Truing a 40-year-old wheel without ruining it
Old rims forgive slowly. Work in quarter turns and let the wheel tell you when it's done.
A forty-year-old wheel is a negotiation, not a command. The spokes have settled into their tension over decades, and your job is to move them as little as possible while getting the rim back where it belongs.
Quarter turns. Never more. Stress-relieve after every pass — squeeze the spokes in pairs and listen to them ping down into their new seats. If a nipple refuses to move, stop and oil it; a rounded nipple on a vintage rim is a bad afternoon.
Know when to stop
A millimetre of wobble on a rim this old is character, not failure. Chase perfection and you'll chase the tension right out of the wheel.
Comments (0)