Loose wheel?

[whitty]

I put new tubes and tyres on my road bike and when I spin the rear wheel it seems to wobble a bit. It looks like the wheel is able to move sideways on the axle or something. Is there something else I need to tighten to stop this? I think it was doing a similar thing on the fixed gear bike too. Both are old and have 27" wheels with varying amounts of rust.

Also one of the brakes is a bit sticky and not returning properly. I read somewhere about lubricating the cables, what do you use for this?

Cheers

[McPete]

Whitty;
What it might be is the hub not being tight enough. If you drop the back wheel off, and look either side of the axle ends, you'll see some small nuts. My memory fails me as to wether it's the proper 8 sided ones or the two sided ones, but someone will be in and set us both straight here.

In the mean time, drop the back wheel off, grab the ends of the axle and see how much lateral and vertical movement is in the hub. If it's more than a tiny bit, you need to tighten the hub.

[sogood]

1) Sounded like a classic case of a wheel out of true. If you have no experience, it's best to let your LBS sort it out for $10-20.

2) Release the brake cable and see if the binding is in the calipers or the cable. If it's rusted cable, then it's best to have the cable and sheath replaced from a safety point of view. If it's just the caliper, then lube and lube.

[europa]

Are you sure you aren't seeing the tyre wobble? I may not be sitting on the rim properly, not an unusual happening when you fit new tyres.

If it's the rim, the lbs will true that quite easily and cheaply.

If it's the hub, a thorough pull down, clean, regrease and adjust will fix it and again, it's a trivial task so won't cost much at the lbs.

The sticking brake? Could be cable, could be the brake itself. A quick squirt of a light spray oil will help (NOT WD40), both in the cable and on the pivot shaft of the brake. I use Joker440 from the bike shop but there are others. However, a cable sticking that badly is probably best off being replaced. Dirt cheap and simple to do.

Richard

[sogood]

Actually, this is one place where WD40 is permitted on the bike. The components are already rusted out and if WD40 can loosen things up, then so be it. It's time to overhaul the whole bike.

[whitty]

When I spin the wheel I can actually see the cogs wobbling but the rim looks ok, so I might pull it off and have a closer look.

I'll replace the brake cable if I can work out how to remove it from the lever, I've got a spare cable somewhere from last time I was riding the bikes (still in the packet).

Cheers