Bicycle Mechanics - wheel truing

one person here recently posted that s/he didn't true wheels because s/he didn't have a truing stand.

I used to think it would be hard to do without a stand, too, until i figured out that my bike makes a great truing stand.

the whole reason i need my wheels to be pretty true is that i get awful brake rub when they're out.

So what do I do? Stick the wheel in the bike and true it there, checking its trueness by eyeballing the distance between rim and brake pad. It worked great.

Hi cerewa,

I used to do that before buying a thruing stand and build wheels myself. The
problem with the "brake pad method" is that you only fix the lateral error, and
correcting lateral error only will generate round and dish errors. You can read the
chapters on wheel truing in the Barnett's.

Regards,

Philippe.

i'm sure i could do a little bit better with a truing stand, that's true.

I also think that my wheels have very little in the way of round and dish errors. As far as round errors, again, the relationship to the brake pads will only stay the same if it's not out of round. (you can see and correct any instances of the rim going a bit above/below the brake pads.)

Just buy a truing stand... I paid about $20 for the Spin Doctor I got from Performance Bike. It works great and it was easy to use. I was actually surprised at how easy it ended up being in the stand . I think my rim was slightly bent, but so far the truing job has held. I have one trip mountain biking and 100+ miles on the road on the wheels and they are still under 1mm of true.

I've been able to radial true (for roundness) using a bike frame. I've used stacks of books or bricks (or 2x4s, etc) as a centering (dishing) gauge. A real truing stand is much more convenient to use, and allows you to true the wheel more quickly.

how can you tell when your wheels are very out of true? i know mine must be at least slightly out, because if i apply just a tad bit of brake to either the front or rear wheels you can here that rub/squeak as the same part of the wheels passes the pads and touches one of them. watching the wheel while riding or spinning it and comparing it to the brake pad doesnt help because it is very minial. what do you all think??? get em trued....buy a truing stand....?? this is my first road bike so I am new to this(it is an 80's Cannondale I picked up used).

also how do you true a new style wheel that has very few spokes?? just curious.