Steady as the road is long. That’s how we want your Jetson to ride.
A few different things can cause one of the wheels on your Jetson bike or e-bike to be loose, shaky, or wobbly. We’ll help you troubleshoot so you can pinpoint the source of the problem.
In the meantime, keep your Jetson at the pit stop for now. Safety always takes top priority, and it’s best not to ride until you get that wheel rolling right.
Position the bike for a wheel inspection
In order to properly examine the wheel in question, you’ll want to be able to watch the wheel’s rotation. One way to do that is to carefully position the bike upside down so that it’s resting on the handlebar and seat and the wheels are in the air. Alternatively, you can keep the bike upright and prop it up on something that will elevate the wheel in question above the ground.
Once you’ve got the bike positioned so that you can spin the wheel freely and watch from up close, slowly move it through a few full rotations while you look to see if any of the following are true.
Potential cause: The brake is misaligned
If the brake caliper has come out of alignment, it may be pushing the wheel to a tilt. That can cause the feeling of wobble when you are riding.
One sign of a misaligned caliper is the sound of rubbing – either constant or intermittent – while you spin the wheel. In proper positioning, the brake pads on the inside of the caliper should only come in contact with what moves between them when the brake is engaged and the caliper is closed. Depending on the type of bike that you have, that could be the wheel rim (for rim caliper brakes) or a flat disc on the side of the wheel (for disc brakes.)
Luckily, brake calipers can usually be realigned with just a few adjustments. We’ve got guidance on how to do that for both our disc brakes (the kind most commonly found on our electric bikes) and rim caliper brakes (the kind found on our kids’ bicycles and some of our non-electric adult bicycles.)
Potential cause: Problems with the tire
- PSI – Under-inflated or over-inflated tires can cause tires to roll unevenly. Use a tire gauge to see if the tire is inflated to the recommended pressure as indicated in your model’s user manual. If not, use a manual air pump to get it there.
- Wear & Tear - If you’ve been making serious moves on your Jetson, your tires may be showing wear from all the miles traveled. Spots of wear can create an uneven tire surface and, thus, an unsteady roll of the wheel. Replacing a bicycle tire is common practice, though it’s a bit trickier on electric bikes than on traditional ones (particularly if it’s the tire on the rear wheel, which is where the motor and all its electrical components are also located).
If a worn tire is determined to be the cause of your wobbly wheel, we offer replacement tire and tube sets for several Jetson models on RideJetson.com; others can be sourced from bike repair shops. In both cases, we recommend having your local repair shop do the work – but for ambitions DIYers, we have instructions available on how to do it for some of our more popular e-bike models, including the Bolt Pro and the Haze.
Potential cause: Damage to the wheel structure
If your wheel rim or wheel spokes are bent or damaged, the perfect circle of rotation may be compromised – and the wheel may not be hitting the ground evenly. Damage to the wheel can happen in many ways: if you graze a street curb or hit a pebble, for example, or if the bike has been stored in a crowded space with the weight of something heavy against it. Depending on the type and location of the damage, a bike repair shop may be able to help bend things back in place.
Potential cause: Improperly tightened wheel axle hardware
An axle through the center of the wheel holds the wheel in the fork of the bike frame. Hardware on both ends of the axle keep that axle in place. If the hardware is installed too tightly, it can push the wheel to a tilt or prevent a smooth roll. If it is too loose, there may be extra space along the axle – giving the wheel some literal “wiggle room.”
When it comes to axle hardware, Jetson bikes and e-bikes generally fall into two categories: Those with a nut on each side of an integrated axle, and those with a quick-release skewer serving as the axle and the hardware combined.
Here’s more on those, and how to tighten or loosen them:
- Axle nuts – If your wheel has two large axle nuts on the side of the wheel, you will need a wrench to match the size of the nuts. Axle nuts are generally 15 mm to 17mm – but you’ll be able to determine the size by testing out a few wrenches until you find one that’s snug around the axle.
To tighten an axle nut, use the wrench to turn the nut clockwise. To loosen, turn the nut counterclockwise.
- A quick-release skewer – A quick-release skewer is a long cylindrical shaft that goes through the center of the wheel and the holes in the fork to keep the wheel in the fork. It has a latch on one end and knob on the other, as well as springs in between to help keep the right amount of tension.
No tools are necessary t adjust a quick-release skewer. First, pull open the latch and – this is important — hold it in place while you tighten or loosen the knob on the opposite side of the wheel. To tighten, twist the knob clockwise. To loosen, twist the knob counterclockwise. Then, close the latch.
Important: The latch should always close with some difficulty. If the latch closes without any effort at all, the knob is too loose. Tighten the knob ½ rotation at a time until you can just barely close the latch. If you can’t push the latch closed at all, the knob is too tight. Loosen the knob ½ rotation at a time until you can push the latch closed.
For additional assistance
If you need more help troubleshooting that wiggly wheel, bring it to one of our partner bike shops for hands-on service or reach out to us — we’ll do what we can to help you get that wheel rolling steadily again.