SF Cyclotouring

Ride reports and other ramblings from a San Francisco cyclist.

6/18/2007

Flummoxed!

As per the last entry, I recently re-shod my Fuji CX with its mixed-terrain tires, 700x38 WTB All-Terrainasarus. These are the same set of tires I ran last year. When I stuck them back on the bike and remounted the wheels, I was surprised to find that the rear wheel is now off-center, the non-drive side of the wheel is closer to the chainstay by 1-2mm than the non-drive side. I'm perplexed because -- to the best of my recollection -- this wasn't a problem last year, and again, these are the same tires and wheels I've used before. No significant crashes, no rear wheel wobbles, no bent rear axle, nothing. It's not a dish-issue because flipping the wheel around results in the same misalignment. I did the string-test on the frame last night and it checks out straight there, too. Even tried a different wheel, same deal.

Tweaking the wheel a little before clamping down on the QR straightens things out enough, but I'm just utterly confounded as to why this is happening -- since I'm damn sure this wasn't a problem last season. And when you're running fat tires in a CX frame (I've only got ~2mm clearance at the chainstays as it is), every millimeter counts!

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

You might see if any decent local shop has a set of dropout alignment tools. There's a photo of th current model on the Park site. Most shops that have been around for a while have a set
and most shop wrenches have no idea what they are for...

I've had a similar problem in an old road bike, and found that the dropouts were misaligned. Worth a check. Best of luck!

3:56 PM  
Blogger jim g said...

OK, I just orderd the Park dropout alignment tools -- I've always wanted 'em anyways, and I had part of a gift certificate to use up, too (thanks Dawn)!

11:45 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Gosh! After getting all that hardware, I hope the dropouts are out of alignment! Hope they help.
-- Jim

11:47 PM  

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