How to tell if the front wheel is straight?

Not that there's anything wrong with that!! :P

But seriously, I had a decent off this weekend where I nailed a rock going up a technical uphill. I can't tell if it feels like the wheel got turned or not, since I'm now sort of hyper-aware of it. It looks like the front wheel isn't quite straight, but ONLY because the front fender doesn't look quite straight. That could have been tweaked from any number of bushes that tried to take me out.

Does anyone know of a way to figure out whether a front wheel is straight or not?

Yeti wrote:Does anyone know of a way to figure out whether a front wheel is straight or not?

I would lift the front tire off the ground and place a straight edge or something similar to the forks. Put the marker real close to the rim and spin the tire. You should be able to see more about how true your tire is than you may want to know.

I have not tried it yet but I was thinking about running a line from the front wheel to the rear wheel on both sides and see how it looks. I am trying to see if my rear tire is running straight, I am getting some excessive wear on my frame guard/chain glide.

mamacone wrote:I have not tried it yet but I was thinking about running a line from the front wheel to the rear wheel on both sides and see how it looks. I am trying to see if my rear tire is running straight, I am getting some excessive wear on my frame guard/chain glide.

With the two different size widths of the tires that method may not be accurate. You can order a tool to make sure your rear tire is aligned strait, here's a link to one of them:

http://parts.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/3118-chain-alignment-tool-motion-pro.html

The method that Focker described should work good to check the true of the wheel.

Hodakaguy

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll try and figure something out on Friday when I change the oil, etc.

Yeti wrote:Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll try and figure something out on Friday when I change the oil, etc.

Go down to your nearest bicycle shop and tell them what your question is...That's where I got my info. mamcone's buddy is a bike mechanic and said that it's pretty easy to rig up a home truing checker thingy.