Dirt Bike Wheel Truing Jig

[Jigantor]

Hi Mike,
Yes and the satisfaction of a job well done.
The truer also allows you to do all sorts of wheel maintainance.
Yesterday it held a wheel while I welded up another crack.
Today it held a wheel while I taped it and just after that I spun a KTM wheel in it to see if it needed truing.

Very happy I spent the time.

Ji

[Jigantor]

Hi Hartmann,
Thanks for the kind words.

Ji

[Jigantor]

The best spoke spanner I have ever used is made by Motion Pro in the USA.
Over here they cost $26.00 but they are worth their weight in gold.
Most spanners round the nipples but this does not as long as you don't apply too much force.

Ji

[LarryO]

Good job,

I've never been into bikes and was wondering how you true a wheel.
Touch up with a mallet, tighten or loosen spokes ? Just curious

[Jigantor]

Hi Larry,
Truing a spoked wheel does look like a black art but in reality it is pure logic.
If you want to remove a buckle to the left all you have to do is loosen the spokes on the left one or two turns and tighten the spokes on the right side one or two turns in the buckled area.
Keep doing this loosen, tighten thing untill the rim is running true in that area, then move on to the next buckle.
Pretty simple.
The first thing to do is to find out the hub to rim offset, then you can true the wheel and the rim should be on the centre line with the bike.

Ji

[Jigantor]

I just purchased this 1984 Yamaha YZ125 L front wheel.
I strapped it into the truer to see how bad it is.
Very straight.
The original welded joint is cracking so I removed the tyre to see how bad.
The spokes are all locked too.
I have sprayed them with oil and will free them over the coming weeks.

Ji

[Jigantor]

With tyre off and spokes oiled.

Ji

[Jigantor]

After removing the tyre yesterday and spraying all the spokes with penetration oil and leaving over night, today I started trying to loosen the nipples.
With the correct size spanner I only used enough force to free the nipple. If more torque is used the square edges on the ali nipples will round and make it impossible to remove without cutting the spoke.
Once moving I used a Phillips head screw driver to speed up the removal.
Wire brush all the surfaces and anti-seize grease the nipple and spoke threads.
Also grease the nipple socket in the rim as this is where most of the friction is.


Ji

[Jigantor]

With the screw driver I installed the nipple to the required tension.
Don't remove all the spokes at once as I have found on these old rims the original welded joint will let go and start cracking.
Always leave a rim tensioned.
Be patient, if a nipple will not turn spray some more oil on it and move on to the next one. This process will take a while but will be worth it in the end especially with hard to find spokes like these Z spokes.


Ji