wheel alignment / offset ?

[blair]

can any body tell me the tolerence for the rear wheel offset of a bike. as in can you be off to one side by as much as say 5 mm , 10 or even 15 mm . i know that it should be as alignded as is humanly possible and you would probably not notice when driving a 5 mm offset - but someone behind will , i think they call it crabing .

reason im about to make the spacers for my rear wheel (from a gsx) i have fitted an offset +15 mm front sprocket to the zed 650 engine. i also used 2 x 50 mm box steel across the backbone and seat tube and then a further 2 ( one each side ) rearward and set the wheel dead centre between theses 2 but takes the sprockets out of alignment by 3 mm .

so do i set it accoring to the frame ( which i think i do ) or set it to the sprocket cause 5 mm offset wont matter

i will take a photo tonight to help explain 

[morrag]

Your wheels should most definite be in line, with everything else, such as sprocket alignment, being adjusted to suit, not t'other way round, with no compromise really, Morrag

[blair]

thanks morrag . i new the answer before i asked the question but since then i was out last night and re checked the steel i was using for the aligment check and found it had a slight curve on one side so i wasnt getting propper readings . all re done now and lined up as should be

cheers