Issue with dishing a wheel

[Pete.M]

As usual, I've loosened the spokes on one side and tightened the other side to dish the wheel. However the spokes on the driveside are now super tight, despite the spokes on the other side being relatively loose, so I can't achieve any more dish.

I'm trying to get my head around whether different spoke lengths would actually help or not. I'm thinking there's not really any more that can be done. Thoughts?

[CC12345678910]

@Pete.M Pics? Kind of a plan and rear view would be helpful.

If you still need more leftward dish my prognosis is that your drive side spokes are (now) not long enough.

What happens if you add more tension to just the NDS?

[AdamR28]

Different spoke lengths won't make any difference, and that sounds normal.

[Pete.M]

13 hours ago, CC12345678910 said:

@Pete.M Pics? Kind of a plan and rear view would be helpful.

If you still need more leftward dish my prognosis is that your drive side spokes are (now) not long enough.

What happens if you add more tension to just the NDS?

More tension on the NDS just brings it back over to that side. 

Sounds like it's kind of inevitable with this setup then. It's a 26" rim on a chris king classic rear hub. It's JUST clearing the maggy pad on the NDS, so its usable but not ideal, if it was any closer I'd need to use offset mounts. Might be able to get more out of it by rebuilding it with grease and alloy nipples. Doesn't feel like the original builder put any grease on the threads.

Cheers.

[CC12345678910]

@Pete.M I misunderstood, I read it as you were trying to take the rim to the NDS.

With any 9spd wheel the spokes are going to be tighter and the NDS are going to be slack, in my experience slacker than is ideal, that's why dishless hubs (pro2trial for example) are stronger

It shouldn't be as bad you say though. have you been through the simple things like is the axle straight etc. I'd give rotating the axle through the 4points of a compass in the dropouts a go, just to see if the outcome of where the rim lands changes. For that matter is your frame straight and the dropouts aligned?

It's also possible (cos i've done it more than once) when you build a wheel in a frame, to tension a rim perfectly straight according to the brake, but is actually built off axis. So you put the untensioned wheel in the frame, but the hub isn't set straight across the dropouts when you true the rim to the brake, so then you put the wheel in something else, another frame, fork, jig, and your perfect wheel looks like a right mess.

I'd check annoying crap like that. 

Edited February 9, 2016 by CC12345678910

[Pete.M]

Good thinking. Axle seems good. Trying to tighten the QR while pushing the wheel over doesn't really seem to do much. Filing the dropout might allow it to move, as long as I can get the QR tight enough to prevent it from moving back over time. 

Frame might not be totally straight. It's quite old, Aorta 26, 2006 I think. Might just do a little bit of filing bodgery.

[CC12345678910]

@Pete.M What I meant by is is the frame straight and aligned is that I work with battered steel frames alot, and I've 3 steel bikes over 30 YO, non of which were or are (two are WIP) straight (alas my carlton is banana eske :-{ ) or level across the dropouts,

                         Explanatory random pic from google

it gives a symptom like what you are describing, the wheel lies across the frame, for want of a better example, like saturns rings. Is it possible the driveside has been smacked upwards by a (repeated) dirty basher sidehop fail(s) at some point?

From how I read your description if anything I'd say you need to file the NDS vertically, not fore - aft, but you're the one with the frame in hand not me.

Edited February 11, 2016 by CC12345678910