Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Iron Barrel => Topic started by: Afro Samurai on September 24, 2013, 05:38:43 pm
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just casually looking over the bike.. checking things.. spinning the wheel through my hands and squeezing each pair of spokes.. not sure that is a valid method..
found 2 that could be tightened ever so slightly.. .may be not enought to worry about.. they didnt really move.. more of a creek as they rubbed together.. very small movement.. in fact.. not even repeatable as i came back around..
just simply tighten them?.. is there a rule on how many turns before pulling the tire and tube to check end clearance? (to prevent tube puncture)
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Generally just tightening loose spokes shouldn't require enough turns to be a problem with puncturing the tube. If the spoke is that loose, the nipple must be unscrewing or the rim has been dinged. The first case, tightening it wouldn't be a problem. The second case may require some investigation if it's much of a ding.
Bare
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I wouldn't be tightening any spokes without the wheel on a truing stand to make sure it is not getting put out of true by the activity, or being put back into true.
When you change the tension of spokes it will very likely have an effect on the true of the wheel.
Just my two cents.
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I have seen truing stands .. where they have like little arms.. or a method of mounting a dial.. to measure how true the rim is.. or a visual gap so you can see the wobble..
would a "Field Expedient" method such as jacking the bike ends.. and mounting an indicator or tab.. or some sort of guide.. suffice for the periodical maintenance?
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I have seen truing stands .. where they have like little arms.. or a method of mounting a dial.. to measure how true the rim is.. or a visual gap so you can see the wobble..
would a "Field Expedient" method such as jacking the bike ends.. and mounting an indicator or tab.. or some sort of guide.. suffice for the periodical maintenance?
You can do that on the rear, but the front would be tough because you would have to stabilize the forks so they are vertical/straight. You can make a wooden truing stand. There are some examples online if you do a search.
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I build, rebuild and true spoked wheels as part of my work. Where there are just a few slightly loose spokes, up to about 1 turn on each of the culprits should do the job without causing any problems, however, I would deflate the tyre first to prevent the nipple head damaging the rim tape and possibly the tube. The rear swingarm and the front fork legs make remarkably good 'jigs' and I have corrected offsets and distortion problems in situ on numerous occasions. If you have any doubts, mark the loose spokes with coloured electrical tape, tighten say half a turn at a time and then spin the wheel to check. At the very worst, a few thou out of true is better than having slack spokes.
If the spoke nipples need a few turns, I would be getting the tyre, tube and rim tape off, to keep an eye out for any spoke ends poking through and deal with them as required.
B.W.