"After school, I thought it was just a normal ride to go home. I even raced with those 4 people who passed me, and I WON. But when I was one block away from home, I encountered a C-TYPE TURN. My foot got caught in my front wheel, causing my back wheel to jump. I almost had a serious accident, but I managed to keep my balance. However, when I checked my front wheel, it was WIGGLING.
In this situation, what's the best thing for me to do? Should I try to align it myself (I'm a newbie), or should I have the bike shop do it (I'm kind of broke as of now)?"
by Gnhocide
5 Comments
Your front wheel should only have a pre determined spot for the front wheel to sit in. So should be easy to align? Except I’m confused. What’s a C type turn?
If this is your actual bike it’s waay too big for you.
Also toe overlap is pretty much guaranteed on pista frames and is not an issue in 99% of riding.
I would reseat the front wheel and check if it still spins out of alignment. If it does, my guess is a spoke (or spokes) is loose. You can wiggle each one and try and see if there’s one noticeably loose, or pluck them (like guitar strings) and see if the pitch is consistent. Tighten any loose ones with a spoke wrench (and it’s counter-clockwise to tighten spoke nipples).
haven’t tried it yet, but you can apparently align a wheel without a truing stand by sticking a piece of white masking tape on both sides of the fork, then proceed on aligning. if it’s still misaligned, go to a mechanic as your last option.
for toe overlaps (and a 11.5 shoe size), i pull my foot off from the strap/toe cage first, then using my toe to pedal as i take the turn, and strap again. this trick has been a muscle memory for me, and i still do it up to now when doing turns. going literal circles on tight street roads helped me.
The only way to remove toe overlap is to get a fork with a bigger rake or cranks with shoter arms