Damn cones! What am I doing wrong?

[LeTurbo]

I cleaned out my wheel bearings, checked for wear. regreased everything, adjusted the cones until the wheel spun like a dream. Just the weight of the valve had it turning. I tightened up the lock-nuts. "Brilliant," I thought, "It'll be awesome to ride."

 

Then I put it on the bike, and suddenly it's acting like a lead weight. A flick that would have turned it many, many times when I was holding it now makes it turn only 3 or 4 times. Take it out again, and everything spins like a top. What the hell's going on?

 

Also, in the event of it being unfixable, do I throw the bike off Chapman's, or should I jump myself?

 

[parabola]

You need to loosen it up so you have a bit of play on the axle. When you tighten up the QR the play is taken up. Its a bit of trial and error involved, might take a few attempts. Very important to get it right or your hubs will wear more quickly.

[LeTurbo]

Thanks Parabola, I'll try that tonight though, heavens knows, if I spend another hour doing little quarter turns, I'm going to need an ice pack on my brain. I'm guessing that there still shouldn't be any wobble in the wheel after it's put on? Okay, that's a fairly stupid question ...

[parabola]

I usually just grab the rim and try to move it side to side, you can feel when its loose. I actually just dropped my bike off at the shop today to fix the same problem, as I don't have one of those flat spanners to lock the nut vas. The nut kept coming loose and I ended up adjusting it all the time. Its one of those things that a bike mechanic can do in his sleep but it takes hours for the rest of us parabola2010-03-23 06:57:37

[David Marshall]

I mount the wheel in my workbench vice, with the "locked"side nut in the vice and the wheel flat.  I then use the position of the spokes relative to the cone spanner handle to measure any adjustment I make with the cone spanner before tightening the lock nut.  With this technique I get a little more hit than miss.  As previously said if you have quick release wheels you need to leave just enough play to accomodate the pressure of the skewer clamp.