truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

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loumeth
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truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

Has anyone had problems with getting the wheel to true up on a new BL-36 kit. Received one kit wheel and local bike shop said that the spokes supplied were running out of thread so they couldn't get the wobble out. WE sent me a 2nd wheel and the spokes look as if they may be shy in length. I haven't taken it to the bike shop as yet to find out if they can straighten the wobble but I thought I'd ask around to see what feedback I can get from the forum. Thanks in advance.

Lou

Samspeed
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Re: truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

Hi, had problems too. Mine is just a couple months old. When I got it, it was extremely wobbly. One side of the wheel had lots of thread showing on the nipples and the opposite side the spoke was, well, just the opposite. With all that runout it made for a pretty bumpy ride. It was pretty clear that it was just slapped together at the factory. Not specifically the best of all possible quality.

I trued it up myself, started by just loosening the heck out of everything and then visually evening them up -- that means the amount of thread showing was equal. And then went from there. I don't have a real jig, but do have a dial indicator and it came out pretty true. Took about an hour.

One of the nipples appeared to have been cross threaded. The nipple was rounded and the flats were all gashed, as though someone used pliers on it. It was very hard to turn. I managed to get it off and restarted the threads with a drop of oil and good as new. BTW, they were all bone dry..

I think WE, and their vendors are a wee bit guilty of false advertising. I dunno but if someone offers to sell me a wheel, I just expect it to be in good shape and true. If they are gonna ship them this way, they should state in the ads that "Trueing Will be Necessary".

Here's a related question, where can we get spokes? I broke one (probly too tight). Mine is a 700c and every shop I tried said sorry. I ended up replacing it with a longer (and thinner) spoke and just made a bend at the hub. Sort of "tied it on". It's held up for a couple hundred miles now. Thought about using galvanized wire and a turnbuckle but nah -- that's a bit too ghetto.

Stock BL36 on a 10yo Schwinn Searcher
She got wheels in her smiles, she can coast along for miles...

dogman
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Re: truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

Definitely a fact that the WE wheel comes crooked. Since the hub diameters are so similar you might be able to get spokes from ebikesca. One reason chrystalite can be more expensive is the wheels tend to be built by the seller, and tend to be better quality rims. I'm lucky, my local bikeshop has never had much problem with mine, but they weren't so bad at first, just loose.

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

wakataka
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Re: truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

I had pretty much the same experience with the factory wheels. I've got two of them. Both were way out of round and many of the spokes were just about halfway on the threads and the others were all the way into the nipple. I was able to get it trued up, but I had to loosen a lot of the spokes so I could have enough threads to tighten the others. After a couple of hours of patient work, I got my wheel running true and it's held up for ~500 miles with only one minor adjustment since.

I did strip one of the spokes but was able to move it to another position on the wheel and get it to work on a different nipple. I wish I knew where to get some extra spokes just to have one or two on hand.

wakataka
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Re: truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

I should also mention that none of the more than half dozen spoke wrenches I had in my kit would fit these spokes, and the local bike shop didn't have one to fit either. I had to buy one that was slightly too small and file it out until it fit. I've now got a custom WE spoke wrench.

Samspeed
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Re: truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

Ditto on the spokewrench! I picked up one of those cheap multifarious ring shaped spoke wrenches with just about any size. Trouble with that was the nipples were not all the same size! Even worse, some were in-between sizes. What a pain. 'Twas worth it though. I just looked today at the odometer and have over 700 miles already.

Stock BL36 on a 10yo Schwinn Searcher
She got wheels in her smiles, she can coast along for miles...

alnvilma
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Joined: Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 18:28
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Re: truing up wheel on BL-36 kit

REI was able to true mine; their first attempt with a hub/wheel. It came out tight and true laterally but still has a mild pogo. I think it is actually the stock tire issue now.
Dennis @ Bernson has these spokes advertised:

http://www.bernsonev.com/shopping_cart.php?sort=2a

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