of 5

Keywords: Wheel Truing, Motorcycle rim, Torque Wrench, Tusk Wheel Truing Stand, RMATVMC, Dirt Bike, Motorcycle, True, Straighten, How-to, Rim, Spoke Torque, Spokes, Wobble, Vibration, Wheel, True a wheel, True a rim, Fix, Motocross, rocky mountain, Rocky mountain atv, Bent, maintenance, Torque spec, specs, Specifications, balance a rim

Id: FCQtuGfz3c8

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 21 2014