Road Cycling - How to align the front wheel?

I replaced the stem with a shorter one, now I need to re-align the front wheel. How do the “Pro” do it? I just “eyeball” the alignment and it felt pretty straight, but it there a better method for aligning the front wheel? Thanks.

I replaced the stem with a shorter one, now I need to re-align the front wheel. How do the “Pro” do it? I just “eyeball” the alignment and it felt pretty straight, but it there a better method for aligning the front wheel? Thanks.

I suppose that you could rig something with one of those laser line dealies, but I just eyeball it. Once in a great while I used to get a customer who didn't think that my eyeballing was good enough. I'd just loosen the stem, let them put it where they thought it was straight and tighten it up again.

I just do it by eyeball, that's almost always good enough. Just to be sure, do a test ride. If there is any misalignment, it will show up quickly.

I "eyeball" it myself, but use a broom handle held along the center of the stem to ensure my eyeballs aren't deceiving me. The extension makes it easier to see slight deviations.

I usually eyeball it. For a while after I hurt my shoulder, my left shoulder was really stiff so I actually had the stem a little off center to help make up for this. It actually did help...