Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

92 CYCLE REPAIRING wheels carefully to be sure every spoke is in its proper place before putting any tension on the spokes, or the rim may get badly pulled out of truth. Trueing Wheels.—When the wheels are assembled, something will be required to true them on. In the absence of a proper trueing stand, the forks may be used for this purpose, after the fork ends have been fitted and brazed in, the ends of the fork blades being held in the vice. With the wheel fixed in the forks, spin it and first get it to run as true as possible by adjusting the first eight spokes inserted, which should be marked when first put in. When the wheel runs fairly true by these, proceed to screw up all the other nipples in turn, so that there is no slack, but no tension yet. When the wheel has been gone round once, spin it and see if the rim has gone much out of truth any- where. If it has, it will no doubt be found that a spoke, or perhaps more than one, has been screwed up too tightly, and thus pulled the rim considerably out of truth. If this is so, slack out a little at this point and try again. Proceed as already explained (see pp. 10 to 13). Take care that the wheel does not get “ dished,” that is, pulled over more to one side than the other. A pro- fessional wheel-truer trusts to his eye alone for this ; but it will be best for the amateur to test this with a straight- edge or piece of thin string. With plated rims, whiting will be better than chalk, as it will show up better. When sufficient tension on the spokes has been arrived at can only be found by experience ; but if a true and well-made wheel is available, a good idea may be formed